How Can You Improve Your Freestyle Swimming Technique?

When you’re thinking about how to improve your freestyle swim stroke, it all comes down to one of two things:

• Decreasing drag or
• Increasing propulsion
  
  

 But when trying to improve their freestyle swimming technique, most people focus on changing what their hands or arms are doing in hopes of increasing the power they create—and, in turn, their speed in the water. 

While this is effective, working on techniques to decrease drag is an under-utilized but often better option. 

Think of it this way: giving a boat a bigger engine might increase its power, but it won’t do anything for the boat’s speed if you steer it wildly from left to right.

Essentials and Advanced Techniques: 4 Areas of Focus to Master Your Freestyle Swimming Technique

Since improving your freestyle swimming technique ultimately comes down to reducing drag and boosting propulsion, it’s vital to master what your head, body, legs, and arms are doing while you’re in the water.

1. Head

The Fundamentals

The first thing to focus on when it comes to your freestyle swimming technique is maintaining a neutral head position.

When your head is in the right position, you’ll be looking at the bottom of the pool or, at most, between one and two meters ahead. The water should feel like it’s hitting the top of your head. 

However, if you’re looking forward at the wall or back at your feet, that’s a telltale sign that your head is out of position. That’s because, if your head is too far up in the water, your hips and heels will naturally sit lower in the water, in turn creating additional drag and resistance.

It’s also essential to minimize side-to-side head movement, and this can be practiced by swimming with a snorkel or practicing strategic breathing patterns. 

Advanced Techniques

An unavoidable aspect of freestyle swimming is coordinating your swimming with your breath—but this is easier said than done and can seriously impact your performance.  

That’s because breathing during your stroke increases your drag compared to when your head is in the water. In order to minimize this unavoidable drag, it’s essential to practice proper breathing techniques. 

In order to avoid additional drag, you’ll want to time your breath with your entry—starting your breath to the left when your right hand enters the water.

The best way to do this is by rolling your shoulders to breathe rather than turning your head—think of it like rolling a skewer.

4. Arms

While it may seem surprising to some swimmers, your arms create the vast majority of your propulsion when you’re swimming freestyle—and that’s great news for triathletes.

But with that being said, your arm technique still needs to be balanced.

It’s important to ensure that the propulsion created by your arm movement is greater than the amount of drag your arm creates.

If not, all of the effort and energy you put into your freestyle swimming stroke will not equal the equivalent power output. 

The Fundamentals

To grasp an overall picture of great freestyle technique, imagine this scenario.

You’re climbing up a ladder. You place your hand on a rung and then your body moves upward.

Think about that movement.

Did your hand pull the ladder down? Or did you pull your body up past your hand?

The ladder never moved. So, it stands to reason that you must’ve pulled your body upward past your hand. 

This is an important picture to keep in mind when you’re thinking about swimming technique in general, but it’s especially important when it comes to your freestyle swim stroke. 

Good freestyle swimming technique is often described as “catching” water and “pulling” the water past your body.

Instead, try to think of it as “anchoring” your hand in place—like grabbing the rung on that ladder— and pulling your body past your hand.

You’ll be surprised how much this mental shift impacts freestyle swimming technique. 

With that all said, there are three main fundamental phases of your freestyle swim stroke.

1. Anchor

Think of anchoring as the portion of your stroke where you grab the rung on that proverbial ladder.

The first step is a stealth entry. You need to keep your fingertips forward, in front of your shoulders, rather than crossing your body.

Next, you need to “catch” the water, anchoring your forearm in place at the surface of the water.

Finally, as you begin to pull your body through the water, you’ll want to keep your armpit open with your elbows pointed out and your shoulder, elbow, and hand in line in the middle, creating a straight “paddle.” 

2. Finish

The second phase of your arm technique is the finish. 

Once you pass the midpoint of your stroke, accelerate through the finish. Your hands should go past your hips with your fingers pointed down.

Aim for a sweeping motion through the water rather than pressing and lifting. 

3.  Recovery

The third phase of your arm technique is your recovery, and it’s essential for keeping your stroke relaxed and coordinated. Yet this is an often under-discussed aspect of your stroke. 

This involves keeping your elbow high and your fingertips relaxed while drawing a half-circle with your hand rather than a line. 

You’ll want to ensure your hand, elbow, and shoulder are all in line at the middle of your stroke. 

Advanced Techniques

In this article, we’ve talked a lot about the challenges of coordination. Getting this right can often be complicated given the different freestyle swimming styles, including catch-up, almost catch-up, sprinting, and beyond. 

But regardless of what style you’re swimming in, the common thread is the need to Roll & Reach.

What does this mean?

It means that when one arm finishes the stroke, you should be rolling to the other side and reaching forward with the opposite arm

This ensures that, during the finishing phase of the stroke when you’re creating the most propulsion on one side, you’ll be minimizing drag with the other arm maximizing your speed.

You can build different stroke timing from this foundation, but the connection between the finish of one side and Rolling & Reaching on the opposite stays true.

As a triathlete, learning how to swim freestyle is a foundational skill. When done properly, it allows you to move quickly and efficiently through the water while still retaining enough energy to conquer the bike and run legs. 

Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned racer, mastering your freestyle swimming technique is a matter of perfecting the basics and then building more advanced techniques.