Stroke Mechanics There is millions of dollars spent every year in the pursuit of speed. When it comes to moving through the water we want to reduce our drag through it. This can be done in a variety of ways that I will talk about below.
Balance and Posture Think of your body as a flutter board. With the board horizontal on the water it moves with ease. The more you move the board to vertical the more drag it creates and the harder it is tp move through the water. This is why we need to keep our body horizontal in the water. How hard this is to do depends on wether you are a sinker or a floater. Usually we are some were in between, I am a sinker. The first thing that you should do is get someone to watch your swim and see what your body position is like. More often then not you will not be horizontal. To fix this think of trying to hold a ball underwater. This takes some effort balls are boyant. It just so happens you have two balls in your chest, your lungs. By lowering your chin to your chest and pushing your chest farther underwater, your legs will rise closer to the surface. Now you will move easier through the water.
Arm Motion The arm motion is broken down into the entry, catch, pull and recovery. When your arm enters the water it is very important that your elbow is higher than the wrist, and your wrist is higher than your hand. The hand should enter the water in line with the shoulder slightly infront of your head. Don't catch the water here though this is when you want to reach forward as far as possible. When you have reached as far as you cancatch the water with your hand and forearm. Keeping the elbow higher than your wrist underwater as well enables you to engage your shoulder strength. Your hand and forearm should anchore in the water and you then just have to move your body past them. In the recovery portion keeping your elbows high is critical yet again. Your elbows should be making a circular motion both above and below the water, like the pedals on a bike. You should also be relaxed and swing your elbow forward out of the water. Using momentum to reach as far as possible.
Body Roll Your body should roll to one side than the other. Make sure that your hips and shoulders move as one not independantly. We want to do this because it is more streamline. Also because when we rotate we can reach a little bit farther with each stroke. This helps us maximize our stroke efficency.
Kick The kick is a very critical part when it comes to body position in the water. The amount you have to kick depends on if you are a sinker or a floater. Tinker around with how much you have to kick to keep you body in the horizontal position. Key things about kicking are keep your kicks short and compact never outside of the shadow of your body. It realy helps to have flexibale ankles which as a general rule unless you come from a swimming background you probaly don't have them. Swimming with fins will help develop some flexability.
Breathing Breathing on one side or two. Two or bilateral breathing is definatly the best way but not essential. As an adult this can be very hard and time consuming to learn. Either way that you breath keep your head down and roll your head out of the water. This will keep your body in the best streamline position. Sight breathing is when you are swimming in open water and need to see where you are going. You just lift your head up out of the water. This will increase your drag and slow you down. So experiment with how often you have to look up in order to stay on course in your training swims.
Getting Faster Speed is simpleV(velocity) = SL(stroke length) X SR(stroke rate). Stroke length is usually the key here. Counting your stroke while swimming is the best way to icrease your SL. Lowering your stroke rate while maintaining your speed is key. To accomplish this you could pull harder, but remember you can only pull so hard before you start creating drag. You also could stay in perfect balance between strokes. Travel quietly down the pool. Unnessessary movement cause turbulance.
Stroke Drills Side kick Wile on your side extend your lower arm forward and place your ear to your shoulder. Looking across the water just kick down the length of the pool. Alternate to the other side aftereach length. If you have problem moving forward use fins. Six kick and roll Do the side kick for six kicks than take a freestyle stroke and roll to the other side. Repeat down the length of the pool. This promotes the sifting of weight from one side to the other. Fingertip drag While swimming freestyle drag your fingertips across the surface of the water during the recovery portion. This will help keep the elbows high and a relaxed arm recovery.
These are just a few examples if you have a favorite that you would like to share let me know.