Are You Swimming Freestyle The Wrong Way? Fix These 4 Mistakes Now To Swim Faster

So you're told to rotate. You rotate a lot. And somehow you feel slower, wobblier, and way more out of control. And let me tell you. That's not fitness. It's overrotation. In this video, you'll learn 4 overrotation mistakes wrecking your freestyle. And a precise remedy for every single one. Hey, this is Alex Koch. I swam at the Olympics years ago. I've spent 10 years coaching swimmers through this. Mistake 3. Most swimmers feel off-balance on every single stroke, and nobody catches it on their own. By the end, you'll swim smooth, controlled rotation, clean lines, less drag, and actually moving forward. Now, quick one. For personal stroke feedback, join my Ocean Swim School. Link in description, free to start. Now, mistake 1. Mistake 1, your body rolls too far. Watch me overrotate each stroke. I tilt sideways, nearly flat on my back, and almost look at the sky or ceiling. Hips swing wide. The arm goes past the midline rather than driving forward. I move sideways. Because the cue everyone hears is, rotate from the hips. And I'm not saying it's bad, it's actually a great cue. But no one says how much, or at least not specifically. As a result, swimmers equate extra rotation with extra power. Makes sense, doesn't it? Wrong. It's like trying to sprint by swinging your arms across your body as much as possible. What happens? You'll wobble side to side, and you'll actually lose speed. The stroke remains unchanged. Your aim is a 45-degree angle, nothing else. Neither 60 nor 90, just 45 degrees. Roll only as far as needed to cut through the water, without ending up looking up at the ceiling. Now let's rehearse this on dry land first. So get up, keep your arms at your sides, and lean your entire body a bit to one side. Now, picture your face resting at 12 o'clock. Now you go from 12 o'clock to about 10 or 2, and that's it. Now if you go past 9 or 3, you're going way too far. So now, do you feel you're still mostly pointed forward? That's exactly the spot you're after in the pool. Just keep it horizontal, obviously. Once you're in the water, swim a length and tally how often you go past your 45-degree mark. And one cue that might help, rotate to slice, not to roll over. The first time most people here try this drill, they cut 3 to 4 strokes off each length. A smaller roll turns out to be the more efficient option in this situation. So if that already felt great, just wait and see what occurs the moment you turn. There's zero power behind it. Second mistake, your body turns from the wrong spot. So now it's turning all of this into way more work than necessary. And this is how it really appears. As the arm clears the surface, the entire torso initiates the rotation. Shoulders lead, hips follow late, or don't follow at all. It comes off as jerky, almost robotic. Like your upper and lower body are two different swimmers. And it makes sense you're using your shoulders, because that's where you're really pulling now. Your arm exits, then your shoulder lifts, and that lift feels like it looks like a rotation, but it isn't. And that's basically just your shoulder going up. Now, picture it as somewhat similar to boxing. So you want to land an actual punch. A bad punch comes from the arm, but a good punch starts from the hip. And the hips lead the rotation, with the rest following. The same applies to swimming. Basically, the whole body roll has to start at your hips, then drop that hip. That's what initiates the turn. The shoulder merely comes along. So lead with the hip, then draw the shoulder in. In that sequence each time. Let's rehearse on dry land. Keep your arm just a bit out ahead, as if gripping a steering wheel. Now, keep your shoulders still. In any way, rotate your pelvis toward a side. Right now, can you sense what your shoulders finally do? They copy the move, but never initiate it. So now you get the lag, the order, hips leading the shoulders. That's the real skill you're aiming to develop. During the pull, attempt single arm freestyle with. Keep the kickboard in your opposite hand. Now, pay attention only to the point where the body roll begins. It begins. Keep it by your hip on each arm pull. Next, swim 4 x 25s with your mind on only that. Undrilling that now. At the moment, in the 45-49 masters category. After we sort this out, the pace she averages. That's 4 seconds faster per 100 meters after only a handful of sessions, not because fitness changed. But simply because of the roll and its starting point. And at this point, if you're also aiming to overhaul your stroke. To go deeper, grab my full guide from the description underneath. Let's proceed to error 3. The roll onto your breathing side is actually. Wreck the remainder of your stroke. Each breath you take. Here is one example. Those swimmers. Tries to inhale, yet lacks sufficient body roll to free the mouth. Then they turn all the way. Like that. The head rises sharply, at moments the entire face exits the water. Then what occurred? Is that your torso tilts, pelvis lowers, leg descends, and so forth. That single breath in fact. It robs them of 3 strokes worth of momentum. Now, this is basically like reversing your