I mostly practiced front crawl in the 25-meter pool, which was often emptier and so required less awareness of what was in front of you. The 50-meter pool has dedicated lanes for "fast front crawlers", where people move around in a long-stretched rectangle. But I didn't dare to use it yet – think I'm still slower than when using breast stroke.
But by now, I *did* manage to front crawl a full 50-meter lane a couple of times, which felt great!
My rhythm isn't very stable yet, and breathing seems like the biggest challenge: I *think* the trick is to breathe out a tiny bit as your mouth leaves the water, to blow away some water, and then inhale freely. Also, turning your head the proper amount needs a lot of practice, you wanna turn it as little as possible, but still safely get your mouth into the air. Always wondered how people do that, and I'm still not good at it!
But I'm pretty happy with how far I got, after my initial fears of putting my face in the water at all! I'd estimate I put in 40 hours of total swimming time to reach this point?
Maybe next year I'll attend a not-for-total-beginners front crawl training course and get some feedback. And start timing myself again/increasing the distance, see the beginning of this thread!
But I'm really enjoying swimming as a sport now, and I'm glad that I thought of trying it! 🏊️ Thanks for reading along! :)
Nov 5, 2026, 4:22 PM@blinry you're right and yes, it takes time to automate and synchronize everything.
It took me a year to transition from breathing only on the right stroke to alternating right-left.
@blinry i still swim at full pelt for as long as i can hold my breath (a long time! probably due to this habit) then have to reset with a pause. i look like an idiot but still love it :)