Teach proper freestyle with these seven beginner freestyle drills

The Red Cross swim program does a great job at teaching young swimmers how to float and general body position strategies for new swimmers, but as coaches, we need something more than floating techniques to get our swimmers to learn the proper freestyle techniques. Here are seven easy beginner freestyle drills any coach can teach new a swimmer to instantly improve technique.

1. Freestyle wall kick
2. Kickboard breathing drill
3. Diving stick catch-up
4. Six kicks – switch
5. Shark fin drill
6. One goggle breathing
7. Paddle head drill

It is important that you progress your swimmers from the first drill to the last. Developing good kick is foundational to a good stroke so that needs to be developed first. Then swimmers can progress to breathing then proper arms then full body position.

A good philosophy is to allow swimmers to work on one specific drill at a time. Children need physical representations of new things like drills so they can focus on them. If you introduce a new drill to them, try as much as possible to incorporate a physical item. You will notice that where possible, these beginner freestyle drills incorporate objects that swimmers can see or feel to help them understand what they should focus on during the drill. Additionally, don’t expect young swimmers to work on multiple drills at once because there is a lot process while swimming!

Freestyle wall kick

In order to have a good freestyle, swimmers need to have a good kick. I have a whole blog about the reasons why swimmers need a strong kick, but here are the main reasons:

1. Your legs are the strongest and largest muscle group in your body so they provide the most power.
2. A kick pushes your hips up into the proper body position using the thrust.
3. A good kick allows swimmers to rotate on the axis correctly.

For new swimmers, tossing a board to them and telling them to kick to the other side of the pool won’t work. They need something physical to visualize something new. The best way to teach kick is to have swimmers place their hands on the wall and point their toes to the other wall. Then, take a whistle and blow to have them start kicking. Tell them to make as big of a splash as they can! Depending on your true dedication level, you can even get a coach in the water and instruct your swimmers to splash the coach as much as they can. Blow the whistle to let them stop kicking. Do about 5 seconds of kick then 15 seconds of rest.

Making as big of a splash as possible is not good freestyle kick technique. Big splashes are usually the result of bent knees, which causes bad technique. But, in order to teach swimmers to be aware of their kick, it is a great place to have them start. It engages the swimmers with something they can see, the splash.

From here, progress to kick with a kick board after swimmers are comfortable with their abilities. During this transition, teach your new swimmers the importance of kicking with a stiff leg, not from the knees.

Kickboard breathing drill

Progressing from a regular kick to a full swim sounds simple but can be tricky for new swimmers. It’s vital to teach the proper technique from the start. The second most important part of a good freestyle is proper breathing.

Typically, swimmers do a big roll onto their backs to take a breath then roll back on their fronts to continue swimming. This is bad technique BUT this can be good sign. Swimmers who don’t have a strong kick usually doggy paddle and can’t float on their back easily. You’ll notice that swimmers who roll onto their backs have a consistent kick, which is a great starting point! But proper breathing involves a control roll to the side, not a roll to the sky.

To prevent this roll, give your swimmers a kickboard and have them swim, alternating which arm is holding onto the board. This will prevent them from flipping over to breathe and drastically improves body position, leading to good freestyle technique.

Diving stick catch-up

Now that swimmers have good kick and understand they can’t roll over to breathe, we must teach a good stroke catch. Without a good catch, swimmers can’t take a good breath because they will quickly sink from the way their arms are positioned. Swimmers tend to drop their arms low in the water when breathing to get a little higher in the water to help get that breath. In doing this, they begin to sink and require some extra effort to get back into the right body position, just to drop again when they take another breath.

To fix this, the best of the beginner freestyle drills is the diving stick catch-up drill. Begin by giving each swimmer a diving stick. We need actual sticks for this drill, not rings. Have your swimmers do regular freestyle while holding the stick in front of them the whole time. When the right arm pulls, the left hand will hold the stick out front. When the right arm comes around again, the left will pass it to the right while the left arm makes its’ cycle. As your swimmers become more comfortable with this drill, you can progress to a catchup drill without the diving sticks. Read more about this drill in by blog post about the best freestyle drill. Swimmers must wait to take another stroke until the leading hand is tapped by the other. Same premise but with no equipment.

