Swimming Techniques

Front crawl: learn the basic method

In this video, you're going to learn the basic front crawl method. It is a stroke which allows you to work on strengthening the arm muscles. Once the method is understood, you will be able to improve each individual movement.

We're going to show you the arm movements for front crawl, the breathing technique and the kicking motions.

Firstly, the arm movements

Push your first arm under the water towards your back then lift your arm and extend it in front of you above the surface

Your arms are always doing the opposite movement to one another. Bring your first arm to the front and at the same time push your second arm towards the back.

Secondly, the breathing. In order to breathe, turn your head to the side of the arm which is under the water

Then put your head back under the water when your arm moves back into the forward position

If you are a beginner, breathe every other arm movement, which means that you always breathe on the same side

Thirdly, the kicking motions

Throughout the whole stroke, make kicking motions with the legs in order to keep your body at the surface of the water and to remain as horizontal as possible.

The motions involve kicking through the water regularly one leg after the other.

You now know the basic front crawl moves. In order to continue work on these methods, you can watch our videos for improving the arm strokes, the breathing, the kicking motions and learning how to do a tumble turn.