car. Instead of actually. Glancing into the mirrors, you rotate your full body while trying to reverse. Rather than just visually checking the mirror, the details you were after. It was possible with a tiny motion instead of a massive one. In short, leave one goggle underwater and the other above the surface. And that is the. The rule for breathing. Now just be sure to roll far enough that half your face breaks the surface. Your mouth gets air and your other eye stays underwater. You never have to stare at the ceiling or the sky above the pool just to take a breath. Before anything else, let's give it a shot online. So get up and tip your head to one side. Here, try to feel like you're resting your ear on your shoulder. Now angle yourself a touch more until your lips sit above the imagined water level. That right there is the motion. Not a complete body roll, just a slight, controlled tilt. Once in the pool, do a one-arm drill, keeping your non-breathing arm at your side. On every second stroke, breathe once. Keep one goggle underwater and the other above the surface. For 4x25s, take a breath on every stroke to that side. Make this single correction, and you'll often hear swimmers say a certain phrase. The water calms me, and I'm beginning to ask myself why. Now, once that panic breath is gone, most swimmers need 20-30% fewer strokes per length. Alright, the previous issue concerned turning too far while inhaling, but this final flaw is about timing your turn incorrectly. So, mistake 4, you're rotating at the wrong time. The motion itself feels right, the rhythm is off. Certain athletes start to roll before they've locked in the catch, already opening up as the hand is still going into the water. Others rotate too late, they finish the pull flat and even try to rotate after. Either way, the rotation does no work. It happens near the stroke, but isn't connected to it. So no one really teaches the timing. You pick up rotate and then pull as two distinct commands. So swimmers do them separately, when they should do one. Everything moves in unison. The rotation and pull happen together. So during the pull, right as your hand goes past your shoulder, that is the exact moment your hips drop. Not before, not after, at that moment, pull and rotate as one unit. The fix starts on land. Lie face down on the mat, one arm extended forward. As you pull that arm past your shoulder, let the hip drop toward the floor at the same time. Feel how those movements reinforce each other? This coordination is precisely the skill you aim to develop. In the pull, swim much slower than you think you need to. With each stroke, check, when does the catch begin, and when does the hip drop? If you can answer that in real time while swimming, you've got it. Swim 6-25s with control. Now, once they actually correct the timing, most swimmers shave roughly 2-3 seconds off every 25 meters. Instantly. Not through conditioning, only the water, the body turn, and elastic came together. As one connected unit. Now, I make these videos because some of you ask me this kind. Of question. And these are common issues some of you face. Now I'll share a few of them with you. Alex, I'm working to keep a 45-degree angle, yet I have no sense of my position, what are you after in this spot? Is to film yourself from the side, your phone does the job. One session of video footage will tell you more than 10 sessions of coaching. The side I breathe on feels totally different from the side I don't. And take it from me, this is totally ordinary. So to correct this, you must train your less dominant side on A. Ever since I sorted out my rotation, my catch hasn't felt right. Now, nice observation, those are genuinely linked. So any change in your body roll also alters your entry angle. Plan on roughly 2-3 sessions before it truly recalibrates. Give it about 2-3 sessions to actually recalibrate. Even with a smaller head turn, my hips still sink each time I breathe. Now, basically, you need to check your kick, because. As you turn to breathe, an ineffective kick lets the hips drop. Simply put, don't stop moving during the entire breath. I can do it on solid ground, but once I'm in the water, it's gone. You need to slow down, weigh down, speed, height, some of the mistakes. Now, here's what changes if you clean this up. Your stroke grows longer, not from aiming to reach farther. But because your body feels connected. Your hips now cooperate with the water instead of resisting it. And you'll go just as far while expending considerably less energy, likely in only 2-3 weeks if you're. In the pool 2-3 times a week, 45 minute sessions minimum, with structured. Repetition, naturally. And I have witnessed this shift countless times, and. Right now, swimmers stuck at the same pace for months, sometimes. 12 months from now, if nothing shifts. Now visualize 7 days later. You shove away from the wall. Your opening pull genuinely comes across as distinct, steady, even. And yes, the body roll is present. But it's clean. You're not lurching, not taping, you're cutting through. The water. At the end of the lane, you're not gasping, you want to. Take it beyond that. A controlled 45-degree body roll accomplishes precisely this.