In front crawl, the technical skills are very largely correlated with the length of the stroke.

A swimmer, who has a good technique, will not have in his stroke unnecessary “brakes”. In the book, I have listed seven main brakes.

When entering the following data, you will have an estimate of your technical level:

But first, I recommend that you measure your arm / height ratio: for that, just enter your height and your arm span. To measure your arm span, it is very simple: against the door or along a wall, you stretch your arms and measure the length that separates the end of the fingers of each of your hands.

HEIGHT / ARM SPAN INDEX

The higher the number (and greater than 1), the longer your arms’ length is an asset for your stroke and should have a positive effect on your stroke length.

Now to determine your technical level, enter below your height, then the length of your push-off from the wall (if you do not know it, indicate 3 meters) and your number of arm strokes per length in a 25m pool. Arm strokes means one stroke of each arm (left and right) and not one arm cycle (a cycle is a move from the left arm and the right arm). The indicator is based on an active endurance level of effort (the result will be distorted if you enter your number of arm strokes at fast speed (especially sprint) or if you force yourself to exaggerate the glide in your stroke by waiting too long between each arm stroke).

TECHNICAL SCORE IN A  25-METER POOL

If your score is 0.85 or more: Bravo! Your technical level is excellent. You definitely have no technical flaws and in addition to this, the quality of your leg kick should be very good.

If your score is between 0.75 and 0.84: Congratulations! Your technical level is very good. Your stroke likely probably does not possess any of the characteristic brakes of an approximate technique. Your leg kick may be yet to improve but your arm technique and positioning of your body are definitely very good.

If your score is between 0.65 and 0.74: you master the basic of a good stroke technique but with certainly still some technical margin of progression. Try to review your technique and see if you still would not have some “brakes” in your stroke.

If your score is between 0.55 and 0.64: ​​your technique is still approximate. You definitely still have one or more “brakes” in your stroke.

If your score is below 0.55: you must reconsider your technique in depth. Your stroke has major technical flaws (such as certainly the lack of horizontality and cross-over).

To better understand these brakes and to improve your technique very quickly, I refer you to the article on “the swimmer’s brakes” (page 103 of the book “The Guide of the Modern Crawl”) and also the article of this site in the Part “Beginner”.