Frontal Crawl

Frontal crawl

The front crawl, or forward crawl, is a swimming style usually regarded as the fastest of all the styles developed. It is one of two long axis strokes, the other beingthe backstroke. Unlike the backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke, the front crawl is not regulated by FINA, but it is nearly universally swum in freestyle competitions. This style is sometimes referred to asthe Australian crawl or the American crawl, although these are, in fact, more specific variants, both of which qualify as front crawl strokes.[1]This style is also sometimes called freestyle although it istechnically only one of the freestyle strokes.
-------------------------------------------------
Technique
The first position for front crawl or Freestyle is the streamline position, that is tostay on the stomach with both arms stretched out to the front and both legs extended to the back.
Arm movement
The arm movement alternates from side to side. In other words, while one arm ispulling/pushing, the other arm is recovering. The arm strokes also provide most of the forward movement. The move can be separated into three parts: the pull, the push, and the recovery.
From the initialposition, the arm sinks slightly lower and the palm of the hand turns 45 degrees with the thumb side of the palm towards the bottom. This is called catching the water and prepares for the pull. The pullmovement follows a semicircle, with the elbow higher than the hand, and the hand pointing towards the body center and downward. The semicircle ends in front of the chest at the beginning of the ribcage.The push pushes the palm backward through the water underneath the body at the beginning and at the side of the body at the end of the push.
Leg movement
The leg movement in freestyle is calledthe flutter kick. The legs move alternately, with one leg kicking downward while the other leg moves upward. While the legs provide only a small part of the overall speed, they are important to...