Freestyle techniques

Freestyle technique consists of natural and cyclical motions. The frontal resistance is little. The most important factor of freestyle swimming is the ideal body posture. It has three conditions: the proper position of head, straight back and hip lift.  Head is down between the hands. It must not be lifted up as it will increase resistance. While swimming the posture of the body keeps changing, at the longitudinal axes the body turn to its side with 30-40 degree and swimmers breathe at the side. Swimmers circle the arms forwards in alteration and kicks the feet up and down. It is accompanied by beat flutter kicks that are synced with arm strokes to stabilize the body. Side strokes are added to these motions to maintain balance. The degree of opening legs depend on individuals (anthropometry), but generally it is about 50-100 cm. leg tempo starts with diving the hip in water which is followed by the motions of the knees, thighs, legs and feet. When kicking downwards knees are bended and the motions of legs are supported with whip type kicks. Finally loose feet close the motions. The forward motions of legs also start from the hip. Legs are stretched. It will not propel swimmers toward much. Beginners often think that upward power should be exerted therefore they wrongly bend their knees upwards. Leg strokes themselves consume lots of energy. Swimmers using only their legs lost about four times more oxygen than those who swim only with their arms (Tóth, 200). The number of tempos depend on the distance, but swimmers whose legs dive deeper (mainly males) are advised to use six leg beats. Synthesizing the arm and leg tempos is crucial to develop the most proper swimming rhythm. The leg tempo should be adjusted to the arm tempo. There are other versions, for example, two beat, four beat foot strokes.

There are two stages of arm strokes. They are strokes over and under water. The elbow is out of the water until it is pointing up for the release. During the release the arm does not move forward, but it provides support for the arms which is pulling underwater. The hand entry should be clean. Fingers should hang loosely above the water while the hand is swinging wider than the arm. The pulling patterns under water vary (reverse, question mark). The third phase is pushing. With a semicircle motion a push forwards beside the thigh while the arm gradually get stretched. Hand bends backwards then splashes into the water by the thigh.

Hand loosens, turn away to point towards the palm, resistance should be decreased when lifting hand out of water. Now the passive phase starts.  There are two phases above the water, which is freeing and leading the head forward. The freeing phase starts right after pushing. The hand is bended, the elbow is lifted. Parallel with lifting the elbow freeing should start. Then the elbow is pushed high above the water. The elbow gradually bends, the palm turns inside out then from the line of the head, and the elbow will be stretched and reaches the water between the head-shoulder lines. The cycle under water starts. The work of the arms is the following: while one of the arms is reaching the water, the other one is in the pulling phase. As soon as the arm reaches the water it is stretched forward and the other arm is pushing forward. Until this pushing motion has been finished the other arm will not start pulling. This is the technique to maintain velocity.

We could swim quicker if we do not break the series of motions with breathing. The technique of breathing is in close connection with several phases of arm tempos. At the end of the pulling phase swimmers start turning their head toward the freeing arm. Naturally it is in harmony with the turn of the torso. Then swimmers begin to breathe. It happens at the beginning phase of pointing the arm forward. After inhaling through the mouth swimmers turn their head back into the water. As soon as the mouth touches the water exhalation starts. It happens parallel through the mouth and the nose. If swimmers fail to inhale then it should be done before inhalation. Inhalation above the water shortens the cyclic of breathing which pulls the development of beginners back. In these cases it may happen that children swim with 3, 4, 2 beats and sometimes with 5 and seven beats. Competitors develop their own breathing technique depending on the distance. The short distance swimmers inhale once or twice within 50 metres. Long distance swimmers breathing rhythm is two beats or alternating ones.