Swimming Techniques: 5 Freestyle Drills To Swim Faster

If swimming is the weak link in your race, you are not alone, and you are not stuck. Most triathletes who feel slow in the water are not unfit. They are fighting the water instead of moving through it. You can log the yardage and power through sets on strength and fitness alone, but if your technique is off, your progress will stall and your splits will not budge.

Here is the good news: of the three triathlon disciplines, swimming rewards better technique more than raw effort. Small changes to your swim technique, your body position, rotation, and arm stroke can make you noticeably faster without a single extra hour of training. That is what this guide is about. Below you will learn what good freestyle technique looks like, why technique beats effort in the water, and the five essential drills that build it.

What "Freestyle Swimming" Actually Means

Before the drills, a quick definition, because the terms get used loosely. Freestyle is the fastest and most efficient of the four competitive swimming strokes (the others are backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly). In a triathlon, freestyle is the stroke nearly everyone uses for the swim leg.

You will also hear freestyle called the "front crawl." They are the same stroke. Front crawl is the technical name for the alternating-arm, flutter-kick style that most people picture when they think of swimming fast. So when this guide says freestyle, picture the front crawl: face down, arms turning over one at a time, legs kicking in a steady rhythm.

Why Technique Beats Effort In The Water

Water is roughly 800 times denser than air. That single fact explains why swimming feels so different from cycling and running. On the bike or the run, more force usually means more speed. In the pool, more force often just means more drag, more splash, and more wasted energy.

Efficient swimming is about reducing the water's resistance, not muscling past it. Learning to swim with less drag should be your first priority, ahead of getting stronger or fitter. And the difference is measurable: a swimmer with clean technique can move faster than a fitter athlete who fights the water on every stroke.

The Building Blocks Of An Efficient Freestyle Stroke

Good freestyle technique comes down to a handful of fundamentals. The drills later in this guide each train one or more of these:

• Body position. Stay long and horizontal, with your hips and legs high near the surface of the water. The flatter you are, the less drag you create. Dropping your hips is the most common reason swimmers feel like they are swimming uphill.
• Body rotation. Freestyle is swum on your sides, not flat on your stomach. Rotating from the hips with each stroke lengthens your reach, engages your stronger back and core muscles, and makes breathing easier.
• The catch. This is how your hand and forearm grip the water at the front of the stroke. A high-elbow catch, where your elbow stays higher than your hand as you pull, gives you far more propulsion than a straight, dropped-arm pull.
• The flutter kick. A steady, narrow flutter kick from the hips (not the knees) keeps your legs up and adds propulsion. Big, bent-knee kicks create drag and burn energy you will want for the bike and run.
• Breathing. Smooth, rhythmic breathing keeps your stroke relaxed and your body balanced. Rushed or panicked breathing throws off your body position and spikes your heart rate. For more on this, see IRONMAN's guide to breathing right to swim better.

If you want to go deeper on the mechanics, IRONMAN's breakdown of the 6 elements of a perfect swim stroke is the natural next read after this one.

How Swimming Drills Improve Your Technique

Knowing what good technique looks like is not enough. You have to train your body to do it without thinking, and that is exactly what drills are for. Adding drills to your swim workouts does three things:

1. They isolate one part of your stroke technique so you can focus on it without juggling the whole movement at once.
2. They build good muscle memory while breaking the bad habits that creep in when you swim on autopilot.
3. They build swim-specific strength with less fatigue than hard sets, so you can practice good form when you are fresh.

A quick word of caution: drills alone will not make you fast, and a drill done wrong can reinforce the very habit you are trying to fix. Always pair drills with full-stroke swimming, focus on quality over speed, and if you can, get a coach or a video analysis to check your form. With that in mind, here are the five drills worth your time.

The 5 Essential Freestyle Drills

These five drills build better body position, balance, rotation, and strength. You can fold them into almost any swim session. Do each one slowly and with intention. The goal is a better stroke, not a faster clock.

1. Single-Arm

What it trains: stroke mechanics, balance, and symmetry.

The single-arm drill lets you zero in on one arm at a time, so you can feel each piece of the stroke clearly: the catch, the pull, the recovery, the timing of your breath, and the kick. Working one side at a time keeps your stroke even and balanced, which matters because most swimmers favor one side without realizing it.

How to do it: Swim freestyle using one arm while the other stays extended in front of you. Take several strokes, then switch arms. If keeping your body flat is hard, hold a kickboard with your non-stroking arm for extra buoyancy. Keep a steady, narrow kick the whole time to hold your body high in the water.

Coaching cue: Focus on a high-elbow catch and a clean entry, hand entering the water out in front of your shoulder, not crossing your centerline.

2. Sidekick

What it trains: body position on your side, leg strength, and breathing balance.

A strong kick is a weapon on race day, whether you want to break from a pack, pass another athlete, or shake a swimmer drafting off your feet. Swimming is a full-body sport, and ignoring your legs leaves speed on the table. The sidekick drill also teaches the on-your-side body position that good freestyle depends on.

How to do it: Push off on your side with your bottom arm extended in front and your top arm resting along your side. Hold a steady flutter kick and rotate your head to breathe as needed. Being on your side forces you to catch water rather than air, which makes it a tougher and more useful leg workout than kicking flat with a board.

Coaching cue: Keep your head still and your bottom arm long. Lead with your hip, not your shoulder.

3. Tarzan Drill

What it trains: sighting, kick strength, and open-water readiness.

Also called the water-polo drill, the Tarzan drill is built for open-water swimming. You swim freestyle while keeping your head up and looking forward, the same motion you use to spot buoys, other swimmers, and the shoreline during a race. It strengthens your kick and the neck and back muscles you rely on to sight without losing speed.

