Freestyle is an entire genre of ways to ride a BMX bike. It's pretty much anything that isn't racing. This includes flatland,trails,street,park,and vert. Freestyle began in the mid 1970s as something that riders did between races. From there it grew largely into flatland. From there it expanded to street and trails. Soon after people began riding in empty swimming pools and vert was born. Park followed soon after.

The term freestyle, while it applies to all forms of riding other than racing, it is more commonly implied to mean only flatland riding.