5 Common Freestyle Mistakes And How To Correct Them!

Successful sportsmen/women share a common skill: efficiency! The more efficient you are, the less energy you expend.

Mastering your swim technique will do wonders for your efficiency in the water. This will lead to improving your speed and endurance, as well as reducing your chance of injury. Read on to find out how you can improve your Freestyle/Frontcrawl.

Remember, you cannot make these changes overnight; it will take time. Try to focus on one correction at a time. Once you have mastered it, you can move on to another. It will likely feel strange and unnatural – this is normal. Keep at it and it will soon become second nature!

1. Snaking through the water

When I say snaking, I mean moving from side to side, which is commonly created by crossing your arms over your centre line. When swimming, you want to take the most direct route to get from A to B the fastest. When you snake through the water you end up swimming further than necessary, which requires more energy and you will reach your end destination slower.

How to correct: Your hands should enter the water in line with your shoulders and you should allow your torso to rotate with each stroke. Remain streamline by engaging your core and your body should rotate along the axis of your spine.

Top tip: When you next swim, if you picture an analogue clock in your mind, your head should be positioned at 12 O’clock. Your left hand should enter the water at roughly 11 O’clock and your right hand should enter the water at roughly 1 O’clock.

2. T-rex arms

Do you feel like you are turning your arms over frequently and not getting much distance from each pull? This might be because your hands are entering the water too close to your head and you are not stretching as much as you should be.

How to correct: As a rough guide if one arm is straight out in front of you, your other arm should enter the water somewhere between your straight arms elbow and wrist.

Top tip: Try counting the number of strokes it takes for you to swim 1 length of your pool. Then aim to decrease this number each time. The lower your number is, the longer your stroke is. (The average stroke count in a 25m pool is between 11 and 30.)

3. Flexed feet

Another common mistake swimmers make is flexing their feet (toes facing down). This essentially turns your feet into ankers, creating a lot of unnecessary drag, which slows you down or in some cases it can even cause you to travel backwards. This means your arms must work much harder.

How to correct: You should point your toes, so they create a straight line with your legs. The more you point your toes, the less drag your feet create. You should also aim to turn your toes inwards and your big toes should lightly brush when you are kicking.

Top tip: The best way to see how effective your kick is, is by kicking vertically in deep water. If you start to sink, you know you still have a few skills you need to brush up on. Try to kick vertically for as long as possible, focusing on pointing your toes and driving your kick from your hips, as well as keeping your head and shoulders as high out of the water as possible.

4. Thumb dives

When your hand enters the water with your thumb leading, not only are you putting a lot of pressure on your shoulders (which in time can lead to injury), but it also forces your elbow to drop and the palm of your hand to face sideways. Therefore, you are likely to push the water in the wrong direction. Your palm should always face the opposite direction to the way you want to swim, otherwise you are expending energy with little reward.

How to correct: Your hand and wrist should be in a neutral position, watching that you are not dropping your elbow (your elbow should remain slightly higher than your hand) and you should aim for your hand to enter the water middle finger first. This will set you up nicely for that ‘perfect’ catch.

Just be careful not to smack the water palm first…spear it!

Top tip: Strapless paddles are a great piece of equipment to use in your training as they are designed to fall off when you aren’t performing correct technique.

5. High head position when breathing

If you lift your head too high when breathing, it has a negative knock-on effect on the rest of your body. Ever heard the saying…’every action has a reaction’. So, the action of lifting your head in swimming causes the reaction of your legs sinking. This results in your body becoming more vertical rather than the desired horizontal, creating a great deal of drag.

How to correct: Your neck and head should remain in a neutral position when you are swimming. (The water should sit roughly just above your hairline.) When you breathe, you should turn your head to the side, as opposed to lifting it up and pointing your chin forwards. You should only turn your head slightly, enough to allow only your mouth to exit the water.

Top tip: When you turn your head to breathe, your lowest goggle should always remain under the water, if both of your goggle lenses come out you have lifted it too high.

Many thanks for reading,

Amy 😊