Freestyle Basics (Part 1)
FLOAT FIRST
Your first exercise is floating on your stomach. Float and look down at the bottom of the pool; try to have your legs up near the surface, with the back of your heels just out of the water. Think about where your legs and feet are. Floating is important because with freestyle, you want to make sure your head is relaxed and your legs are close to the surface of the water without having to try. If you can do this, you are in great position to begin freestylee basics.
If you have a hard time floating, put your arms out to the side, as if you are trying to fly. If you are very muscular, you will have a harder time floating, but it's not impossible.
STREAMLINING
In any swimming stroke, you want to be as streamlined and efficient as possible. Streamlined = efficient = faster. You want to reduce the resistance your body has as it travels through the water. To test this for yourself, push the water with your palm. You can feel the resistance of the water against your hand. (It's also a great way to make a good splash at somebody.) When you are swimming, you want to reduce that resistance, and so instead of pushing your palm against the water, you want to go fingers-pointing-first through the water.
Try it. Push your hand straight out in front of you, thumb up and fingers first. It glides right through with much less resistance than your palm. That is the basic concept of streamlining. Reducing resistance by putting your body in the right position is the essence of learning to swim well and to have it look efforless. It is never effortless, by the way, but some people sure look great when they swim, and you can too. When you swim, you will almost never actually be flat on your stomach for freestyle. Your time is spent mostly on your side.
In freestyle, you rotate from side to side with your whole body as you pull yourself through the water in a streamlined fashion, almost as if you have a mental pole all the way through your body. You rotate around it.
When you are streamlined, you can get 6 inches more reach than you can be, so reach as far as you can with each stroke.
KICKING MECHANICS
Your kick should be with a mostly straight but relaxed leg, kicking from the hip, not bending at the knee. The bending should be at the ankle, with the foot moving back and forth, toes pointed but relaxed. Move your leg from the hip and make small, baby kicks, so that your feet are no more than 12 inches apart at the widest. You want enough space between your feet during the kick so that you are moving some water.
You will have a problem if are too tense. So, try to make it a relaxed move from the hip. You will waste energy if you are tense. Loose, relaxed legs -but with toes pointed- is the rule. Let your ankles be loose.
Strive to avoid the common mistakes that people make in swimming or in practicing kicking. One is surface kicking, in which the only thing being kicked is air. The feet are too high. This gets you nowhere. Another is kicking too deep. The legs are too far apart with each kick, which wastes energy. A third is having too much knee bend, using only half of the leg instead of using the power of the whole leg. This is a common mistake that runners and bikers make when they go to the pool to try to learn swimming for triathlons.
KICKING DRILLS
Lie on your side in the water, holding on to the kickboard with one hand. Stretch out as long as you can, and kick all the way down the pool. If you can't make it through the whole lap kicking, go as far as you can. Try for at least halfway. Don't worry about speed. It doesn't have to be fast. It only needs to be right. Just keep kicking. Try to relax your head and arms, as if you are lying on the sofa, with the water as your pillow.
When you get all the way to the end, you may need to rest and catch your breath. If so, do it. We will get to proper rest internatl times later, but for now, if you are winded, rest. If not, immediately turn onto the other side and kick back. If you made it only halfway and need to rest, rest/ Then turn onto your other side and return to your starting point, kicking on that side. Rest again. Now you know what kicking on your side feels like.
Next is the "10/10" drill with kickboard. Take the kickboard again. Lie on your side. This time, after every 10 kicks, switch sides, kicking down the pool to the other end and returning. So, if you start on your left side, you will be lying on your left side, holding the kickboard in your left hand and with your left arm outstretched completely; your face will be out of the water enough so that you will not have problem breathing. To switch, move your right hand up from wherever it was in the water and grab the kickboard with it; immediately let go of the kickboard with your left hand and roll over to your right side, all the while kicking. Count 10 kicks, and then change back to the side on which you started. Continue for two pool lengths.
(Continues)
Excerpt from Championship Swimming (by Tracey McFarlane)
