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I rearranged the language in the 3rd paragraph of the History section to hopefully make it a little more understandable. Could someone please verify it to be sure it is correct? In particular I broke up that paragraph separating the topics of the American crawl and the Australian crawl, and added some clumsy language to the Australian one, I'm not sure if they created the final Australian crawl from their inspiration?

I get the how-to portion somewhat. However, there's a lot of ambiguity present. If you're not going to use the words like left and right, could you say, first arm, second arm. Also could you mention more clearly at which point your arm is above the water (more or less). Or just say left and right and mention that this is non-exclusive (some people are left-handed, some are right-handed). Starting arm / follow-up arm, etc..

With regards to the speeds, the speeds don't matter. Rather point them to the other article on Freestyling for speed record information. What we're shooting for here is not the most perfect and efficient professional-level way to do this stroke, we only want to know how to get some exercise with it.

per Mswake on flat vs roll -- in pretty much every sport you have circular motions. I think the original poster was trying to say that the torso part of your body should stay flat like a board, not horizontally flat. So when you roll, your shoulders all the way down to your hips roll, not just your shoulders or just your hips. Does that make sense? I don't know the stroke so I can't say.

Rogertdj (talk) 21:46, 20 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I as a swimmer would like to comment that front crawl is regarded as the fastest stroke but is not always the fastest depending on who is swimming it. I've seen other strokes have times that rival front crawl and even beat it.

I revised it to indicate that the British swam heads-up breaststroke; I hope that is what was meant (it was not entirely clear to me).

Revised the "maximum speed" from 1.7 to 2 m/s: 50 seconds for 100m is not uncommon and equals 2 m/s.

Also revised the section on body movement. This is how the first two sentences stood:

"The body stays as flat in the water as possible to reduce drag. The body rolls sideways with both the hips and the shoulders with every arm stroke such that the shoulder of the recovering arm is higher than the shoulder of the pushing/pulling arm."

These two sentences contradict one another: either the body stays flat, or it rolls. In fact, it rolls, and this is not discouraged in modern coaching, for the reasons I've given.

Mswake 21:07, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The 50 seconds for 100m includes the start and turns, which are considerably faster than actual swimming. If you exclude the start and turns, you'll have a speed of about 1.7m per seconds 2.17 meter per second. I change the speed back to 1.7m , and clarify a bit. My source for the speeds is www.swim.ee. It also goes into more detail about the speed of the turns and starts. -- Chris 73 | Talk 22:33, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The stroke is most commonly called "The Australian Crawl" rather that just "Australian Crawl".

Someone should make some step-by-step illustrations/pictures of the swimming movement. (Unsigned comment by User:Thug outlaw69 )

Good idea, why don't you do it? -- Chris 73 | Talk 18:50, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, because the reason I suggested it is because I'm more of a visual learner so I don't quite get the movements by reading it in the page. Thug outlaw69 03:26, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was once thinking about making some, but then, I am a terrible artist. As for now, please check out the two external links, both show photos of the different parts of the stroke -- Chris 73 | Talk 08:00, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think I saw a competition on TV where one of the swimmers used a hybrid between butterfly and front crawl, I mean front crawl with body undulation and without complete mirror symmetric arm movement. What and who was that? Arnero 18:43, 24 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. Should this article be merged with freestyle swimming? They are similar strokes. --Mayfare 19:18, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Freestyle is not a stroke. The clue is in the name - it means you're free to swim in any style you want. Where this popular delusion that freestyle is a specific stroke came from, I've no idea. — Smjg (talk) 00:44, 25 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This list already exists on the freestyle swimming article. This duplication should be deleted for that reason. Additionally it does not fit in this article as it is on the front crawl.FoamEarplugs (talk) 08:05, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

hello,

info provided in footnote link ("Mary Donahue: swimming vocabulary, College, 29 April 2008")doesn't elucidate any more than what wiki article currently says.

the section "US History Encyclopedia:" at http://www.answers.com/topic/swimming seems to make distinction clearer....i.e., australian - has foot action but seemingly not synched with arm action. american - has foot action synched with arm action. see its paragraph 5 "Noting the way they combined the overhand stroke with kicking action, he taught this new method to his six sons and other British émigrés. His sons, in turn, carried the "Australian crawl" back to England and the United States. The American swimmer Charles Daniels improved on the "Australian crawl" by timing his kick to his armstroke."

regards. 68.173.14.215 (talk) 04:37, 12 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am not really sure how to interpret the following: "Ideally, there are 6 kicks per cycle, although it is also possible to use 8 kicks, 4 kicks or even 2 kicks." What is defined as a "cyle" here? Could this perhaps be added, or a different means of describing this be used? Jimjamjak (talk) 09:38, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A cycle is every two strokes in terms of this article I believe. Matthewm192 (talk) 10:52, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The legs move alternately, with one leg kicking downward while the other leg moves upward.

This is a poor description. 'Alternately' implies that one leg stays still while the other moves. I will change to 'in opposing directions'. Centrepull (talk) 14:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Catchup isn't an alternate form of front crawl, it's a drill. It isn't swum in competition because it's slow compared to the more normal stroke. This paragraph should either be removed or expanded to include other drills (barrel, drag fingers, thumb-to-thigh, etc.) Madgenberyl (talk) 22:07, 15 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've often seen competition swimmers moving their arms with unequal intervals between them - one arm, a short gap, the other arm, a long gap. There seems to be no mention of this, nor what its advantages or disadvantages might be. (This may be what Arnero means above.) Richard New Forest (talk) 20:16, 2 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm from Canada and growing up, I learned the front crawl as the front stroke. When I saw this article doesn't mention that term at all, I did a lot of Googling and found this YMCA of Indiana page that uses the same term. If this term is a common, albeit perhaps colloquial, term that's used in North America, should it not be included? — Jclu: talk-contribs 09:13, 23 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have demoted the article to "C" class, because of lack of citations, and several unaddressed issues in this talk page. It is a wonderful world (talk) 22:57, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article is one of the four competitive strokes. It is seen in every major swimming competition, linked in 100s if not 1000s of pages on wikipedia and external sites. Therefore, I have upgraded it's importance to Top. It is a wonderful world (talk) 22:58, 17 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]