A Guide to Swimming Techniques

 

There is no doubt that swimming is one of the best total-body exercises, and there are many different swimming techniques you can try to work different muscles or to just keep your swimming workouts from getting boring. Swimming is a non-impact sport and is one in which you can participate successfully for an entire lifetime.

Swimming doesn’t take much in the way of equipment so once you have obtained a swimsuit, goggles, and a swim cap, all you need to do is find any pool or outdoor body of water. After you start practicing a few swimming techniques, you will be surprised at how easy swimming really is and what a great workout you will get from this form of exercise.

Swimming for beginners

One of the hardest things for beginning swimmers is to get used to the feeling of being in the water. This can take quite a long time for some people while for others it is a completely natural feeling.

One of the swimming techniques you can practice that helps with your ability to immerse yourself in water and to strengthen your legs is kicking. This is not quite the same as kicking in the martial arts. In swimming, you need to have very strong legs as these are the key to moving as fast as you can in the water. Practicing kicking, whether on a wall in the pool or on a kickboard, can help you build up your leg muscles and if you work on immersing your face at the same time, it can help you become more comfortable with being in the water as well.

In a pool there is usually a protruding edge or lip that you can hold on to while you practice a few different swimming techniques and exercises. So, go to the wall of the pool and grasp this ridge, which sticks out a bit. Hold onto it and then just let the buoyancy of the water lift your feet up off the bottom of the pool. As long as you hold onto the wall you won’t be propelled down the lane as you begin your kicking session.

Once you get used to the feeling of your legs being buoyed up by the water, you can begin to kick. You should be parallel to the bottom of the pool. Remember to keep your feet in the water, and kick as hard as hard as you can. If you take your feet out of the water it will interfere with the energy you are putting into kicking. If you did this while swimming a lap, you would immediately feel a complete loss of energy and forward momentum.
Once you have gotten the hang of kicking and are more comfortable with being in the water, place your face in the water. The key is to take a breath when your face is out of the water and then exhale with your face in the water. This is one of the swimming techniques that is hard for beginners, but as you practice more and more it will become second nature.

Swimming strokes

The four swimming strokes all involve different swimming techniques. You will probably quickly find a favorite and then do the others more infrequently as time passes. But, the more strokes you practice consistently, the more muscles you will work and the better overall swimmer you will become.

The strokes in swimming are the breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle (sometimes called the crawl). The breaststroke is quite difficult and not the stroke a beginner should try to learn first. You have probably seen the breaststroke if you have ever watched the Olympics or other swimming competitions on television. It is the stoke that is easily recognizable because when performed correctly, as your body will bob up and down in the water. When done successfully, it is also a stroke with which you can propel yourself a long distance.

Timing is the key to a successful breaststroke technique. Your arms alternate with your leg kick. The essentials of the stroke are to pull with your arms, breathe, kick, and glide.

When you are more adept at swimming techniques, you will probably find yourself learning the butterfly. Just like the breaststroke, the butterfly is not recommended for beginning swimmers. Not only is timing a big factor, you need to have developed considerable arm and leg strength to complete the stroke successfully.

One of the swimming techniques people learn when they practice the butterfly is to keep their legs together in the kick. Some instructors ask you to envision the way a mermaid looks, with both feet together and working in unison. You have to keep your knees together and move your legs together as you do a downward kick. The arms also move together in a type of sweep with your palms pressing down and toward the outside as you move through the water. (continued...)