How to Swim Freestyle.

Step 5 Windmills, like Holland, jah?

To practice this step, make your way to water that is a little over bellybutton deep, and bend over so your face and the front of your body are in the water. Extend both your arms, palm down, through the water in front of you, stopping just before you reach a full extension.

Step 1: Now, keeping your right hand extended, swing your left hand down under your torso following along your center line until you reach your hip (picture 1).
Step 2: When your left hand reaches your hip (palm up), pull it just out of the water, keeping your fingertips close to the surface. (picture 2).
Step 3: Extend it back to where your left hand was at the start of the step, submerging the hand as it reaches the peak of the stroke. It should now be next to your right hand.
Step 4: repeat steps 1-3 with your right hand.

Once you feel comfortable with this alternating stroke, try to tighten things up a little bit. While you start to extend your left hand as described in step 3, begin your steps for your right hand. And as you start to extend your right hand as described in step 3, begin your steps for your left hand.

Comments

[poletovision]

Actually, you don't want your arms to be completely opposite each other. In fact, in the competitive swimming community, the term "He/She swims like a windmill" is generally a criticism, rather than a compliment. A more widely accepted, and easier technique is to rather have at least one arm in the forward position for most of the time. A common drill for this, called the "Catch-Up Drill," entails being in the water in a swimming position, with both arms forward and kicking. One arm is then pulled down as one would normally take a stroke, and a full recovery is performed, with the other arm leading the whole time. Once the arm returns, one pulls with the other arm, and recovers it. Upon recovery, the alternate arm is pulled, and so on. Doing this drill will reinforce the technique mentioned above. Of course, when swimming full stroke, it should not be as exaggerated, but remember to keep in mind that one arm should generally be leading. I cannot remember the specifics of why this is better than "windmill" swimming, but it is all I have ever heard from my high school swim coach and college swim coach. I imagine it has something to do with shifting your center of gravity farther forward, as well as helping to break the water in front of you; imagine what is faster in the water, a "streamline" position with both arms sandwiching the head and coming together at the hands, or a head-lead position. Hope this helps