How to Use Your Hips in Freestyle Swimming!

This is all about how to engage our hips when swimming backstroke and freestyle.

Connect with us! We love our online community, so come have fun and chat with us on:

Be sure to watch these other videos:

About U.S. Masters Swimming:

[Vanfinity]

Wow, that is a nice clean pool that I always dream of.

[trevorweir]

This is a very difficult concept to teach, Cokie, in part because of the subtle differences involved. Most swimmers can see what a serious over-rotation looks like, but its not so easy to see the correct movement when there isn't an overt over-rotation.

I suggest that perhaps you stop or dramatically slow down the video and use a voice over and a yellow or red pen and mark the area where the hips are nicely aligned vs a subtle over-rotation and give us the explanation right there along with the exact visual.

Thanks for taking this on. I love watching all your videos.

[Jenesis]

I self learned free style since last year as a newbie. I hadn’t been active since pandemic so totally out of shape. I couldn’t control my body line or movement at all; sunk legs, crossover arms, over rotate torso….. however, with more pool time, yoga, and weight train my body got better. Now I can free style with much better control than ever before. The hip moving towards reaching arm is key to keep a streamlined body and ease of breathing.

[dcoughman]

Great video! My coach was correcting this in my stroke but she phrased it differently. She told me that while I should be rotating from the hips, my feet should not be kicking side to side. Kicking side to side is a sign of over rotating and that is what I was doing.

[adamding]

Special thanks to the coach.
After some practice, I realize this is a very useful tip for better swimming.
By focusing on hip rotation, you can keep the hip and leg from sinking, and remain parallel to the surface.
It is easy to implement and very effective.

[Alfakkin]

when I realized how controlling my hips was essential, few years ago, everything changed for the better...nice video

[dannylad]

This is a great video. The overall rhythm of your swimming is governed by the timing of your hip rotation. If you get your rhythm right, everything else should follow suit.

[peterkim]

This gives me aha moments about the body rotation. Thanks a lot!

[theraceclub]

Great Video!  Thanks Cokie and I must say the Swimmer in the video was exemplary!  

[robohippy]

First heard the 'suck in your gut like you are trying to put your belly button on your spine' tip here. Then saw it on a clip from Speedo, which may have been the original. Best tip for me to keep correct posture/body position when swimming, and keep legs from sinking. The body/hip rotation thing comes naturally to some...

[AngelaJonesCreates]

I have no clue how I ended up at this video but watched it and found it really interesting. Giving a thumbs up and sharing on twitter

[chinhvannguyen]

Nice, rotate hip is same wingchun, hip is power arm
- rotation hip before pull arm

[Renosder]

You are great, that’s waht I really need to know. I will try tomorrow. The hips shouldn’t overturn. Thanks a lot

[GregStew]

Thanks very much for sharing!! This awareness has taken my freestyle to the next level!!

[nerd]

awsome instruction. thank you very much. plz keep posting.

[Dee]

Great video & explanation. Thank u!

[adamding]

Just focus on the core.
1. taut core keeps a better streamline position, minimizes resistance.
2. core/hip rotation makes the arm pull more efficient:
(1) hip rotation leaves room for the arm to pull in full length.
(2) the arm can pull closer to the middle line of the body. if you pull from the side, the body spins and the energy is wasted.
(3) like throwing a baseball, with the rotation your arm can swing with more power.

[galoisdirac]

My understanding is that the whole torso - shoulders and hips roll like a log along with the head in sync when rotating to breathe.
The long reach coupled with a kick of the opposite leg aids in this rotation. Am I wrong?

[richcus]

At the 1:00 mark, I'm confused about too much twisting motion in your hips and over-rotating when doing Freestyle. ..."reaching my hip bone so that my belly button doesn't slide to the side". I realize the importance of over-rotating, but I need an image in my head for correcting that mistake. Thanks

[RomeroCoach]

Can you please help me, what is the song ?