My Freestyle Swimming Tips to Reduce the Struggle

A checklist I have compiled so that it can help you to swim longer.

1. Never Hold Your Breath

If you have the bad habit of holding your breath while swimming, you need to change that. Immediately after you take your breath (through the mouth) you need to start exhaling through the nose. You may even want to make a humming sound to ensure that you are exhaling continuously and through the nose. Inhalation should be quick but gentle. Practicing to relax and breathe is the key to a struggle free swimming experience.

Holding of breath has two disadvantages. First one is CO2 build up and the other shifting of balance that can let the legs sink. Both these affects the struggle directly.

Do Not Kick Vigorously

We have been taught to flip our legs vigorously in freestyle or at least you may have seen kids doing that. The power needed to kick in water is enormous and the forward momentum we gain from it is marginal, just under 5%. This will make us tired quickly and before we realize we will be exhausted and struggling!

Kicking should be used gently, purely for the sake of balancing and rotating of the body.

Rotate Your Body

We think you should be horizontal and flat while swimming in freestyle! This alright when we learn swimming, but in order to reduce the drag and reduce the struggle, we need to rotate our body either side during the stroke.

This rotation has another very important advantage in addition to the reduction of drag. Increased power to propel! How? Supposing we are beginning to pull (propel) with our right hand. If we tilt our body such that our left side is up, then the right hand will also be able to use the strong back side muscles also to engage in the pull.

This will not only reduce that drag, it will also increase the speed and reduce the effort need to propel forward.

One Hand Stretched

In order to avoid the sinking of our legs and the increasing of the effort needed to keep legs afloat, we need to introduce a pause in our swim cycle. Keep the other hand stretched inside the water till the propelling hand finishes its work and comes forward.

This will ensure that the center or gravity is always kept higher so that body stays horizontal. This will also help the body stay horizontal with less effort.

Rotate Your Head

You must rotate your head along with your body for breathing. While this reduces the strain on our neck muscles, this also aids in relaxed breathing. You can try simple drill sessions to develop this habit.

Bend at the Elbow

Your elbows are never locked straight. During the power phase of the stroke, ensure that you bend at the elbow, keep the elbows higher that the palms. Scull and fist drill sessions can give you the needed feedback for best hand positions. Single hand drills along with body rotation can help you find the effortless body angles as well to use upper back muscles well.

Here practice drills sessions play a crucial role.

Look Down

Never lift your head up, always look straight to the bottom of the pool or slightly ahead. This offers the best streamlined position while ensuring that the legs do not sink. Push from the side of the pool and see which angle gives the maximum distance.

Slow Down

Last but not the least, learn to slow down to relax, speed will build up as a byproduct!

Welcome to the world of struggle free freestyle, swim long!

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