Most young swimmers don’t get slower because they aren’t working hard enough — they get slower because a small technique leak is quietly adding drag or wasting energy every single stroke. A high head, a crossed-over hand entry, or a kick that comes from the knee instead of the hip can cost tenths of a second per lap without ever showing up as an obvious flaw on deck.
This guide breaks down six of the most common freestyle technique errors in youth competitive swimmers, the specific drill coaches use to fix each one, how to spot the flaw from the pool deck before it shows up in a race, and a full breathing progression — from a child’s first bilateral breathing attempts to a race-ready rhythm — so kids stop gasping for air and start using it efficiently. Work through the fixes in order during warm-up or technique sets, and layer in one at a time rather than trying to rebuild the whole stroke at once.
Quick Answer
The fastest technique gains for young freestylers come from six fixes tackled one at a time — head/body position, a high-elbow catch, clean hand entry and catch-up timing, body rotation, a hip-driven kick, and a full pull finish — each paired with a specific drill. Layer in a gradual bilateral breathing progression on top, and run two to three short technique sessions a week so the fixes hold up under race-pace effort.
6 Technique Fixes That Make Freestyle Faster
1. Fix head position first. Swimming with the head up is the single most common flaw at any age, and it drops the hips and legs, adding drag for the whole length of the pool. The fix: eyes should look down and slightly forward, with the waterline hitting around the crown of the head, not the chin. A kickboard set with ‘look at the bottom’ cues, or simply counting tiles on the pool floor, retrains this fast.
2. Build a high-elbow catch instead of a straight-arm pull. Many kids drop their elbow on entry and pull straight back with a stiff arm, which slips water instead of holding it. The fix is an early vertical forearm: after the hand enters, the elbow stays higher than the hand as the forearm rotates down and back, so the swimmer presses water toward the feet rather than just pushing it down. Closed-fist freestyle is the classic drill — swimming with fists instead of open hands forces the forearm and elbow to do the catching, and swimmers feel the difference immediately when they open their hands again. Slow sculling drills with the hands just under the surface build the same feel at an even more deliberate pace.
3. Clean up hand entry and catch-up timing. The hand should enter fingertips-first, with the palm angled slightly outward before it rotates into the catch, and it should enter roughly in line with the shoulder — not crossing the body’s centerline, which causes a snaking, zig-zag path through the water. The catch-up drill builds this directly: one arm stays extended out front while the other completes a full stroke cycle and ‘catches up’ to touch it before the next stroke starts, slowing things down enough for a young swimmer to actually feel a clean entry and full extension.
4. Add body rotation so the stroke comes from the core, not just the shoulder. Swimmers who stay flat on their stomach can only reach and pull with the arm; rotating the hips and shoulders together (roughly 30-45 degrees each way) adds reach, engages bigger muscles, and helps the recovery arm clear the water. The side-kick drill — kicking on one side with the bottom arm extended and the top arm resting on the hip, then rotating every six kicks — teaches the body to rotate as a unit instead of twisting just the shoulders.
5. Kick from the hip, not the knee. A common youth error is a big, bent-knee ‘bicycle kick’ that creates drag and burns energy without adding much propulsion. The fix is a narrower, faster flutter kick that starts at the hip with a relatively straight leg and a relaxed ankle. Streamline kicking on the stomach and on the back, off every wall push-off, reinforces both the tight kick and a strong core-driven body position at once.
6. Finish the pull past the hip. Many young swimmers stop pulling too early, near the belly button, which cuts the most powerful part of the stroke short. Coaches often cue swimmers to ‘flick water at your thigh’ at the end of the pull, or use a stroke-count drill — counting strokes across the pool and trying to hold or lower that count at the same speed — to reward a longer, complete finish instead of a short, choppy one.
Breathing Guide: From First Bilateral Attempts to Race-Ready Rhythm
Breathing is where most of the air a young swimmer wastes actually goes, and it’s rarely fixed by just telling a kid to ‘breathe more.’ Build it in stages the same way you’d build any other skill, rather than expecting a child who just learned to swim freestyle to breathe bilaterally on command. Start on dry-side basics if needed — bubble-blowing with the face in the water, then full submersion with goggles — before ever asking for a breath mid-stroke, since a swimmer who’s still tense about getting water on their face will lift the head to breathe no matter what drill you run.
Once a swimmer is comfortable breathing to one side, introduce the other side separately rather than alternating right away: swim one length breathing only left, the next only right, with no focus on speed at all. This is the step most youth programs skip, and it’s why so many swimmers end up with a lopsided stroke — one side rotates and extends well, the other collapses because it’s never been trained to breathe.
