When you look at freestyle and swimmers who train by swimming freestyle (most swimmers in the free world) you will notice that one aspect slips throughout practice – their body position. Our step one to swimming a faster freestyle is maintaining that body position.

Here is a drill progression to work out the proverbial kinks in the body line:

  • No Arm Freestyle – This drill will force the swimmer to control their body rotation through (primarily) their core.  We start this drill by doing 3 – 5 strokes of regular freestyle and then 3 – 5 strokes of no arm freestyle.  The goal of structuring the drill this way is to get the swimmers to feel their rotation and then maintain their rotation through the no arm free.
  • Side Kicking – There are several ways to run the side kicking drill.  However, let’s take a run through what has worked for my swimmers.  The swimmers have one hand extended into streamline and the body is rotated to their “efficiency axis” (a catch phrase that means where they were rotated for the no arm freestyle). They need to imagine that they are longer than what they truly are and reach well beyond that point.  The swimmers hold a pull buoy (sideways) in their streamlined hand to prevent sculling, and their “up arm” is resting on their side.  They have to maintain the long body position and tight core throughout the swim all while maintaining the kick as well.
  • One Arm Freestyle – With the final drill of this progression, we want the swimmers to concentrate on staying long which is difficult in this drill as the natural movement is to bend at the short axis (the hip) during the breath.  So, the resting arm is straight to the side and travels along with the rotation.  The pulling arm focuses on full extension and the core is tightened and long throughout the drill.  The breath is taken on the opposite side of the pulling arm (i.e. if you are pulling with your right you breath to the left).

Again, the concentration of this drill progression to get you swimming freestyle faster is body position.  So, make sure you (or your swimmers) focus on that core and overall body awareness because if you miss it for the first two drills then you will miss the boat for the third drill as well.  It’s mental as well as physical….so, have fun!

Step Two to Swimming Freestyle Faster Coming Soon!

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