thumb|Crawl
'''Crawl''' (norsk: krål) er den raskeste av de fire svømmeartene som blir brukt i konkurransesvømming.

== Svømmetaket ==
=== Armer ===
Utgangsposisjonen for et crawltak er en svømmer som ligger på magen med ansiket i vannet, armene over hodet og bena samlet. En syklus begynner ved at den ene armen trekkes bakover gjennom vannet. Når taket i vannet er gjennomført og armen ligger langs overkroppen, trekker man armen tilbake. Tommelen kan gjerne berøre armhulen og så strekkkes så langt frem i vannet som mulig. Når den første armen ligger parallelt med kroppen begynner man med et nytt tak med den andre armen, slik at det ser ut som en vindmølle.

Buken (skuldrene) skal velte fra side til side men hodet skal holdes rett i vannet. Dette er til at man får bedre tak med henda og at føttene får bedre

=== Ben ===
Bena skal gå i et hele tiden ved at du sparker med rette ben. 
Mange pleier å svømme med en liten knekk i beina, men det er ikke riktig. For å gjenomføre riktig crawl-beinspark skal beina være helt rette.

thumb|300px|Swimmer breathing during front crawl
'''Front crawl''', also known as the '''Australian''' crawl, is usually regarded as the fastest butterfly, and freestyle competitions.

==Ergonomics==
The swimming position on the breast allows good flexibility of the arm in the water, as compared to the backstroke, where the hands cannot be moved easily along the back of the spine. The above-water recovery reduces drag, compared to the underwater recovery of breaststroke. The alternating arm stroke also allows some rolling movement of the body for an easier recovery compared to, for example, butterfly. Finally, the alternating arm stroke makes for a relatively constant speed throughout the cycle.

==History==

The front crawl has been in use since ancient times. In the Western world, the front crawl was first seen in a competition held in 1844 in London, where it was swum by South American Indians, who easily defeated the British breaststroke swimmers (Breakthrough Swimming, Cecil Colwin(2002) Human Kinetics p 14).

Sometime between 1870 and 1890, John Arthur Trudgen learned the front crawl from Native Americans during a trip to South America. (The exact date is disputed, but is most often given as 1873.) However, Trudgen mistakenly used (in Britain) the more common sidestroke (scissor) kick instead of the flutter kick used by the Native Americans. This hybrid stroke was called the '''Trudgen'''. Because of its speed the stroke quickly became popular.

The Trudgen was improved by the Australian-born son of swimming teacher, "Professor" Richard (Fred, Frederick) Cavill, champion swimmer Richmond (Dick) Cavill (1884–1938). While he and his brother "Tums" developed the stroke independently, they were later inspired by Alick Wickham, a young Solomon Islander resident in Sydney who swam a version of the crawl stroke that was popular in his home in the Roviana Lagoon. This modified Trudgen stroke became known as the Australian crawl. American swimmer Charles Daniels made modifications to a six beat kick thereby forming the American crawl. With minor modifications, this stroke is the front crawl used today. The front crawl has become the fastest stroke in all of swimming.

==Technique==

The first position for front crawl or Freestyle is on the breast, both arms stretched out to the front and both legs extended to the back. 

===The arm movement===

The arm movement alternates from side to side. In other words, while one arm is pulling/pushing, the other arm is recovering. The arm strokes also provide most of the forward movement. The move can be separated into three parts, the pull, the push, and the recovery. 

From the initial position, the arm sinks slightly lower and the palm of the hand turns 45 degrees with the thumb side of the palm towards the bottom. This is called catching the water and prepares for the pull. The pull movement follows a semicircle, with the elbow higher than the hand, and the hand pointing towards the body center and downward. The semicircle ends in front of the chest at the beginning of the ribcage.

The push pushes the palm backward through the water underneath the body at the beginning and at the side of the body at the end of the push. 

Sometime after the beginning of the recovery of the one arm, the other arm begins its pull. The recovery moves the elbow in a semicircle in a vertical plane in the swimming direction. The lower arm and the hand are completely relaxed and ''hang'' down from the elbow close to the water surface and close to the swimmer's body. The beginning of the recovery looks similar to pulling the hand out of the back pocket of a pair of pants, with the small finger upwards. Further into the recovery phase, the hand movement has been compared to pulling up a center zip on a wetsuit.  The recovering hand moves forward, with the fingers trailing downward, just above the surface of the water. In the middle of the recovery one shoulder is rotated into the air while the other is jumping backwards to avoid drag due to the large frontal area which at this specific time is not covered by the arm. To rotate the shoulder, some twist their torso while others also rotate everything down to their feet.

Beginners often make the mistake of not relaxing the arm during the recovery and of moving the hand too high and too far away from the body, in some cases even higher than the elbow. In these cases, drag and incidental muscle effort is increased at the expense of speed. Beginners often forget to use their shoulders to let the hand enter as far forward as possible. Some say the hand should enter the water thumb first, reducing drag through possible turbulence, others say the middle finger is first with the hand precisely bent down, giving thrust right from the start. At the beginning of the pull, the hand acts like a wing and is moved slower than the velocity of the swimmer while at the end it acts like an oar and is moved faster than the velocity of the swimmer.

A recreational variation of front crawl involves only one arm moving at any one time, while the other arm rests and is stretched out at the front. This style is called a "catch up" stroke and requires less strength for swimming. This is because the immersed length of the body is longer and more streamlined. This style is slower than the regular front crawl and is rarely used competitively: however, it is often used for training purposes even by professional swimmers, as it increases the body's awareness of being streamlined in the water. Total Immersion is a similar technique.

===The leg movement===
The leg movement in freestyle is called the flutter kick. The legs move alternately, with one leg kicking downward while the other leg moves upward. While the legs provide only a small part of the overall speed, they are important to stabilize the body position. This lack of balance is apparent when using a pull buoy to neutralize the leg action.

The leg in the initial position bends very slightly at the knees, and then kicks the lower leg and the foot downwards similar to kicking a football. The legs may be bent inward slightly. After the kick the straight leg moves back up. A frequent mistake of beginners is to bend the legs too much or to kick too much out of the water. 

Ideally, there are 6 kicks per cycle, although it is also possible to use 8 kicks, 4 kicks or even 2 kicks. Franziska van Almsick, for example, swims very successfully with four kicks per cycle. When one arm is pushed down the opposite leg needs to do a downwards kick also, to fix the body orientation, because this happens shortly after the body rotation. Alternatively, front crawl can also be swum with a butterfly kick, although this reduces the stability of the swimming position. A breaststroke kick with front crawl arms (the Trudgen) is awkward, because the breathing pattern for front crawl needs a rotation, yet a breaststroke kick resists this rotation.