Next comes the side-kick breathing drill described above, which pairs naturally with bilateral work because the swimmer is already rotated onto one side with a clear, unhurried window to breathe. From there, move to every-third-stroke breathing (left-right-breathe, left-right-breathe) during easy aerobic swimming, where the goal is rhythm, not speed. Only after that rhythm feels automatic should a swimmer start mixing in race-pace sets with bilateral breathing, since fatigue is exactly when kids revert to lifting the head or breathing only to their stronger side.
The payoff is worth the patience: bilateral breathing keeps the stroke symmetrical on both sides, lets a swimmer check their position relative to the wall or another lane regardless of which side they turn to, and gives races a built-in option — breathing away from a splashing competitor or a strong crosswind — that one-sided breathers simply don’t have. Common mistakes to watch for during this progression are holding the breath too long and then gasping, turning the whole head upward instead of rotating with the body’s roll, and breathing late so the mouth clears the water just as the recovery arm is already coming over.
How to Spot Each Flaw From the Pool Deck
Parents and assistant coaches don’t need underwater footage to catch most of these flaws — the surface signs are visible if you know where to look. A high head shows up as a visible wake breaking around the chin instead of the crown of the head, with hips or feet riding low or kicking a spray of bubbles into the air. A dropped elbow looks like the hand pulling straight down and back with almost no bend, often paired with a short, choppy stroke because the swimmer can’t hold water long enough to finish the pull. Crossover entries are easy to see from behind: the hand lands near the opposite shoulder or centerline instead of extending straight out from that same-side shoulder.
Flat swimming (no rotation) looks like a swimmer whose head barely moves side to side and whose recovery arm drags or scrapes the water on the way forward. An over-bent-knee kick creates a visible splash and a bicycling motion at the surface rather than a tight, narrow flutter just below it. For breathing specifically, watch for a head that lifts straight up rather than rotating with the body, or a swimmer who only ever turns to one side — both are easy to spot in ten to fifteen seconds of watching from the end of the lane, no camera required.
How Often to Drill These Fixes
These six fixes and the breathing progression work best as short, frequent exposure rather than one long overhaul session. Most youth programs build technique work into warm-up and the start of practice, when swimmers are fresh enough to actually change movement patterns instead of just repeating tired habits. Two to three sessions a week of 15-20 minutes each, focused on one or two fixes at a time, produces more lasting change than an occasional hour-long technique overhaul — the nervous system needs repeated, correct reps more than it needs volume.
Keep drill sets short per repeat — about 25 to 50 yards at a time, repeated three or four times, then combined with two or three other drills before swimming full freestyle to blend the fix back into real stroke speed. Revisit the same drills across multiple weeks rather than moving on once a swimmer ‘gets it’ once; these patterns slip under fatigue and race pressure long before they’re fully automatic.
Freestyle Swim Drills for Kids FAQs
What is the most common freestyle mistake in youth swimmers?
A high head position is the single most common flaw at any age. It drops the hips and legs, adding drag for the whole length of the pool, and is usually the first thing coaches correct before working on arm or kick technique.
How do I teach my child to breathe on both sides in freestyle (bilateral breathing)?
Build it in stages: make sure face-in-water comfort is solid first, then practice breathing to each side separately (one length left, one length right) before combining them, add the side-kick breathing drill, progress to every-third-stroke breathing during easy swimming, and only then bring bilateral breathing into race-pace sets.
What is the catch-up drill in swimming?
It’s a freestyle drill where one arm stays extended out front while the other completes a full stroke cycle and ‘catches up’ to touch it before starting the next stroke. Slowing the stroke down this way helps swimmers feel a clean hand entry and a full arm extension instead of rushing the recovery.
How many times a week should kids practice freestyle technique drills?
Two to three short sessions a week of about 15-20 minutes, done early in practice while swimmers are fresh, tends to produce more lasting change than a single long technique session. Focus each session on just one or two fixes rather than trying to correct everything at once.
Why does my child’s kick create so much splash?
A big splash usually means the kick is coming from a bent knee (‘bicycle kick’) instead of the hip. The fix is a narrower, faster flutter kick with a relatively straight leg and relaxed ankle, which can be reinforced with streamline kicking off every wall push-off.
At what age should swimmers start learning bilateral breathing?
There’s no fixed age — it depends on comfort with the water and basic one-sided breathing, not years. Most coaches introduce it once a swimmer can already breathe comfortably and consistently to one side during continuous freestyle, which for many youth swimmers lands somewhere in the 8-10 age range but varies widely by individual progress.
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