How to Pull the Body in Freestyle Swimming

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By Patty Oh
eHow Contributing Writer

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(2 Ratings)

When swimming freestyle, one of the most important things that your arms do is to pull your body through the water. Find out the correct posture for your arms to maximize your pull when doing freestyle.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Pool

Step 1

Many people who swim freestyle forget how important their hands are in achieving their strongest stroke. Instead of having the hands open, the fingers should be held tightly together. This will prevent water from going through the fingers and make the hand act more like a single unit. Hold your thumb right next to your finger too. Pretend that your thumb and all of your fingers are all one unit and that you can't move one finger without moving any of them.
Step 2

Bend your fingers and thumb inward, forming a cup that can grasp water.
Step 3

As you propel your arms through the water, keep your hands in a cupped position. You'll feel the pressure of the water as you use your arms and hands to pull your body through the water. When your hands are cupped, you'll feel the water being displaced as you swim.

Tips & Warnings

When you're swimming, any movement in your hand should be done at the wrist. Everything from the wrist down should operate as if it were one unit, moving together at all times.
If you feel water going through your fingers, hold them closer together. The object is to prevent the water from going through any of your fingers, individually. This will give you the most forward momentum.
The freestyle stroke is often called front crawl.

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