How to Use Your Hips in Freestyle Swimming!

This is all about how to engage our hips when swimming backstroke and freestyle.
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[@trevorweir]

This is a very difficult concept to teach, Cokie, in part because of the subtle differences involved. Most swimmers can see what a serious over-rotation looks like, but its not so easy to see the correct movement when there isn't an overt over-rotation. I suggest that perhaps you stop or dramatically slow down the video and use a voice over and a yellow or red pen and mark the area where the hips are nicely aligned vs a subtle over-rotation and give us the explanation right there along with the exact visual. Thanks for taking this on. I love watching all your videos.

[@TheHumanBodyTalk]

❤❤❤

[@joejoe-lb6bw]

exactly. from my newbie perspective this was not clear. Plus the examples shown looked the same.

[@emmyin]

Yeah I couldn't understand what this was about, not letting the belly button slide but ride on the hip? Can't understand..

[@33Jenesis]

I self learned free style since last year as a newbie. I hadn’t been active since pandemic so totally out of shape. I couldn’t control my body line or movement at all; sunk legs, crossover arms, over rotate torso….. however, with more pool time, yoga, and weight train my body got better. Now I can free style with much better control than ever before. The hip moving towards reaching arm is key to keep a streamlined body and ease of breathing.

[@USMastersSwimming]

So awesome to hear. Glad our videos are helping you improve your technique!

[@dcoughman]

Great video! My coach was correcting this in my stroke but she phrased it differently. She told me that while I should be rotating from the hips, my feet should not be kicking side to side. Kicking side to side is a sign of over rotating and that is what I was doing.

[@chc9496]

Q

[@adamding3873]

Special thanks to the coach. After some practice, I realize this is a very useful tip for better swimming. By focusing on hip rotation, you can keep the hip and leg from sinking, and remain parallel to the surface. It is easy to implement and very effective.

[@Alfakkin]

when I realized how controlling my hips was essential, few years ago, everything changed for the better...nice video

[@adamding3873]

Just focus on the core. 1. taut core keeps a better streamline position, minimizes resistance. 2. core/hip rotation makes the arm pull more efficient: (1) hip rotation leaves room for the arm to pull in full length. (2) the arm can pull closer to the middle line of the body. if you pull from the side, the body spins and the energy is wasted. (3) like throwing a baseball, with the rotation your arm can swing with more power.

[@Vanfinity88]

Wow, that is a nice clean pool that I always dream of.

[@dannylad1600]

This is a great video. The overall rhythm of your swimming is governed by the timing of your hip rotation. If you get your rhythm right, everything else should follow suit.

[@peterkim7707]

This gives me aha moments about the body rotation. Thanks a lot!

[@robohippy]

First heard the 'suck in your gut like you are trying to put your belly button on your spine' tip here. Then saw it on a clip from Speedo, which may have been the original. Best tip for me to keep correct posture/body position when swimming, and keep legs from sinking. The body/hip rotation thing comes naturally to some...

[@chinhvannguyen1685]

Nice, rotate hip is same wingchun, hip is power arm - rotation hip before pull arm

[@souheil3]

You are great, that’s waht I really need to know. I will try tomorrow. The hips shouldn’t overturn. Thanks a lot

[@AngelaJonesPoetryStoriesArt]

I have no clue how I ended up at this video but watched it and found it really interesting. Giving a thumbs up and sharing on twitter

[@theraceclub]

Great Video! Thanks Cokie and I must say the Swimmer in the video was exemplary!

[@gybx4094]

Gary Hall Sr. calls it "hip driven" and it helped me use more body muscles rather than stressing the shoulder joint. (I'm older, so it was therapeutic).

[@GregStew]

Thanks very much for sharing!! This awareness has taken my freestyle to the next level!!

[@chunyuenlau56]

Difference is subtle. Can't see it that well for a beginner/intermediate

[@rialimpe]

So difficult!

[@Giof230]

Brilliant advice

[@rajeshgaikwad88]

Thank you

[@javier432]

fantastic video! thank you

[@nerd9992]

awsome instruction. thank you very much. plz keep posting.

[@omerf777]

Super like 🎉 Very well explained

[@Jackyjhwang]

nice teaching, nice model..

[@Dee3917]

Great video & explanation. Thank u!

[@ratilalmakanji2372]

Thanks

[@timbanner3228]

What does it mean to ride the hip?

[@jatuponchuchuay6239]

Thanks,great

[@USMastersSwimming]

You are very welcome. If you would like, subscribe to our channel. We post new videos every month!

[@vijay-bn4ve]

Thankyou very much

[@EidnyBless]

nice video! Boa explicação

[@mistikarmakar1335]

Wwooww❤

[@cumulus7637]

I love this video. but I'm not good at listening English. So I miss many part of instruction of this video. Please, make English note, English caption. I wanna get whole idea of this video. plz add officially English caption. thx.

[@lennonoeliam2897]

top of the hip bone and reach it to the other end of the pool? what the what now?

[@josephsu7341]

very nice~!

[@himanshudabey3505]

I am going to swimming pool there is chlorine in water I am suffering from tang problem do you have any solution this problem please tell me

[@saurabhjibhenkar4396]

I am not able to differentiate between 'DO' and 'DON'T' Would you please make it simple for me? 🤔🤔🤔🤔 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@USMastersSwimming]

We are working on it...stay tuned!

[@MarijaCZadar]

I'm having the same problem. I do see the difference, but then again, I don't (can put my finger on it).

[@feimberg]

Same

[@robohippy]

Biggest difference I can see between correct and incorrect is how much your hips pivot. Too much pivot and you don't get the transfer of energy from shoulder to toe kick.

[@richc47us]

At the 1:00 mark, I'm confused about too much twisting motion in your hips and over-rotating when doing Freestyle. ..."reaching my hip bone so that my belly button doesn't slide to the side". I realize the importance of over-rotating, but I need an image in my head for correcting that mistake. Thanks

[@USMastersSwimming]

Rich Coffman your follow thru should take your hand past your hip bone and when you finish your stroke that’s where the slight roll comes in. I think if you say to yourself “stretch” when your arms are extended in the front and back position you’ll start to feel it. Drills help too so check out some that we have on our channel as well.

[@mahmod731]

Very nice, can you put translate arabic in videos

[@moviedude22]

So essentially synchronize arm and hip movement

[@thitilim9958]

แยกไม่ออกdo don't ต่างกันยังไง

[@justingasparino9204]

I just tell myself that when I pull I need to rotate my hips enough to ride the water my hand displaces

[@stella-zi2yj]

1:27 1:14

[@syukoike7208]

微妙ですが、理解できます。

[@richardholloway4692]

Sun Yang and his coaches would split a gut laughing if they watched this.......

[@cgpg6370]

Why? Could you explain?

[@mokotramp]

And your sound advice for swimmers is?

[@danslater1542]

made no sense.

[@dragonnight4727]

But hoooow do I use my hips is the question😭😭😂

[@USMastersSwimming]

Hi Dradon, try adding the following streamline kicking drill! Kick on your back with fins while rotating your hips side to side.

[@duman7070]

Thank you