How to do it: Swim normal freestyle but keep your head above the surface of the water, eyes forward. Because lifting your head sinks your hips, you need a fast, narrow kick to stay level. Use it only for short distances, mixed into regular freestyle sets, so you do not strain your neck.

Coaching cue: Pair short Tarzan bursts with normal swimming to practice "sight, then settle back down," exactly how you will sight in a race. For more open-water skills, see IRONMAN's 5 keys to open-water swim success.

4. Side-To-Side

What it trains: body rotation, timing, and bilateral breathing.

The side-to-side drill connects rotation, balance, and breathing into one movement. It is close to full-stroke freestyle, with a deliberate pause built in to exaggerate your rotation and force a strong kick.

How to do it: Swim freestyle, but pause at the end of each stroke and kick on your side for about two seconds before taking the next stroke. The pause makes you rotate fully from one side to the other and drive a forceful kick to keep moving. Breathe on alternating sides as you go, which builds bilateral breathing.

Coaching cue: Bilateral breathing pays off in open water. It lets you sight on both sides, avoid breathing straight into the sun or chop, and keep your stroke even.

5. Hyperkick

What it trains: kick strength, horizontal body line, and posture.

The hyperkick is a conditioning drill that reinforces a strong, flat body position. It builds the kick, the core, and the neck and posterior shoulder muscles that hold your line together when you fatigue.

How to do it: Extend both arms in front of your face with your hands locked together and your head above the surface of the water. Because your head is up, your hips will want to sink, so you have to hold a fast, narrow kick to stay horizontal. Like the Tarzan drill, keep it to short distances to protect your neck and back.

Coaching cue: Squeeze your arms against your ears and keep the kick small and quick. If your legs are sinking, speed up the tempo rather than kicking harder.

For three more freestyle drills to add variety once these feel natural, see IRONMAN's 3 swim drills you're not doing enough.

How To Work Drills Into Your Swim Sessions

Drills should support your swimming, not replace it. A good rule of thumb is to keep most of your pool time in full-stroke swimming and reserve a focused portion for drills, roughly one part drills to four parts swimming. That keeps your technique sharp without turning every session into a drill workout.

A simple way to structure it:

• Warm up with easy swimming to loosen up and prevent injury.
• Add a drill block early, while you are fresh and can hold good form. Pick one or two drills and do short repeats, such as 4 x 50, with rest between each.
• Swim your main set as normal full-stroke freestyle, carrying over the feel from the drills.
• Cool down easy.

Once your technique holds up, build the engine behind it. IRONMAN's 4 swim workouts to build endurance give you ready-made sets to slot these drills into, and if you are newer to the swim, stumped by the swim: 5 beginner basics covers the fundamentals first.

Add a demo: Drop in an IRONMAN or coach-led video demonstrating the five drills here. Seeing each drill in motion helps readers copy the form correctly. (Note for CMS team: confirm and embed an owned IRONMAN video; do not hotlink third-party content.)

Common Freestyle Mistakes To Avoid

As you practice, watch for the habits that quietly slow you down:

• Dropping your hips and legs. This is the biggest source of drag. Press your chest down slightly and keep a steady kick to lift your lower body.
• Pulling with a straight, dropped arm. A dropped elbow kills your catch. Keep your elbow high and your fingertips pointed down as you pull.
• Breathing late or lifting your head. Rolling to breathe with your rotation keeps you balanced. Lifting your head sinks your hips.
• Over-kicking from the knees. Big bent-knee kicks create drag and waste energy. Kick from the hips with a small, fast motion.
• Rushing the drills. Speed defeats the purpose. Slow down enough to feel the correct movement.

One more reason to clean up your stroke: better technique also protects your body. Crossing your arm over your centerline and over-rotating your shoulder are common causes of swimmer's shoulder. IRONMAN's guide on how to avoid swimmer's shoulder is worth a read if you train high swim volume.

Drills are not the whole picture, but they are essential. They make you more efficient, help prevent injury, and add variety so you show up on race day ready to attack the swim instead of surviving it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does freestyle mean in swimming? Freestyle is the fastest of the four competitive swimming strokes, swum face-down with arms alternating over the surface and legs doing a steady flutter kick. In a triathlon, freestyle is the stroke almost everyone uses for the swim leg.

Is freestyle the same as front crawl? Yes. Front crawl is the technical name for the stroke, and freestyle is the term used in racing. They describe the same alternating-arm, flutter-kick technique.

How do I improve my swimming technique? Focus on reducing drag before adding effort. Work on a high, horizontal body position, rotation from the hips, a high-elbow catch, a steady flutter kick, and relaxed breathing. Drills like the five in this guide train each of those pieces, and pairing them with full-stroke swimming locks in the improvement.

How often should I do swimming drills? Include a short drill block in most swim sessions rather than dedicating whole workouts to drills. Keeping roughly one part drills to four parts full-stroke swimming sharpens your technique without sacrificing fitness. Do drills early in the session while you are fresh.

Do swimming drills help with breathing? Yes. The sidekick and side-to-side drills both build comfortable, balanced breathing, including bilateral breathing (breathing on both sides), which helps you stay even in the water and sight in open water.

Will better technique actually make me faster? For most triathletes, yes, and often faster than extra fitness alone. Because water resists you so strongly, cutting drag with better form usually delivers a bigger speed gain than swimming harder with the same flawed stroke.

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Julia Galan is the founder and head coach at Swimspire, offering instructional services to swimmers of all levels and goals.