In this video lesson, Swimming Instructor Phillip Toriello teaches the freestyle stroke, which is the fastest stroke in swimming and is a five-step process that requires practice.



Video Transcript: PHILLIP TORIELLO: "Hi, this is Phillip Toriello, and this is how to swim freestyle. Swimming provides a wonderful opportunity to exercise, play and compete with the reduce level of impact on the body. Of the four front primary strokes, freestyle is the fastest. When swimming freestyle, it's very important to keep your body aligned. To do this you're going to want to keep your focused on the bottom line of the pool, keep your head down to allow your hips to float to the top, providing for a more hydro dynamic flow through the water. This will allow you to swim more smoothly and swiftly and a lot easier. The best thing to remember, as well, is when you're taking each stroke, go ahead and let your body twist or rotate while keeping your head focused on the bottom until it's time to breath. By standard, it's best to, perhaps, to breath every three strokes otherwise known as bilateral breathing. So basically, it would be one, two, three, breath, placing your ear on your shoulder and your cheek in the water. The components of your stroke include the reach, the catch, the pull, the push, and the recovery. It's a five step process, with which, if you take time will come really naturally. Just take it slow and practice often. The last portion of your free style stroke is the kick component, which can provide a lot of power or just help balance your body as you're going through the water. By principal you're going to be using pointed toes to provide a more extended flipper, if you can look at your leg that way, and straight legs. A small fast kick is better than a large wide kick, a large wide kick really does not provide that much propulsion, a small fast kick will propel you through the water helping you to keep your hips on top and get you across to the other side a lot smoother. For more questions or information please contact your local swimming expert."

1. How to Swim the Freestyle Stroke
2. How to Swim the Breaststroke
3. How to Swim the Backstroke
4. How to Practice Etiquette at Public Pools
5. How to Teach a Child to Swim
6. How to Swim Underwater
7. How to Flip-Turn When Swimming Freestyle
8. How to Flip-Turn When Swimming the Backstroke
9. How to Swim the Butterfly Stroke
10. How to Do an Eggbeater Kick
11. How to Swim Head-High Freestyle
12. How to Swim the Sidestroke
13. How to Swim the Trudgen Stroke
14. How to Turn While Swimming the Breaststroke
15. How to Survival Float
16. How to Teach a Child to Float in the Water
17. How to Teach a Child the Back Float
18. How to Teach a Child to Kick in the Water
19. How to Teach a Child Rhythmic Breathing in the Water
20. How to Teach a Child the Crawl Stroke
21. How to Teach a Child to Dive
22. How to Teach a Child to Tread Water
23. How to Prevent Swimmer's Ear
24. How to Improve Your Breaststroke Kick
25. How to Breathe While Swimming Freestyle

In this video series, Swimming Instructor Phillip Toriello gives 25 video lessons on How to Swim. Learn how to swim the breaststroke, the backstroke and freestyle. Get tips on how to do flip turns for each type of swimming stoke and find out how to do swimming kicks like the eggbeater kick. Want to get the kids involved in swimming too? Find out how to teach children to swim with tips on teaching the survival float and child diving. Swimming is a useful skill and a fun activity that provides great exercise for all.