Body Position for Freestyle Swimming

Video Transcript

Hello and welcome to Expert Village. I'm Phillip Toriello from the Avila Bay Athletic Club. The general body position in the freestyle stroke is with the belly facing down. So, something to the effect of this: like you are laying on your belly, just on top of the water. As far as the role in movement of the body, during the freestyle you are going to be rotating on the body's axis. Kind of like this: so, if this was my body on top of the water, with my belly as my palm, it's going to be rotating with each stroke. What this helps to do is really maximize the extension of your arm for the stroke and also prevent any drag as you are swimming through the water. A factor that sometimes plays a role in the freestyle stroke as far as body position is concerned is swimming like a square through the water. This is where your shoulders are straight on the top of the water and there's actually no rotation. What this does is, first of all, it causes drag through the water and it doesn't provide for that extension we are talking about. If I'm swimming straight like this, my body is only going to go as far as my hands can reach from my shoulder to my fingertips. However, if I get that extension in, as you'll see, I'm going to get a couple more inches (about four more inches) which will really enable me to get a further reach, providing for a longer pull and a stronger push. So, I'll get a further length or distance per stroke.