Front crawl Swimming technique - arms underwater

What to do with your arms underwater when swimming front crawl / freestyle - this is arguably the most important phase of the Front Crawl arms. Improvement here will positively influence the strength and drive that each stroke will give you through the water. For more information - Download the Swimming Front Crawl iBook available now for iPad on iBookstore

[markdurnford]

Thanks for the kind words Paul. Your swimming is progressing brilliantly! Keep up the practise and focus. Mark

[markdurnford]

Hi Bari.  Thanks for your question.  Front Crawl is the name of the stroke and technique, Freestyle is the name of the event which swimmers 99% of the time choose to use the Front Crawl stroke as it's the quickest (although when in a Freestyle event, you are free to use any stroke).  Therefore people incorrectly use the term freestyle when really they are referring to Front Crawl.  Hope this helps and thanks again, Mark

[paulamery]

I'm having some training with Mark at the minute, and every time I train I come away feeling improved. After years of doing only breast stroke it's really liberating to be learning to do front crawl. Top trainer

[Chyrosran]

Thanks mate, your videos are very helpful and instructive. It helps a lot that you show it out of the water as well, which few videos do. The physics behind everything also make a lot of sense. I do crawl every day, but never learned to do it properly in school, so these vids help a lot :) .

[mountainserenity]

Beautiful swimming! I'm an older swimmer, but still learning. Thanks for great tip on keeping hands flat like paddles.

[minavaghef]

Hi Mark. You are a very good coach and swimmer. Thanks for your videos.

[markdurnford]

Excellent description and points made here. Thanks for your comments.

[markdurnford]

Thank you for the kind comment Spencer. 

[markdurnford]

You're welcome. Good luck at the swimming gala!

[markdurnford]

Thanks for the question. Probably the greatest tip I can offer when it comes to encouraging your own kids to swim (purely going from personal experience having done this with my own) is to make everything you do in the pool great fun. Dive sticks, snorkels sound like a great idea. Build water confidence without making it too formal and 'Lesson Like'. Thanks again good luck to you both with your swim progress. Mark

[christianpedersen]

thanks mark you have realy helped me and i think i can get a littel trophi in the country championships now ;D

[FlagRunner]

nice video learned the S pull never heared that before thanks.

[Soldier]

THIS is how you do it. Forget all that splashing that so many people do when they crawl, that destroys momentum. You want to be as smooth and possible, and to disturb the water surface as little as possible.

[markdurnford]

You're very welcome. Merry Christmas too!

[pinkyling]

great tips mark thanks for the advice i will use them

[markdurnford]

Hi and thanks for the great questions. All of your suggestions are correct. In summary you should avoid having a completely straight arm but with a small degree of flexion in the elbow to leverage more strength in the pull. One straight line when pulling will also detract from possible strength so instead catch the water throughout the underwater phase in order to generate the power in each pull. I hope this helps? Thanks again. Mark

[markdurnford]

Great question and thanks for asking. You're correct in saying that over rolling should be avoided and entering the water between centre and in line with the shoulders would be a good guide to follow. Take a look at the 'Arms overwater' video clip I've posted on my channel and you should see some footage of me swimming head on to the camera demonstrating this entry point described. Hope this helps and thank you for watching. Mark

[GatAtTube]

I agree with guys, who write that S shape is out of date, but also arm a guy at the video is extending a little at the acute angle. It should be plane angle, I mean, if we look at the hips - shoulder - hand -> it should create almost perfect straight line - if we look at the swimmer from up side. It become really smooth.

Anyway this Video is great...for the guys who whant to learn how it was 20 years ago ;p

[daveraybould]

@markdurnford No problem and thank you for taking time to post the video and explain. On the S shaped pull subject there is always debate. If a swimmer rotates their body correctly then there has to S shape element to the pull. If you hold your arm out in front of you and try to pull straight it requires you to move your elbow out or else it will drop and that is no good. That action of moving the elbow will create an S shape anyway. Good video and glad I could comment.

[markdurnford]

Thanks for the question. I'd advise to aim for the hand to be flat or with a very slight tilt (for thumb toward the water). The big (unnecessary in my opinion) debate and concern in the world of swimming appears to be that if your thumb enters first you will incur shoulder injuries albeit an efficient way to enter the water. Go for flat, finger tips first then at least you're reducing risk of injury as well as swimming with efficiency. Good luck and enjoy swimming. Regards, Mark