Swimming Freestyle

The body roll is how you rotate the shoulders, torso, hips and legs around the long axis of the body.

It is rare to see too much but very common to see too little. 

Notice that the head is specifically excluded from the definition of body roll. The head should remain stationary and not roll with the body unless you are breathing.

In my opinion, body roll is the single most important aspect of the freestyle stroke.

From the novice to the veteran swimmer, one of the most frequent problems I see in the pool is the over-reliance on using the shoulders muscles to power through the pool.

There is no downplaying the importance of the role shoulders have in swimming freestyle, but it is critical to emphasize that swimming is a whole-body exercise and should be trained as such. The easiest and most effective way to ensure you are not relying purely on your shoulders during freestyle is to incorporate a well-timed body roll. 

A proper body roll will feature two main components, the use of the core to maintain body position through the rotation (body roll), and the timing of the rotation between the arm strokes and the breathing.

Without this rotation too much load is placed on the shoulders making them tire out, making them more susceptible to injury down the line.

To properly use the body roll in freestyle you need to make sure to swim in a controlled and smooth rhythm while breathing to both sides. Single-sided breathing and a rushed rhythm can cause an unbalanced body rollover time.

Potential Benefits

How to perform a body roll:

Learn to the body roll while keeping your head stationary you can practice this both on your stomach or back. (Keep the arms by your side and head still 5 or 10 kick on each side, smooth controlled rotation)

Reach for the wall – After your hand enters the water, reach for the far wall, stretching your hand as far forward as you can. This will promote rolling into the stroke, thereby enhancing your body roll

Drills:

"Push off the wall as normal, then pull through so that one arm is relaxed against your side. Leave the other one out in front of you as you take six kicks (three with each leg) balanced on your side, so your tummy button is pointing at the wall, not the floor of the pool. Your face should be looking down at the bottom of the pool, but your tummy pointing at the wall.

After six kicks, perform three strokes (and breathe while you are doing them!) so that you end up balanced on your other side, tummy button pointing at the other wall, face looking at the floor of the pool.

The key to this drill is to feel as though you are trying to balance on your armpit – you’ll need to consciously ‘press down’ that armpit into the water.

Kicking should be light and relaxed. Fins will really help you keep momentum."

A slightly easier version of the drill is 6,3,6 where you take 3 strokes instead of 1 so you are less reliant on the momentum created by your kick.

"Swim with one arm by your side, but again, the key is that the shoulder of the non-moving arm should break the surface every third stroke.

The best way to swim the Waltz drill progression is to swim 25m of 0-arms, 25m left arm, 25m right arm, and 25m of full stroke. Then repeat!"

 

Focus on getting into a rhythm and rotating smoothly. 

General Tips:

These are very famous freestyle swimming drills. There will be a variety of videos online to show you visually what I am talking about here. If you are struggling with the application of these drills please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

To reference the descriptions provided click here. 

 

When you develop a good body roll a couple of things will happen:

For more information on improving your body roll as you swim, contact Lead Swim Coach Clement Dulac at cdulac@houstonian.com.