Photo by Jonathan Chng

Originally Posted On: How to Quickly Improve Your Swimming Technique | The Wave Aquatic & Fitness Center (whitefishwave.com)

A big step in anyone’s young life is the moment they learn to swim. Despite being an important life safety skill, the ability to swim can unlock a lifetime of enjoyable activities and relaxing vacations. It is even great exercise.

Over time, we may stray away from the ideal and complete swimming technique we learned as a youngster. Even if you had a top-notch swimming coach when you first learned to swim as a kid, the optimal motions differ for an adult.

You may be looking to improve your swimming speed for competition purposes. Or you may want to impress your friends the next time you are in the pool. These swimming tips are a surefire way to improve your technique, thus your overall speed in the water.

And the best part? You can actually tweak things and see results rather quickly. Read up here on the best ways to improve your swimming technique!

The first step to mastering swimming and improving your speed is to make sure you are selecting the correct type of swimming stroke. Freestyle, or the front stroke, is the preferred motion for most swimmers and has proven to be the quickest on average.

Once you pick your motion, try to stick with it and improve it. In the freestyle stroke, swim with your belly facing the bottom of the pool and your back facing the sky. Your arms should swing and your legs should kick but never bend.

Although the freestyle should be your top option, there are also other swimming forms like the backstroke, the breaststroke, the butterfly, or even the sidestroke.

To help improve the balance and correctness of your freestyle stroke, try swimming with your head above water a few times. This should not be your regular routine, but this could help the balance of the freestyle stroke initially.

Perhaps the best way to learn the freestyle technique or any swimming motion is to receive instructional swim lessons. Once you have the form down, they can also show you more techniques to become a very fast swimmer.

Now that you have settled on the freestyle (as most top swimmers do), there are plenty of general swimming tips to help take you to the next level! Don’t forget, if you work hard with these swimming tips, you could improve at a quick pace.

A universal truth among swimmers is the need to keep your body extended and as long as you can make it. Air on the side of overextending the stroke rotation rather than underextending.

Within your swim stroke, don’t forget to have correct movement with your legs. Do not ever bend your legs to kick forward, as this will only slow you down. When kicking, try to kick the left and right legs separately from each other at a different pace.

Swimmers should come up to breathe only sparingly. Some may say to limit coming up to breath completely, but that may be difficult for some, especially beginners. If that is the case, try exhaling in the water for an extra boost.

Other experts also stress that breathing is the biggest key to swimming. Another said the length of the stroke should be your biggest focus. One expert says regular swimming workouts are the most crucial element in order to improve.

This may seem like an obvious tip, but you should strength train in a much different way for swimming than you would for other sports. Lifting weights outside of the pool is fine for building strength, but there are more effective ways to improve your swimming strength specifically.

During your actual swim training in the water, whether it is during an endurance set or a set of laps, you can gain power and strength by relying on one side of your body during a stroke.

In other words, use one single arm to execute the freestyle stroke during one of your laps. Switch back and forth between your left and right arm to work them both out. Use caution, however, as this tip should only be used occasionally and not frequently.

Stick to the varied stroke just one out of ten reps or sets. This way, the workout will not affect your overall freestyle muscle memory.

Often to have a breakthrough, it can help an athlete mentally to focus on technique and not look at the big picture. Overall swimming tips are helpful but don’t forget to give your freestyle motion extra care as well.

There are numerous in-depth tricks and tips for every swimming motion. Since the freestyle is so popular, there may be even more tips for that motion than any others.

Remember to always follow through with the stroke, keep your head up, and rotate your body completely. Just like with a golf swing or throwing a football, it may help to focus on improving one tiny aspect at a time and then moving on to the next.

Swimming is a process that could take years to master, but if you stick to these tips you will definitely see improvement. That includes your overall speed.

Just like throwing a ball, swinging a bat or golf club, or even running, swimming is an athletic activity that you can hone as a skill. If you establish muscle memory, you can gain speed as a swimmer.

These tips will help anyone who takes on the water and wants to improve their swimming technique. Remember, swimming is one of the best regular exercises you can have in your routine.

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