Your shoulders play a prominent and visible role in freestyle swimming, but your hips also provide essential power, just under the surface of the water. Freestyle, also called Australian crawl and front crawl, is the fastest of the four competitive swimming strokes and the one on which most long-distance swimmers rely.
Basics
First practiced by indigenous people in the South Seas and the Americas, the front crawl stroke moves you fast through the water. You face downward and forward in the water, using a flutter kick and windmill-type arm stroke that features an over-the-water arm recovery. Technically in a freestyle race, you can swim any stroke you like, but most swimmers choose the front crawl because it gets you to the finish fastest.
Leverage/Power
Engaging your hips as a propulsive force during freestyle not only takes pressure of your shoulders, but also gives your more leverage and power during your stroke. Rather than swimming with your hips flat in the water, swim on your side, keeping the hip opposite your recovery arm lower than the other. Author Blythe Lucero refers to the hip rotation action as akin to skating in "100 Best Swimming Drills." Imagine skate blades attached to your hipbone and glide on the left, then the right, getting the most length and glide out of each stroke you take.
Swimming Drills
Focus on integrating your hips into your freestyle stroke to move farther with less effort. In the three-stroke and kick drill, you take three regular freestyle strokes, then rotate your hips, upper recovery arm at your side, opposite arm extended in front of you, and flutter kick for six beats. Then take three more strokes and assume the side-kick position on the alternate side. Use the hip-switch skating drill to focus on gliding on one hip at a time. Swim freestyle, shifting your weight from one hip to the other as you take your stroke, focusing on balancing on one hip only and on drawing power directly from the hip to your shoulder as your take each stroke.
Dryland Drills
You use your hip flexors continuously while flutter kicking, so stretching them out after a workout helps you avoid tension and possible lower back problems. Assume a kneeling position, hands on your bent knees. Tighten and engage your core muscles and glutes and then lean forward onto your bent knee. Don't overdo it; you will feel your hip flexors stretching gently. Hip switches build the overall strength of the muscles that girdle your torso. Use an exercise or balance ball to perform this challenging exercise. Balance your hips on the ball, legs extended out horizontally and hands braced on the floor. Rotate your hips until they are perpendicular to the floor. Hold the position for one second then rotate back to the other side. Ideally you switch from one hip to the other quickly, holding the rotated position before changing back.
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