Too often, it seems that understanding freestyle requires an advanced degree in fluid dynamics.
There’s talk about angles, vortices, and seemingly endless nuances that you’ll need to master if you want to be succesful.
While it’s interesting to know all of these details, they typically don’t provide you with a plan for creating changes that will help you swim faster.
I’d like to provide you with a simpler solution, one that you can use to actually create change that matters.
Before we get to the solution, we need to understand the problem.
At the basic level, fast swimming, regardless of the stroke, is the result of high levels of propulsion, low levels of resistance, and great timing.
Great freestyle is no different.
What’s different about freestyle compared to the other strokes is that because you’re alternating your arm action, you’re breathing to the side, and you have a leg action that can tend to operate independently of the rest of your body.
These characteristics result in a unique challenge that differs from the other strokes.
Fortunately, freestyle swimming doesn’t have any rules, at all.
Just about everything is legal beyond pushing off the bottom of the pool and pulling on the lane line.
However, due to the laws of physics and the constraints of your body, there are some strategies that are going to work a lot better than others.
These aren’t ‘rules’ in the sense that you won’t get disqualified.
However, you’ll just fail to swim as fast you otherwise could.
These are the rules we are going to explore.
Following them results in fast swimming.
The major components of successful freestyle include-
Create direct propulsive arm actions
Effective, constant kicking action
Streamlined body posture
Great timing
These actions are simple, and they create a great blueprint for helping you improve.
If you can master these basic skills, you will swim fast.
One by one, I’ll tackle them in detail so you have a clearer understanding of what you need to do, and how to do it.
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