Swimming to Success

How to become a swimmer.

         

Being able swim and having the opportunity to get into the water is the most satisficing feeling ever. The moment when I dive into the pool, it makes me feel like nothing else in this world matters. The water understands me and helps me relief all the words that are not able to come out of my mouth. When I’m underwater somehow all my problems disappear, nothing matters but getting from one end of the pool to the other.

  Different types of styles:

·      Free style

Free style was the first race that allowed people to swim however they wanted but yet they referred this to as the front crawl. This involves moving your arms frontward as if you were imitating a windmill, meanwhile your face is facing downwards into the water and you breath to the side every four to five strokes. This is also followed by flutter kicks as you swim. Whenever your arm coums out, your elbow should be at 90° so you would be able to have the perfect form.

 

 

·      Backstroke

As you are swimming backstroke, you will want your body to be as flat as possible on the surface of the water. Once you establish that, you will be moving your hands up as if you were reaching for the sky then you will bring it over your head by your ear an into the water. Your pinky should be the first one enteringe the water. Once one hand goes into the water, the other hand should be coming out of the water and this rotations goes on till you finish. You will be rotating your arms and at the same time, this will also be follwed by flutter kicks so you can get more speed.

·      Breaststroke

This is better known as the “froggy style”, this is due to the fact that you are basically imitating a frog. When moving your arms, you will push your arms in front of you into a “Y” and pull the back with your palms facing outward. While pulling ypur hands back, you will be lifting your head up to get some air. To be able to perform a kick, you would have to pull your heels up to your butt and kick outward. This gives you the chance to glide and have more speed.

·      Butterfly

Butterfly stroke is known to be the hardest, most people hate preforming this stroke during competition. When not done correctly with the right technique it is most likely that you will be disqualified.

It is broken down to three parts: The pull, the push, and the recovery. You are going to be extending your hands above your head and you will be pulling them towards your body but your palms will be facing outwards, one thing you should always remember is that your elbows should be higher than your hands. Whenever your hands go into the water, your head comes out so you can be able to breath. The kick here is a little different, you are going to be performing what is known as the dolphin kick, your legs will be side by side and moving them up and down as a wave basically imitating a dolphin.

Breathing

In every single sport, breathing comes natural but in swimming, you have to make time for it. You need to know when to breath and when not to. An easy way to practice your breathing is by making bubbles, blowing bubbles help you develop a proper breathing system. You should inhale through your mouth and exhale from your nose. Whenever you feel confident in trying to do bubbles in the water, you should place your face in the water, blow some bubbles, and count to five. After you have done that, you should come out to the left or to the right side and breath, do it again a couple of times and rotate your head. Also, when you are swimming, letting the air you are holding back in your lungs helps you last a little longer under water.


Swimwear

There are many varieties of swimsuits to choose from, from it being a V-back to a racer back or from it being a one piece with bikini bottoms to short bottoms. The best way to choose a swimsuit, is to make sure that it is tight and not loose. It is mainly recommended for it to be tight due to the fact that if it were to be loose, water would get in it and most likely it would slow you down.

Your cap should also be tight but not too tight because it can lead to a headache but also do not let it be too loose since it could fall of during a race resulting to a disqualification.

This also goes for your goggles, they should be tight enough so water cannot go in them. They have different colors, they also have clear ones, blues ones, or dark ones. The ones you choose depends on your preference, I always bought the clear ones, I felt that I would see better with those.

T  i  p  s 

Swimming requires a lot of energy and a lot of strength, most swimmers do a lot of exercise to build up their muscle and get stronger so that the moment they are pulling water, it is a stronger force and builds up speed. Most people like to work on their legs more than anything for the reason that they will be kicking causing them to go faster.

Most recommended exercise are: 

o   Pull ups

o   Squat jumps

o   Lateral lunge

o   Alternating dumbbell press

o   Anything with weights

One important thing to become a better swimmer is to practice frequently and not get stressed about not being able to get the movement correctly.

Managing your breathing is in one important thing due to the fact that you can last longer in the water and not lose anytime coming out the water to breath.