Freestyle: the 5 most common mistakes in adult swimmers (coach's guide)
7 min readApril 1, 2026
Head lifting, hand crossover, bicycle kick, lack of rotation, breath-holding. The 5 errors coaches see most often in adult freestyle swimmers, with drills and coaching cues for each.
Adult swimmers who take up freestyle often bring movement patterns from other sports. Those patterns feel natural, but several of them actively slow the stroke down or make breathing harder than it needs to be.
The five errors below are the ones coaches encounter most often. For each: what it looks like, why it happens, and the drill that corrects it.
1. Head position: lifting the head to breathe
Observable symptom: The chin comes forward and up during the breathing turn, sometimes the full face leaving the water.
Why it happens: When the head rises, the hips drop in response. The swimmer's body angle increases and drag rises immediately. Beginners associate breathing with looking up rather than rotating, which is a direct carry-over from the instinct not to submerge the face.
Drills:
Side-breathing drill: one arm extended in front, kicking on the side, taking each breath by rotating the head to the side rather than lifting it. A commonly used drill that makes the correct rotation visible and repeatable.
Vertical kicking in place: face in the water, hands at the sides. Builds comfort with the face-down position and helps the swimmer understand that breathing happens through rotation, not elevation.
Coaching cue: "One ear stays in the water." During the breath, the bottom ear should remain submerged. If both ears come out, the head has lifted.
2. Arm entry: crossing the centerline
Observable symptom: The hand enters the water on the wrong side of the head, crossing the midline of the body. The swimmer visibly swerves left and right with each stroke cycle.
Why it happens: Crossing the midline causes the body to counter-rotate against the stroke, wasting energy and disrupting the catch. It typically comes from a straight-arm recovery where the hand swings inward during the forward swing.
Drills:
Finger-drag recovery: during recovery, drag the fingertips along the surface of the water from hip to entry. It slows the arm down and makes the entry point visible. A drill frequently used in adult technique sessions to break the inward swing habit.
Target entry drill: place a pull buoy or visual marker in front of each shoulder before the session. The swimmer focuses on entering their hand in front of that marker, not in front of the nose.
Coaching cue: "Enter the hand in front of the shoulder, not in front of the nose." A simple reference point that adult swimmers can self-monitor.
A common coaching error is to tell the swimmer "don't cross" without giving them a positive target. Telling them where to put the hand is more effective than telling them where not to put it.
3. Kick: bicycle kick
Observable symptom: The knees bend deeply on the downbeat, the heels often break the surface. The legs churn rather than drive.
Why it happens: A bent-knee kick creates drag instead of propulsion. It comes from running habits, where the knee drives the movement forward. In freestyle, the kick initiates from the hip and travels down through a nearly straight leg, with propulsion coming from a loose, flexible ankle.
Drills:
Kickboard with ankle focus: kick with a board, concentrating on keeping the legs long and the ankles relaxed. Short fins can be introduced briefly to help the swimmer feel what a productive ankle position feels like, then removed.
Vertical kicking in place: without a board, in deep water. Removes the forward momentum and forces the swimmer to feel whether the kick is generating lift or just bending the knee. A frequently used drill for adult swimmers who overkick from the knee.
Coaching cue: "The kick starts at the hip, not the knee." Ask the swimmer to imagine their legs are relaxed whips, not pistons.
4. Rotation: no body rotation
Observable symptom: The swimmer paddles flat, arms entering and exiting symmetrically, hips barely moving. Breathing requires excessive head movement because there is no body rotation to bring the mouth clear of the water.
Why it happens: Without rotation, the catch is shallow, the pull is short, and breathing is harder. Flat swimming comes from treating freestyle as a symmetrical stroke. Adult swimmers coming from cycling or running often default to this pattern because those sports require no axial rotation.
Drills:
6-kick switch: kick on one side for six counts, then switch sides with one full stroke cycle, pausing again in the side position. A widely used drill that directly addresses absence of rotation by making the side position the baseline, not the exception.
Side position drill: kick continuously on one side, one arm extended, the other at the hip. Focus on maintaining a stable lateral position and breathing by rotating only the head. Alternate sides each length.
Coaching cue: "Let the hip of the pulling arm drive forward as the hand enters the water." Hip rotation initiates the pull, not the other way around.
5. Breathing: holding the breath
Observable symptom: The swimmer inhales, then holds the breath until the next breathing opportunity. Carbon dioxide builds up rapidly, the swimmer feels an urgent need to breathe, and anxiety or mini-panic sets in after a few lengths.
Why it happens: Held breath creates CO2 buildup and anxiety. It comes from the instinct to keep air in the lungs near water, a survival reflex that is completely natural but counterproductive in competitive or continuous freestyle.
Drills:
Exhale drill (bubble drill): push off the wall and exhale steadily through the nose and mouth for the full length, face in the water, no arm movement. The single goal is to keep blowing bubbles continuously. A foundational drill for adult beginners who hold their breath.
Bilateral breathing: breathing every three strokes, alternating sides. Prevents over-reliance on one side and encourages a more relaxed rhythm. When breathing is forced to be less frequent, the swimmer exhales more fully between breaths.
Coaching cue: "Start blowing bubbles the moment your face enters the water." The exhalation should begin on entry, not at the moment just before breathing.
A common instruction error is telling adult swimmers to "relax" when they are struggling with breath-holding. It addresses the symptom, not the cause. The cause is insufficient exhalation. Giving the swimmer an active task ("blow out steadily") is more effective than asking them to do less.
Where to start
These five errors are rarely isolated. A swimmer who lifts the head to breathe usually also holds their breath. A swimmer with a bicycle kick often has no body rotation. The errors reinforce each other.
The practical approach: observe one full length before deciding what to correct. Identify the error that most disrupts the stroke, work on it for two to four weeks, verify the transfer to the full stroke, then move on to the next. Trying to fix everything at once fixes nothing.
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Head lifting during breathing drops the hips and increases drag. Correct with side-breathing drills and vertical kicking. One ear stays in the water.
Hand crossover at entry causes the swimmer to swerve and wastes energy. Use the finger-drag drill and give the swimmer a positive target: enter in front of the shoulder.
A bicycle kick bends from the knee and creates drag instead of propulsion. The kick initiates at the hip through a nearly straight leg with a loose ankle.
Flat swimming without body rotation shortens the pull and makes breathing harder. The 6-kick switch drill builds the side position as a baseline, not a deviation.
Breath-holding causes CO2 buildup and anxiety. The exhale drill trains continuous exhalation. Correction comes from blowing out steadily, not from being told to relax.
