Freestyle Swim Training Tips

Tips to Improve Freestyle Training: 1- FOCUS ON YOUR BODY ROTATION INSTEAD OF KICKING. Keeping your body horizontal decreases resistance, and the shoulder roll will propel your forward with the least effort, not pulling with your arms or kicking with your legs. This is counter-intuitive but important, as kicking harder is the most universal suggestion for fixing swimming issues. By making a small full body rotation you will gain three to six inches lengthening your vessel and you will travel farther on each stroke.
2- KEEP YOUR HEAD IN LINE WITH YOUR SPINE. Use the same head position that you maintain while walking, and drive your arms underwater instead of of attempting to swim in the surface. You should be looking straight down. A small flick of your legs serves to help your turn your hips and drive your other arm forward, it will save you a lot of energy.
3- BREAK THE WATER WITH YOUR FINGERS ANGLED DOWN. Then extend your arm lower and further as possible, it will give you almost the feeling that you are swimming downhill.
4- TO BREATH TURN YOUR BODY, NOT JUST YOUR HEAD. On each breath, you should feel the stretch in lower side lats (latissimi dorsi), this will bring your head closer to the surface and makes it easier to breath. Beginners should start practicing breathing on every other stroke, which will be on the same side; once you feel more comfortable you should practice breathing every other stroke, which alternate sides, becoming a more balanced shoulder movement. Remember to exhale fully and slowly while your face is under water. I f you don't, you will need to exhale and inhale when you bring your head up, causing exhaustion and leading to water swallowing.
5- CONCENTRATE ON INCREASE STROKE LENGTH INSTEAD OF STROKE RATE. To move faster , don't try to swim harder. Gain more speed and more distance with less effort.
6- PRACTICE THE HAND-SWAPPING DRILL. Focus on keeping your lead arm fully extended until your other arm comes over and enters the water near the extend forearm. This exercise combined with the technique mentioned previously cuts an additional four to five strokes off of each lap of freestyle.
7- FORGET ABOUT WORKOUTS AND FOCUS ON PRACTICE. You are training your nervous system to perform counter-intuitive movements, not your aerobic system. If you feel strained, you are not using proper technique. Stop and review, rather than persist through pain and drop it later for lack of interest.
I suggest water exercises in between laps, where you can work on general body stretching and work on muscles as abdominal, triceps, gluteus, etc. using the pool wall on the deep side and standing exercises on the shallow side of it.
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