The Navy’s Obscure, Super-Efficient Swim Stroke

To be more precise: freestyle in a competitive swimming context basically means that swimmers can swim how they like. However, since front crawl is the fastest way to swim, it is usually preferred. I'm pretty sure it would be legal use the side stroke in freestyle races as well, it is just too slow.

Can’t wait for the error correction video where Sam has to admit that freestyle isn’t a stroke and is a competitive category in which swimmers actually just choose to do frontstroke because it’s the fastest

I was a U.S. Marine swim instructor and lifeguard. We taught it primarily as an endurance stroke to use different muscles than the breaststroke. It's a survival stroke more than a combat stroke which is important even if it's not popular in college swimming.

It's fairly common in Australia. It's one of the strokes they teach you at the more popular swimming programs. It is my favourite stroke for pretty much the reasons listed in the video, in addition to being very very easy to teach kids. "Pick the apple, put it in the basket" + "bring your feet to your bum, split, snap back together". If you're in an aquatic accident it'll keep you moving and keep you alive, in addition to letting you see where you're going.

I'm a lifeguard and can confirm I use sidestroke. It is very easy to rescue people with. You can tow a person with one arm and stroke with the other. You can use sidestroke with your head in the water too, its a bit quicker. You can also perform a 'contact tow' with somebody basically on your back/side and requires no rescue equipment to pull somebody along.

As a kid, this was taught to me as the "safety stroke," as in the one to use if you end up stranded by a sinking boat, since you can last the longest and get the farthest with it before drowning from exhaustion. Pretty gruesome to think about, but it certainly kept me from ever forgetting about it.

As a lifeguard, this was the first and most basic swimming stroke we taught in swim lessons. It's really not obscure at all

Side stroke is taught in Australia in standard swimming lessons. My 10 year old daughter learned it a few years ago. This is because a major part of swimming lessons in Australia is knowing how to survive. It is not obscure in Australia at all.

Navy Diver here; the stroke itself is amazingly efficient. With fins, it’s a little faster, but definitely pretty slow. I’ve been able to swim a couple miles without being completely exhausted with this stroke, though.

The sidestroke is so obscure, the Red Cross and YMCA have been teaching it to kids for decades! I used to teach Red Cross swim lessons, and sidestroke and breast stroke were taught at the same time, after students were proficient in crawl, elementary backstroke, and had started to learn to tread water. I really wouldn't describe it as obscure.

My childhood swim lessons covered front crawl, backstroke, and sidestroke as the first three strokes. Not sure why you think most people have never heard of it...

We were taught sidestroke in primary school. It was noted that you could potentially swim forever because it used so much less energy.

I was always aware of sidestroke. Also there's a sixth stroke, reverse breast stroke, which is sometimes called tadpole, where you do breast stroke motions on your back.

I was taught this at swimming lessons in my childhood. In Australia after learning how to actually swim, a lot of it was focussed on survival swimming so we had to do things like tread water fully clothed for 20 minutes, or swim a long distance using survival strokes - side stroke being one of them.

Learned the sidestroke as a boy scout, and have always kept it in my swimming toolbox, once resorted to it during a particularly grueling triathlon swim for a bit of rest. Always works great.

Growing up I got sent to summer camps. Some of the camp counselors taught us all the swimming stokes shown here. I even competed in a few small swimming competitions at the Maine summer camp. My favorite swim stroke is the side stroke. I've used it so much, I've gotten quite good at it. We were taught using the picking of an apple analogy. I also had some lifeguard training at the same Maine summer camp. I'm not surprised the Navy use it. Thank you.

Calling it "obscure" is kinda misleading considering side-stroke is part of most basic swimming courses....

dont remember when i learned sidestroke but i definitely learned it as a kid. We even had a fun way of remembering the storke, which was "pick the apple" (where the front arm extends, picking the apple, then pulls it back down to pass it to the other hand, which then extends downwards to drop it in the basket). thought everyone knew about it, guess not!

I took swimming lessons for several years as a kid and we definitely learned the sidestroke. It was probably the first thing we learned, I was like four so I can’t exactly remember but I know when we learned front stroke they introduced it as more difficult because you had to hold your breath, and when we were all first learning it a lot of kids would default to sidestroke when they got too intimidated or forgot what they were doing. It was default.

I would like to set the records straight on this, sidestroke is probably the most useful stroke man had invented. One it is a recovery stroke: It can be done while exhausted, allowing one to not drown in open water. Two, unlike other recovery strokes, your head can be very high out of the water, and you can see where you are going. This is important if you are in stormy conditions and want to avoid sucking down water instead of air when breathing. A swimmer can see where they at going with this stroke as well, because staying on course is also nice. Third, this is really the only stroke one can employ towing another person, or boat, or any other object through the water. Fourth, the stroke uses strong muscle groups that most people already use day to day. It does not require as much physical training to be able to go longer distances with this stroke. It’s also pretty easy to learn and teach. Lastly, it as a shallow stroke. Unlike some others, this stroke can be performed in murky waters, where potential for injury from kicking a snag or something is a danger. As the primary propulsion come from kicking the legs together, the legs extending are not under great force. This essentially allows the swimmer to feel around with their legs before committing to an injurious kick. Because of all this the Red Cross, Scouts BSA, and YMCA teach this stroke. I may not have great use in a pool, but if one ever Ventura out into natural bodies of water, this stroke is really the most important to know. I have swam miles using primarily this stroke. The only other stroke I would consider for long distance swimming is front crawl with a two beat kick. Take it from a triathlete, boater, windsurfer, paddle boarder, and ex Lifeguard.