Technique- arm, leg, breathing

Your pull in freestyle swimming gives you the most forward motion. Although, some swimmer's kick is faster than their pull. We call them kickers because they are good at kicking. If they're good at pulling then we call them pullers. Two strokes are called a cycle.

Starting off, one arm lowers, just a tad bit, as your palm and forearm catches the water and gets ready for the pull. The pull motion should have your elbow higher than your hand, and your hand pointing towards the body center then downward. A semicircle is created while pulling; it starts at the rib cage and ends in front of the chest.

During the pull, your palm moves backward through the water, then underneath your body at the beginning, then at the side of your body at the end of the pull.  As your arms alternate, the recovery begins. While your arm recovers, it should be relaxed, hanging below your elbow-- your hand moves forward, with your fingers trailing downward, just above the surface of the water. In the middle of the recovery, one shoulder is rotated forward into the air while the other is pointing in the opposite direction to avoid drag.

Now that is how you do the freestyle pull! Visit Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Stroke - Swim Technique to further examine the freestyle pull.

My breath in this photo isn't perfect, as you can see.
Only half of my face should be showing.

For the lower portion of the freestyle, flutter kick is the most common kick used. It usually only provides a small amount of speed, but it helps your body to float and stay horizontal. So always kick, it's very important! The legs move alternately, with one leg kicking downward while the other leg moves upward.

See Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Kick - Swim Technique for more information on freestyle kicking!

Breathing is also super important in the freestyle stroke because it connects with the timing of the stroke. If your timing is off, swimming will become much harder. Breaths are taken through the mouth by turning your head to the side, at the beginning of the recovery. At the end of the recovery, your head rotates back, and points down and forward again when the recovered hand enters the water. Swimmers breathe out through mouth and nose until the next breath.

Take a look at Freestyle Swimming Technique – Breathing | Feat. Nathan Adrian for more information on breathing!

Here is a better photo of taking a breath.