Freestyle Swimming Technique: Top 6 Open Water Stroke Tips

Front crawl swimming in the open water is different from swimming in the pool, so what are these differences? There are some areas of your freestyle stroke that will require some more attention and slight adaptation to make you more efficient in the open water, and we’ve got them all covered.

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[gtn]

What are the best freestyle swimming tips that you've been given? Share them with us 👇

[Zaadzee]

I've returned to swim after pandemic closure. To say the truth, I've lost a lot of condition and even I'd lost track of you guys from GTN. I'm so happy to see this video, it makes me remember my good times and want to improve my times for 🏊 🚲 🏃 even more than my pre pandemic era.

[kateshephard]

Massive kudos to the camera crew. These underwater/horizon shots are awesome!

This year I’ve started to fall in love with open water swimming and the videos have really helped. I still really hate lakes with a lot of surface weed (it’s not algae) and panic a bit when it gets in my face, so that is the next thing for me to tackle, as my first middle distance tri next year is in a very weedy lake!

[PureNRG]

Perfect timing! Going for an open water in beautiful Lake Erie today. Thanks guys!

[XMan-migs]

Great video. I have a open water event coming sunday. Swimming from the island of Marken to the coast in the Netherlands (3, 5 km). Looking forward to. Planning on doing a heads up for navigation every 8 to 10 strokes, aiming for a finishing time under the hour. Your tips are surely going to help!!! Perfect timing :)

[Uk.mattdaniels]

I started getting into open water swimming, every morning I jump in the ocean and practice. Today I thought to myself, “let me check if what I am learning on the field makes any sense and I am so happy that what i have been doing is exactly what you are saying! I am gonna keep it at and work on stamina. People don’t realise how taxing it is on the lungs! Also, I realised, watching this video that I know what slows me down now, the fact that I always look ahead and not keep my face in the water. i guess I am worried about getting hit by a wave but I need to practice. Also, I need goggles 😂 Buying now

[dmytroprokopenko]

the problem with faster cadence (for me) is that increases HR significantly. Personally, didn't have issues with low cadence sweaming in the sea last week. Other swimmers on the race is the biggest issue :)

[plhapkido]

I wear prescription glasses and don’t like contact lenses, so sighting in open water is a problem. I practice sighting in the pool by placing one bright-colored pull buoy/kick board on each end to simulate the open water buoys and sight to them - a yellow Finis alignment kick board and an orange Nike pull kick pull buoy.

[youngy]

Can you do another vid on open water panic attacks. I suffer from mild agoraphobia and had panic attacks practising for my first 70.3 but on race day I just cracked on and completed the swim in 51 mins. Im still apprehensive of open water though.

[jevgeniardassov]

Went fir open water swim today, i am upnorth, so it was 10 C air and 13 C water. But damn the feeling was awsome.

[michelebelardinelli]

It's ok an higher cadence, but when I try to di it, my stroke is shorter, I can't pull the arm close to the thigh

[runningwithsimon]

Beginner question - how do you draft in water? Where should you be - right behind them? How do you not get kicked in the face?

[mike_ro]

super! swam 777 km in open water in 30 days, now I don't want to swim in the pool

[muratsoyuoz]

I want Turkish subtitles for all videos please

[idlikemoreprivacy]

What a pitty you seem to have good underwater footage for us to learn, but we never get to see it. It's all cut, disconnected, less than one second. Most of the video is a person talking, pretty much like trying to learn from a book.

[chengavitch]

To ‘like’ a video before starting watching it sounds stupid! How does one know one like anything without watching it? Just because someone tells you so?