Freestyle Swimming: Arm Movement. Complete.

This is my attempt at creating the reference that I wish someone had given me when I set out to learn swimming freestyle.

After 12 years of learning, this video combines everything I find important about the pull in freestyle swimming. I'll use the words of Brett Sutton: "Place, press, push makes my swimming go woosh!"

And many thanks to Huang for translating the closed captions into simplified and traditional Chinese! Last but not least, many, many thanks to Majo and Fernando Ramos for putting in a huge amount of work and translating the narration and the labels to Spanish and providing a Spanish audio track! You're awesome! 🐳💝

0:00 Introduction

0:31 Overview
0:57 Extension
3:49 Catch
8:16 Power phase
11:13 Finish
12:48 Recovery
14:45 Hand entry
16:11 Timing
18:52 Wrap-Up

[schnodopics]

If anybody is wondering about ads appearing, I didn't change anything since publishing the video. This remains a labor of love; I'm not making any money from it and I'll keep it that way. YouTube must have changed their ad-showing-policy in the meantime. Sorry about that, but there's nothing I can do. 🐳

[Spaxcore]

20 minutes, no ads, no sponser, no sale, just info. You are a great human. It would be amazing if you could do one for kicking too.

[psychlou]

After years and years of viewing swim videos, this is the one to call, a masterpiece! Thanks for spreading the love!

[zeevgilkis]

I read the book, liked it, but was too abstract to implement. Then, I came across your video. I saw many videos about swimming, but this is the best one! Thank you for taking the time in creating it. I'm sure it helped many swimmers, like it helped me. Huge thanks!

[bmrbca]

Masterpiece. I can't even imagine the amount of work and time that went into making this. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

[saniemeyer]

Best swimming video on youtube. A highly detailed catalog of all the touchpoints to focus on. Answered several questions about the feeling of the propulsive phase that I have wondered about, but that no one else has addressed.

[Roosyer]

What a masterpiece! Incredible level of detail shown of the proper technique but after reading his responses to comments, I'm equally impressed with the level of humbleness of the creator of the video. Such a kind and generous gentleman...thank you sir, much appreciated!

[josegonzaloditchingssvp]

Nothing can beat this freestyle tutorial video

[hoangvu]

I've watched hundreds of clips about freestyle technique. Many of them are very interesting and useful. But this video clip surely is the best!

[ggboxerina]

The Mother Of All Breakdowns this arm stroke. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[lawrencegoodhue]

What a gem. I have been looking at swimming videos for several years and this is by far the best and most complete stroke analysis I've ever seen. Bravo.

[junistheking]

Coaching for few decades now. YOU DID SUCH A EXCELLENT NARRATIVE VIDEOGRAPHY AND EDIT TO EXPLAIN IN DEPTH WITH EASY TO UNDERSTAND WORDS OF CHOICE. 👏

[OvidiuHretcanu]

Excellent explanations on the "how" part. What I think is missing is the emphasis on "why" - we need to understand that we are not freestyle like a dolphin but like a turtle, that is: the propulsion is done by hands rather than tail. And if you notice these two animals, the area surface of the "paddle" is really important:
1. fingers position: if you keep yours slightly separated the palm surface increases. Water has a high viscosity, so don't worry about water slipping between the fingers (in fact you should pay attention to it, see #3)
2. high elbow: palms are not big enough, so we are increasing again the surface by using our entire palm+wrist+forearm(!). Keep elbow-wrist-palm on the same level (vertical) while pushing water back.
3. slightly relaxed forearm-wrist-palm and fingers: remember that is your back doing most of the work. As it was pointed out in the video, these needs only to be in the right position. Having them slightly relaxed allows you: feel the water flow (if if slips for instance), quickly adjust arm position and not in the least conserve energy.
Excellent and very well documented video by the way!

[seanlee]

Without question the best swimming video I’ve seen

[newageguitar]

You got me as soon as you mentioned Weissmuller, this is the best freestyle instructional video on the web..thank you as it will be a constant reference for me as I continue to re-train myself at age 72. I was coached some bad habits on my high school and college swim teams, your video has already started to bring me up to date.

[Jazman]

I'm a 70 year old who used to swim 1 km a day 1/2 a life time ago. Just returned to swimming on doctor's advice for knee arthritis and MAN I wish this stuff had been around 35 years ago. Brilliant.

[victorgitau]

best freestyle CATCH & RECOVERY I've seen... and i've seen a lot. Just recently I realized something wasn't quite right. My catch was slipping and I didn't know why. In a 25m pool, I averaged 18 strokes per length. I was really dissapointed since I thought my catch was allright hehe. Long story short, I came to the decision of feeling my catch, pull & push instead of visualizing olympic level pull (Sun Yang's) catch... happy to say I managed to bring that number down to 14 strokes @ length. Thanks to this video, i will now be able to reduce that number since I now know what to focus on so that I can catch myself making a mistake and eliminate my bad catch lol. Looking forward to trying it tomorrow. Hope my 1500m swim will feel more powerful. Thank you.

[joeekaps]

I have been swimming incorrectly all my life and just in the last few years swimming is my main form of exercise. I have been slowing learning how to swim correctly, watching tutorials and practicing. I have improved tremendously but I really wish I could have viewed this awesome instructional from the start of my swimming journey. This explains and shows with reason the freestyle stroke! 👍💯

[johnxi]

The best video I've watched so far that explains arm movement and covers every details. I tried my best to follow the focus point during swimming today, got surprising improvement. The "going over a hump" is such a brilliant analogy that made me suddenly figure out the transition between catch and pull phase. Thank you very much!

[martinbiermann]

After taking freestyle instruction from elite coaches for 5 years, I hit upon Sheila's book on freestyle only a month ago. Since, I have been re-reading the chapters on the stroke several times. The book is a source of inspiration, but hard to read. Your video says it all in just 20 min. An absolute masterpiece!