The front crawl or also called crawl is the most popular swimming style around the world, where what stands out the most is the propulsion that is done by means of the hands, when swimming in this style one of the athlete’s arms must move in the air, the palm must be facing downwards and oriented so that it enters the water, the elbow must be totally relaxed, the other arm must be in charge of advancing under the water, this movement between the two arms must be alternated. Continue reading how to swim front crawl.
While the arms do the above, the legs must be doing kicks, these have been evolving until reaching oscillating calls, where there must be an alternating movement of the hips down and up while the legs are totally relaxed with the feet tucked in of the water and the fingers should be pointed.
The crawl is also commonly known as freestyle, but this is not correct, because as its name indicates, free means that a style is chosen in freedom, if there is a freestyle competition, usually crawl is the chosen one already. that at an energetic and biomechanical level it is better, in any case we continue to call the free crawl and it could be said that they are synonymous. You may find in some books and on Wikipedia that the crawl is the same as freestyle, but this is because until now no one has wanted to occupy freestyle with something other than crawl.
How to swim front crawl
As already mentioned, this style of swimming is one of the fastest and also the most used. Summer is an ideal season to practice sports and activities that can be difficult in the rest of the year, unless you have an indoor and heated pool, summer is the time to go to the beach and the pools and the Sometimes it can be a perfect opportunity to practice one of the most complete and healthy sports, while we can cool off, we are talking about swimming, what we have just said is for countries that have stations, since countries located in the tropics or in those where there are always high temperatures of heat, this is a sport that can be practiced on all occasions.
You must swim in a straight line
Although this style is the most popular, it is also an art to do it, both professional and amateur swimmers use this type of style very frequently, but the reality is that many of the second group does not do it properly. The right way. The most basic rule for this swim is to do it in a totally straight line. Swimming pools have lines at the bottom which are used as a reference for this, in this way collisions between swimmers will be avoided and also that some unnecessary effort will be made.
Breathing monitor
While swimming in a straight line you should also be properly controlling your breathing, it is important to know that you will swim faster if you breathe fewer times, but of course, the endurance when swimming will be less, for this reason the best way to be able to regulate breathing is getting used to taking a breath when our mouth comes out and releasing it into the water. This will be useful and will help prevent muscle overload, it is important to breathe on both sides, alternating.
When you do this swim you should stick your head out to breathe alternating right and left, so your neck will not be forced, as a recommendation it is good that you follow a rhythm that is constant and that you inspire every two or three strokes.
Swim horizontally
You must swim horizontally in order to improve your position in the water, but without reaching excesses. You should try to go horizontal since when any part of the body moves away from that position, it will slow down the movement, when the stroke is lengthened as much as possible, it will also help to have a better technique. Remember that we said that this position should be taken but without exaggeration, it is not that you are going to take the position as if you were a table, your body should rotate a little each time you move your arms, in this way if your arm on the right side If you are out of the water, your right side shoulder should be out of the water and your left side should be submerged in the water and vice versa.
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Always move arms and legs
The arms should always be in constant movement, one of them doing the propulsion for the body, as long as possible you should avoid what is called a dead point, that is, having an extended arm without any movement (this usually happens when you we have forward).
The work that the legs must do is also very important because this is what will help the position to be in a straight and horizontal line. There are experts who recommend working on this propulsion both laterally and horizontally.
Coordinate arm movements
Each of your arms should go in opposition, that is, while one of your arms is propelling, the other should be preparing to start the propulsion and so when one ends its propulsion, the other will start with it.
When the technique improves, it should be possible to make the same space with a smaller number of strokes and counting the same time, or why not, even faster.
The strokes can be good sources of motivation to see how the technique is going; counting them will help to know how you are progressing.
Kick
It is also quite important to have the legs in a correct position. As already mentioned the body must be horizontal and flat, in this way the movement of the legs and feet will be effective and will help to achieve a good hydrodynamic position. One of the most common mistakes is that the person has their feet quite sunken and this will slow down their progress a bit, so it is important that you always make sure that your feet are aligned with your head and with your trunk. If the body is horizontal, the kicks will contribute to good propulsion. Another common mistake is that there is stiffness and some movements like a shake that come from the knee, likewise there is a frequent doubt and that are whether or not the feet should come out of the water.
If the foot leaves the water and then falls hitting the surface hard, the kick will not be correct. In this style, a kick must be done alternating legs and they must be underwater, for this reason the movement must start at the hip and end at the tip of the foot, it should not start at the knee as we can often see.
The feet must kick in an alternate way and go to the surface while always maintaining the horizontal position.
Both the knees and the feet must be kept flexible and relaxed in order to achieve an effective kick.
Don’t be obsessed with time
This is quite common and it really is a mistake, the first thing that a person considers to swim well is to be able to lower their mark, that is, to be able to swim faster and faster, it is not good to become obsessed, first you must have a totally good technique and then continue with this step and little by little go getting the speed.
Crawl regulations
FINA has established a swimming regulation that is applicable in the most important international competitions such as the Olympic Games and World Championships, as well as in local games, unless there is or is established for a certain competition. For the youngest swimmers, this entity does not yet specify rules, so each federation has to adopt its own regulations and apply them to age groups. The entire regulation would be very long, so we will show you the most important rules for freestyle.
The start: this will be done by jumping from the starting block or bench, in butterfly and breaststroke the same thing happens. The judge will proceed to make a long whistle, this is so that the athletes are located in the back of the bench and then wait there to be given the signal to leave (ready), at that moment the different swimmers will immediately get on starting position already in the front part of the bench, once everyone is in this position, the judge will give a signal for the start, it can be with his voice, with a whistle or with a pistol shot.
Turn: the swimmer must touch the wall with some part of the body, it is not mandatory that it be with his hand.
Arrival: as in the turn, the swimmer must touch the wall with some part of his body and it is not mandatory that it be with his hand.