This catchup drill builds the muscles needed to hold the body and the arm in the right body position throughout the stroke. Having a physical object helps children understand why they need to hold their hand out in front. It’s important to note that it will be difficult for swimmers to work on multiple drills at once. If you just were working on the kickboard breathing drill, don’t make your swimmers focus on both. Focus just on holding the opposite arm out in front to build that strength.

Six kicks – switch

Now that we understand how to move our arms, this drill teaches swimmers the timing of their breathing. Just like the name implies, you take one stroke and count six kicks before taking another. When taking the stroke, pause your arm at your side (with the other out in front), then start counting kicks. After six, swap your arms using a normal freestyle motion. Remember to keep your leading arm out in front in the same position as our catch up drill! When you need to breathe, make sure you breathe to the side who’s arm is at your side.

This drill teaches swimmers to get the proper number of kicks in before switching. Too often, it can be a battle to see just how fast they can move their arms in the water. This drill, combined with the other beginner freestyle drills mentioned, builds the proper technique by teaching when is the right time to breathe. Remind your swimmers to take their time! Use short distances with a small amount of rest instead of long distances with lots of rest. This keeps swimmers focused on the drills but not too out of breath.

Shark fin drill

The shark fin drill is one of the best beginner freestyle drills available. Commonly called the three quarters drill, the name shark fin resonates with the young swimmers much better. This drill helps progress the strength of the catch much better than catch up.

While swimming normal freestyle, pause your arm for one Mississippi at the height of the stroke. During this pause, your arm will resemble a point, like a shark fin. After the pause, continue the stroke until the next arm pauses at the top. The other arm should be held out in front like the regular catch up drill until the paused arm is resumed.

This form of pausing builds strength in the leading arm because it must now support the body and an extended arm. This whole time teaching the proper way to catch the water in front of a freestyle stroke.

One goggle breathing

Now that we have a good kick and good catch, we can now teach proper breathing. One goggle breathing is a great beginner drill. When swimmers breathe, it is important to remind them to rotate their bodies and not their heads in order to maintain correct body position. Instead, they should swim freestyle thinking of keeping their entire bodies in line with each other. Proper breathing helps maintain this body position that was developed during some of the earlier freestyle drills.

During this drill, swim freestyle normally, but when swimmers need to take a breath, they should only pop one of their goggles out of the water. This prevents over-rotation and from twisting the neck out of the correct line. As a coach, keep an eye out to make sure that swimmers are in fact only popping one goggle out during their breaths!

Paddle head drill

This drill can only be properly performed once a swimmer becomes proficient in the rest of the drills and has an understanding of a proper freestyle technique. It’s just a difficult drill to perform unless you have a good understanding of proper freestyle technique. But, once you begin this drill, swimmers will see crazy improvements.

This drill ensures that you have the correct body position: that your head is looking downward, you are breathing by rotating your body, and you are not turning your neck to breathe.

Have your swimmers push off the wall and immediately place a paddle on their heads vertically. The flat side should face the opposite wall, not the bottom. All swimmers need to do is swim normally, but without allowing the paddle to fall off their heads. This will be difficult as any major improper movement will cause the paddle to fall off. This could be not looking at the bottom of the pool, not doing proper one goggle breathing, or dropping your leading arm which causes the body to drop in the water.

It may be a little frustrating at first, but swimmers quickly come to understand what causes the paddle to fall off and quickly adapt. This is great for younger swimmers as well because they can focus on the paddle and not some arbitrary mental technique. I would not recommend doing more than a 25 for the first couple times because the paddle may fall off dozens of times during the 25. But once you nail it, swimmers can even do flip turns with the paddle on their heads and go for multiple hundreds!