Sinking When Swimming Front Crawl

I find myself sinking when swimming front crawl. I'm able to float and also, with push glide and leg action alone, manage some decent distance. But the moment I start the arm action for front crawl, invariably the legs sink, and I come to a stop. What is going wrong? How do I overcome this?

The problem with your front crawl could be down to a number of different reasons or a combination of them.

If you are achieving some distance from a push and glide and kicking, then your body position must be correct, and you must be fairly efficient through the water in that position. Therefore we can deduce from this that your body position and efficiency are being compromised when you introduce an arm action into your movement.

The most common reason for this is excessive movement of the head and sometimes shoulders. This compromises overall efficiency and will then cause the legs to slow and sink.

To combat this, you could try a ‘catch up’ exercise, either holding a kick-board or with your hands together, whereby you hold your hands or the kick-board out in front of you and begin your push and glide and kicking action.

You then begin to pull with one arm at a time, holding the kick-board or joining hands between arm pulls, where one arm is not allowed to pull until the other has caught up, hence the term ‘catch up’.

This will force you to use your arms but keep your head and shoulders still and therefore maintain correct body position and hopefully stay afloat!

Another possible reason for your legs sinking is your front crawl timing and coordination. You are kicking quite happily and fairly quickly, maybe and then the instant you introduce the arm action, your legs kick slower and at the same pace as your arm pulls.

In other words, you switch from a possible 4-beat cycle to a 1-beat cycle the moment you begin pulling with your arms. This could be purely down to your coordination and your ability (or lack of) to kick your legs quicker whilst using your arms slowly.

The above-described catch-up exercise will help with this too.

My ebook How To Swim Front Crawl contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of front crawl swimming technique. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

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Incorrect Front Crawl Body Position

At 72, I learnt to swim last year, and I am delighted. However, I have a problem incorrect front crawl body position. Apparently my legs drop down in the water behind me and try as I might I cannot keep a level profile. Have you any tips to correct this?

Congratulations on learning to swim, and thank you for being one of those people who prove that age has nothing to do with swimming. Anyone can do it!

As far as your front crawl body position goes, the problem usually has to do with the position of your head, either during your stroke cycles or when you breathe.

Think of your body a little like a see-saw. As your head rises, your legs will drop, and as your head lowers, your legs will rise. Not quite as obviously as a see-saw because only a slight raise of the head can cause a dramatic sinking of the legs in some people.

Your forehead should be in-line with the water surface, and you should be looking down and slightly forwards. Your head should remain still as your arms pull and recover and only move when you need to breathe.

As you turn your head to breathe, your head should roll to the side as you look almost at your shoulder. Your head should then roll back down and remain still again.

The most common mistake is after the breath has been taken, swimmers tend to lift the head and look forwards just before the face is placed back into the water. As a result, the legs begin to sink.

Front crawl leg kick must also be a relaxed and loose technique. The kick should be from the hip with a slight knee bend and a loose ankle joint. The downbeat of the kick provides the propulsion as the foot acts like a flipper and the heel and toes should just about break the surface of the water. 

How To Teach Push and Glide

How can I teach gliding to an 8-year-old girl afraid to push off from the wall or bottom in shallow water? She won't extend her legs to lay out in the water to float for the glide?

Thanks for getting in touch. I had the exact same problem only a few weeks ago. A young lad I was teaching was too afraid to push from the side and glide.

The bottom line is that they have no confidence in floating and therefore think they will sink like a stone. Even if they can swim a little, they think they remain at the surface because they are using their arms and legs for swimming (which is partly true); therefore, the thought of moving through the water without using their arms and legs is a very scary one.

To overcome this, she first needs to know that she can float without moving anywhere. The ‘star float’ is usually the best one. Arms and legs wide in the shape of a star, breath held and face down. Give her some support by holding her hands or arms if she is still scared, then gradually let go a few times until she is confident to float there face down for 5 seconds or more.

Then perform it again, but as she is holding her breath face down, gently pull her along, very slowly, so she can experience how it feels to be floating but moving through the water. Pull her gently and let go so she floats along without your support.

As she becomes more confident, you can progress to a long stretched-out body shape, as you would for a glide and then help her to float along, slowly at first. This might take some practice to gain her confidence because the long body shape is less stable than the star shape.

As confidence grows, she should be more inclined to perform this herself from the poolside, maybe with you supporting her at first.

You might be able to get through these stages in one lesson, or it might take a few lessons. It just depends on her level of confidence as you go along.

I hope this helps, and I wish you every success.

Fix My Front Crawl Technique

I need some tips on how to fix my front crawl technique. My hips sway back and forth while I swim front crawl. How can I fix this?

There are two possible mistakes with front crawl technique that could cause your hips to sway.

Firstly your arm pulls could be too wide.

As your arm and hand pulls through the water, it must move down your side, slightly under your body and towards your hip. It should then recover over the surface and enter the water roughly in line with your shoulder.

If the arm pull is wide of your line of movement, it will disturb your body position by causing your hips to sway.

Imagine rowing a boat with one ore at a time. The wide sweep of the ore will cause the boat to change direction, and the opposite ore will cause the opposite direction. The result is the boat moves in a zigzag path through the water.

The same happens to your body if you pull too wide with your arms.

The second possible reason for swaying hips is excessive movement of the head.

Your body must move through the water in the most horizontal straight line possible. This gives front crawl its efficiency and is what makes it the fastest swimming stroke.

You need to move your head to take a breath, but this should be a clean roll to the side while the arm is back and down to its central position again.

Only when you need to breathe does your head move. The rest of the time, it should remain central and still with eyes looking down and slightly forward.

If your head rolls excessively or moves from side to side in rhythm with your arms, it will cause your body to snake through the water instead of swimming in an efficient straight line.

My best-selling book 'How To Swim Front Crawl' contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of front crawl, including body position and arm technique. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

How To Swim Front Crawl - The Ebook

My very popular eBook How To Swim Front Crawl contains 22 separate exercises to help all aspects of the swimming stroke, including body position, leg kick and breathing. You can download it instantly, print out the exercises you need and take them to the pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

How To Swim Front Crawl

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