Swimming Technique

Learning the correct technique for swimming can not only improve your speed and efficiency in the pool – it could save your life.

For true beginners in the water, a good swimming technique starts with basic skills, such as:

• Getting comfortable in the water – feeling at ease in and around the pool
• Learning how to float – relaxing and floating with gentle arm and leg movements
• Blowing bubbles and submerging the face – confident breath control is important for progressing to propulsion skills
• Sculling technique – this is the basis of all swimming strokes and is extremely important for survival skills
• Treading water – this combines the eggbeater and sculling techniques and enables children to stay afloat in deep water for periods of time
• ‘Doggy’ paddle – combining basic kicking with paddling arms (most often with head out of the water)

Once these skills are mastered, it is time to develop the four
competitive swimming strokes:

1. Freestyle
2. Breaststroke
3. Backstroke
4. Butterfly

Having a positive attitude

Learning to swim and practicing good swimming techniques takes time. A great attitude makes it so much easier, not to mention more fun!
Here are some tips for getting the right mindset:

• Commitment – Taking your child through swimming techniques will take some time; so deciding to stick with it right from the beginning is important. Children will progress at different rates. At times it will seem like their learning is at a plateau, but this is the time they are consolidating their skills so don’t give up! Soon they should be progressing again in leaps and bounds.
• Encouragement - Reading books about swimming and talking to people who enjoy swimming is a great start. This will really drive home how fun swimming well can be and how rewarding it is to reach goals in the pool. Set some small personal goals to achieve, record their successes so they can see how far they have come and don’t forget to praise them for ‘having a go’.
• Fun - Visit a pool just for fun. Take some friends along and soak up the sights, sounds, and smells. Go for a treat afterwards. Turning swimming into a chore is not the aim of perfecting swimming techniques with your child. Don’t let them forget that being good at swimming is a gift.

Proper swimming techniques

To master swimming techniques, it is a good idea to look at the different elements of each stroke. They can then be practiced individually as well as together.

Freestyle

Sometimes known as “over-arm”, the freestyle stroke is the most common stroke to learn. It involves alternating arm movements and kicking legs.
Arm strokes can be mastered without even getting into the pool and, once they are correct, they can be practiced while stationary or by doing laps. Kicking with a kickboard is a great way to work on propulsion techniques with the legs. A flotation device is also handy for working on breathing without arms, for beginners.
Freestyle is the fastest and most efficient of the strokes and is most often used by competitive swimmers.

Breaststroke

Breaststroke is often described as ‘swimming like a frog’ and is both a competitive and survival stroke.
It can be a difficult stroke to learn as it requires a strong propulsive kick to keep the body from sinking and the timing can be difficult to coordinate.
The kick is known as a ‘whip’ kick as the feet and lower leg move in a circular action ‘whipping the water’ to propel the body forward.  Both arms move at the same time, using a pulling action to ‘draw’ a circle in front of the swimmer.
Practicing the arm and kicking actions separately is the best way to teach this stroke to beginners.

Backstroke

In essence a reversal of freestyle, the backstroke is swum on the back with alternating circular motions of the arms and a kicking of the legs.
This is a great stroke to practice, as there is no breathing coordination required. The reverse kicking works different muscles to the freestyle kick, and as the arms are unable to move under the swimmer’s body, it is not as fast as freestyle or butterfly.
It is a relatively easy stroke to learn although some find it difficult to swim in a straight line!

Butterfly

Echoing the wing span of a butterfly, the butterfly stroke uses a symmetrical circular arm motion and a dolphin kick to move the body up and through the water. Butterfly originated from breaststroke as swimmers sought ways to increase the speed of the stroke.
The butterfly stroke is fast but exhausting. Once you master the technique it can be a lot of fun, but still remains difficult to maintain for long periods.

Breathing technique for swimmers

Many beginners don’t introduce breathing into their stroke until both breath control and stroke movements are developed separately.
The trick for breathing while swimming is to exhale slowly underwater. Keeping air in the lungs for longer maintains buoyancy and will give the stroke a natural rhythm.
Here are some quick tips:

• Focus on exhalation (don’t hold your breath!)
• Keep the head still, while exhaling
• Don’t lift the head
• Don’t over-rotate the head
• Rotate the body with the head
• Inhale air naturally, no gulps for air
• Try breathing on both sides (for freestyle)

Tips for freestyle swimming techniques

Improving swimming techniques isn’t just about getting stronger and building up endurance.
One of the keys to a good technique is reducing resistance. By decreasing resistance through the water and increasing propulsion, we are swimming more cleverly.

Position

The position of the body is a crucial part of a good swimming technique.
The body should be parallel to the bottom of the pool and the head should crest the surface of the water with the neck and shoulder muscles relaxed. If the chin is buried into the chest, it will increase resistance and slow the swimming stroke substantially.

Reach

With each stroke of the arm, it is important to reach forward.
Pulling the body through the water in the most efficient way possible will reduce fatigue, so extending the reach of each arm from the shoulder is a great way to improve technique. Over-extending can be damaging, so mastering the technique is advised before too much repetition.

Rotate

Allow the body to move naturally.
The most effective swimming techniques allow the body to rotate with each stroke to increase reach and power. Pivoting in the water is a natural reaction, so fighting against this is adding hard work to each stroke.

Curved pathway

Maximising the amount of water pulled in each stroke is essential.
Because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, pulling the arms through the water in a curved pathway, or ‘s’ shape, will allow for longer and more powerful pull.

Length

The completion of each stroke is important.
Each hand should be pulled out of the water to start a new stroke as it reaches the thigh. By ending the stroke early (say, at the waist), swimmers are completing shorter strokes, but are doing more of them for each lap.

Kick

Good kickers are good swimmers.
By using the whole of both legs to flutter kick greater propulsion is achieved by the upbeat and downbeat of the kick. This boosts the speed and efficiency of the stroke. Using a pair of fins can assist with developing this technique.

Drills

A swimming teacher or coach can guide your children through some swimming drills.
These exercises will take your child through various steps and help them to build strength, coordination, and flexibility.
Swimming drills might sound like a rather militant approach, but practice makes perfect. The closer your child is to mastering their strokes, the more they will get out of it and the stronger they will be in and out of the water.