Swim Team Prep; I’m Fantastic at Freestyle!

 

Freestyle

The Evolution Freestyle

English swimmer John Trudgen developed a hand-over-hand stroke that became known as the trudgen. He copied the stroke from South American Indians and introduced it in England in 1873. In this new technique, each arm recovered out of the water as the body rolled from side to side. The swimmer did a scissors kick with every two arm strokes.  The stroke is now acknowledged as the forerunner of the front crawl. The inefficiency of the trudgen kick led Australian Richard Cavill to try new methods of kicking. He used a stroke that he observed natives of the Solomon Islands using, which combined an up-and-down kick with an alternating overarm stroke. He used the new stroke in 1902 at the International Championships to set a new world record (100 yards in 58.4 seconds). The stroke he used became known as the “Australian crawl.” At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, the Australian men’s swimming team introduced a front crawl stroke that took advantage of body roll and increased speed through the water.  Today the stroke is widely known as FreestyleFreestyle races are the most common of all swimming styles.  The stroke used almost universally in freestyle races is the front crawl as this style is generally the fastest. For this reason, the term freestyle is sometimes used as a synonym for front crawl.

Warmup

  •  Beginner – 10 Seconds Rest
    • 2×50 Freestyle
      • Rotary breathing, 3 strokes breath to the right, 3 strokes breath to the left
      • Alternating strokes
    • 2×50 Flutter Kick
      • Straight legs, should be kicking from the hip, with slight knee flexion
  • Intermediate – 5 Seconds Rest
    • 4×50 Freestyle
      • Arms need to come out of the water alternating each stroke, start working towards bent elbows as if they were pointing their elbow at the sky
      • 4×50 Flutter Kick
  • Advanced – 5 Seconds rest.
    • 6×50 Freestyle
      • Arms need to come out of the water alternating each stroke, start working towards bent elbows as if they were pointing their elbow at the sky
    • 6×50 Flutter kick

Main Set

    •  Beginner – 10 Seconds Rest
      • 3×50 Freestyle
      • 3×50 Fingertip Drag
        • Focus on getting elbows high so they can drag their fingertips across the top of the water as they bring their arms forward
      • 3×50 Catch up
        • Keep one hand in streamline position while taking a stroke with the other hand, once that hand reaches the streamline position, stroke with the other hand, repeat. Always have one hand in streamline position.
  • Intermediate – 5 Seconds Rest
      • 4×50 Freestyle
      • 4×50 Fingertip Drag
      • 4×50 Zipper 
        • Drag fingers up their side as they take a stroke, as if they have a zipper running up their side and they are zipping it up
  • Advanced – 5 Seconds rest.
    • 6×50 Freestyle
    • 6×50 Fingertip Drag
    • 6×50 Taps
      • One hand should stay in streamline. Take a stroke and as they bring their hand back up to the starting point have them tap their hip, armpit, head and then their other hand. Repeat on both sides

Cool Down

  • Beginner – 10 Seconds Rest
      • 3×50 Freestyle
  • Intermediate – 5 Seconds Rest
      • 4×50 Freestyle
  • Advanced – 5 Seconds rest.
    • 6×50 Freestyle