Lateral alignment in freestyle. A visual 🧵.

1. Swimming STRAIGHT is critical for swimming FAST in freestyle.

Simple, not easy.

Cont.

2. Swimming straight keeps drag low.

Side-to-side motion exposes swimmers’ torso to a lot more drag.

More drag means less speed for a lot more speed.

Cont.

3. It’s not just a drag issue.

It’s a propulsion issue as well.

If swimmers are moving side-to-side, it’s a lot harder to get the arms in position to effectively create propulsion.

Less propulsion less speed.

Straight swimming is fast swimming.

Swimmers have to maximize propulsion underwater to create speed underwater, and a huge part of creating propulsion is kicking with a full range of motion.

That allows them to move as much water as possible.

To do that, they need to kick through the center line with the feet finishing well in front of the hips.

Check out these two swimmers:

Pay attention to how far the feet end up in front of the hips.

Can you see how they kick all the way through the center line?

While they use different ranges of motion, both are kicking big with the feet ending up well in front of the body.

But kicking big isn’t enough.

The kick has to be fast, too, and it’s the combination of both skills that’s most challenging.

By helping swimmers learn to kick big and kick fast, it’s possible to help them create a ton of speed underwater.

Follow @andrewksheaff for more on the key skills in swimming, and how to improve them.