Building an effective pull means first having a balanced body, so don’t jump ahead to this unless you’ve completed all the lessons before this.

The freestyle pull starts as far in front of you as possible, and ends down by your hips.  Reaching full extension forward means you’ll have the best opportunity to draw your body toward that point, so making sure you’re reaching forward completely will be key.

Notice how each of our swimmers are extending their arms all the way through the fingertips and keeping the elbows straight.  The body rotates to reach the furthest point forward.

As the arm pulls through the water, think about having it push all the way down toward the hips.  You’ll think of reaching as far forward as you can, and then pushing down toward the hips for the finish.

This longer pull can give you more opportunity to move forward through the water.  When the hand reaches the end of the pull, by the hips, the hips rotate up and out of the way as the focus now gets back to the extended hand out front.

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Extend front to back