Freestyle Notes: The Importance of Rotating When Breathing

Information about performing the freestyle stroke, or what is also known as the crawl (or Australian crawl, if you want to split hairs) receives the most hits and searches on Squidkid.

I’d like to give you three great freestyle technique tips. The topic or points are about the importance of rotating your body when swimming.

Point #1: One, Two, Breathe

My most popular blog entry with well over 2,500 hits is titled How To Swim Freestyle Laps Correctly & Well and teaches the proper body movement. It’s a right arm pull followed by a left arm pull; when that lefty is stretched in front (with righty stretched behind), that’s your cue to turn your body and inhale or breathe (exhaling or “bubbles” happens when your face is down).

Notice I said body. I’m stressing the importance of rotating your body, not your head when you breathe in the freestyle stroke.

Point #2: Allow the Body to Roll (and the Head Will Follow)

I was just reminded last weekend when watching a Red Cross video on stroke improvement that your head stays perfectly still in almost all the strokes.

When you turn your entire body during the intake of air, the stroke feels easier. You’re not disrupting a fluid sense of motion. You’ll find you end up gliding across the water better.

But when you just turn the head or “lift” the head out of the water to take air, your stroke falls completely apart. Another thing to remember about swimming is that it is much harder to stop and start up again in the middle of a lap.

Point #3: When Tired, Cheat With a Better Roll

Everyone gets tired when they do the freestyle. It’s because you are forced to perform rhythmic breathing. Like a teacher who learns take a bathroom break between classes, so must your body learn to breath and exhale air at the appropriate time when swimming.

Whether you are struggling to get through one end of the pool to the other or tackle four laps back-to-back, this point is the same: When tired, do a very big body roll and hang out on your side, or rather three-quarter turn so that you are almost floating on your back.

This is actually a strengthening exercise. The swimmer kicks with straight legs, reaches that lefty in front, dangles that righty behind, and enjoys a few minutes of free air. This is a much better strategy than breaking freestyle ranks — like I said, it is much harder to stop and start again during a stroke than to follow through.

Swimming is about developing endurance. It’s too much to ask yourself to just have endurance, no matter how much an athlete you consider yourself to be.