Swimming tips while often appearing simple can be effective enough to totally change your swimming style (for the better). Take note of the following swimming tips regardless of whether your just learning to swim or swimming in regular races.
The following are general swimming tips but can be applied to both swimming solo and as part of Triathlons.
Warm-Up
Our first swimming tip is to always warm-up, despite its intensity you rarely see social swimmers warm up. Warming up dramatically reduces the chances of injury (particularly from sprains and strains) it can also improve your performance in the pool.
Start Slow & Learn The Basics
Don’t start by learning the Butterfly stroke! Our next swimming tip is that you should begin swimming by learning the basic strokes first. Check out my pages on Breaststroke Technique & Freestyle Swimming Technique to learn more.
Swim With Friends
Swimming with friends will give you a huge motivation and leave you with fewer excuses than if you swim alone if your short of swimming friends join a local swimming club.
Use A Coach
Another top swimming tip to find a swimming coach although this can be a hard process once you’ve found a solid coach your technique will multiply fast if you’re struggling to find one I recommend you join many of the happy swimmers who signed up for Effortless swimming an online program ran by an excellent Australian swimming coach.
Swim In Public Pools And Open Water
Swimming in open water is a much different experience compared to swimming in a pool. Even swimming in a river compared to the Ocean feels different. To improve all-round swimming technique you should train in a multitude of environments (Swimming tip disclaimer: never swim alone and ensure there’s a lifeguard present). Dolphin is the best automatic pool cleaners. which is necessary for a swimming pool and has a wide variety of functions.
Practice Drills
Drills such as those found on my page on Swim drills are designed to isolate one side of your swimming in order to improve your total technique, thus drills are an excellent way of improving your swimming.
Good Form
Having a good form in the water will reduce your drag and enable you to swim further and faster without tiring work on your breaststroke form, to begin with.
Rest & Food
Our next swimming tip is rest and food in order for your body to grow you need to make sure you get plenty of rest (your muscles grow in your sleep after all!) and eat enough. Since you are burning off extra calories you need to eat more to make up for it. Also, ensure your not dehydrated – swimming often gets your body very hot which forces you to evaporate and perspire much more than normal room temperature to drink extra fluid to make up for this.
Work On Breathing
Make sure you have good breathing when your swimming as this can dramatically change your performance. Read more about breathing to ensure you have this down.
Warm Down
Always warm down as well as warming up to reduce muscle tension and injury.
Specific Swimming Tips For Races:
Set Goals
Going for a race? Set yourself SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Constrained) such as “Reduce my 100m Freestyle time by 0.5 secs in six months”. This will massively motivate you and your performance will explode if you continue to achieve and set goals.
Understand The Rules
Another swimming tip that can reduce embarrassment is to not assume the same rules apply when you go to do a second race, often they vary widely in a matter of aspects with very little compensation for those that break them. Be sure to visit the official race’s website and download the rules before the race!
Talk To The Other Competitors
Talking to experienced competitors both before and after the race will give you a good understanding of what race day will be like as well as the chance to make new friends and pick up on more swimming tips.
Don’t Get Discouraged
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t go on and win your first race, the experience is worth its weight in gold let alone whether you have a podium finish or not!
Swimming tips – Don’t Over Train
Ensure you don’t over-train – make sure your body has totally recovered before continuing to train. If you’re struggling in your training consult an offline or online coach such as those found in the resource links