This is the stroke you are most likely to learn to swim first. Front crawl is the fastest stroke and this is why competitive swimmers like David choose to swim it in freestyle races.

As you can see in the cartoon, when swimming front crawl the legs move up and down very quickly. To practice front crawl legs and build up the strength in your lower body you can swim legs only holding a float in your hands. You may find your swimming teacher makes you do lots of this, because it is much easier to swim front crawl with fast powerful legs.

The arm action for front crawl involves stretching one arm at a time out in front of you and pulling it through the water until your arm reaches your thigh. Once your arm reaches this point it comes back out of the water, elbow first. The arms move continuously, so when one arm is at your thigh the other is stretched out in front of you.

One of the hardest things to master with front crawl is the breathing. There is no strict rule about how often you breathe, some people breathe every two strokes, some every three or four. See what you find is easiest and best for you.