How to Swim the Sidestroke

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Phillip Toriello, and this is how to do the sidestroke. The sidestroke is a wonderful stroke for those who want to swim through the water with ease, and keep their head up the whole time. It's also an excellent stroke for lifesaving skills if towing someone in a cross-chest carry through the water. You'll be able to place the person on your hips, and keep their head above water; resting on your shoulder. Now, to do the sidestroke what you're going to be using is a scissor kick, where you'll have your low lower hip towards the bottom of the pool, and you'll have your other hip up towards the top. It'll just be a scissor motion like so, so you'll bring your legs up and slice through the water. The other aspect of it is the arm motion, which a lot of people kind of get messed up. But if you think about it as picking an apple out of a tree, putting it into your other hand, and putting it into a basket as you're doing your kick it'll come quite naturally. If you watch videos you'll notice people just gliding through the water. What they'll be doing is keeping their heads looking towards their hips so they can kind of maintain their balance through the water. To learn more about sidestroke please contact your local swimming expert."