Swimming is a full-body workout that is highly impactful on both mind and body. It may seem like a fun exercise in childhood, but as an adult, this activity proves to be a full package when it comes to fulfilling your fitness goals. Your relationship with the swimming pool can go to new heights or new depths by just mastering proper technique and true form. No matter what level you are on- the beginner level or the expert international level, the rules of improving the swimming fundamentals remain the same for everyone. Here, we will discuss the top 5 fantastic tips to improve your swimming.
Benefits of swimming
Before starting about the tips to improve your swimming, we will first discuss the reasons and benefits of indulging in swimming. People who regularly swim are healthier with better sleep and an improved fitness level than others. They are also more positive and less stressed out than others. Some of the other benefits of swimming include:
- It is a great full-body exercise. It helps in increasing stamina and maintains a healthy weight. It is also good for your heart by protecting you against strokes, attacks, and diabetes.
- Swimming is also used as a relaxation technique that improves both physical and mental well being. It helps in reducing your blood pressure and alleviates depression and anxiety symptoms.
- Since swimming is a low impact sport that can be enjoyed at your own pace, it is also used by many for recovering from muscular injuries. It increases flexibility while strengthening your muscles.
Tips to Improve your swimming
In order to ensure you get the most out of the pool, there are certain tips and techniques that will help you in improving your swimming. Here the top 5 most important ones:
Start with the Right Technique
Though jumping in the pool and banging a couple of sets is sure to give you a great workout, have you ever wondered how much of it is with the right technique. If you are really serious about swimming faster, you should swim with the right intent and focus. A great technique lays the ultimate foundation for any successful swimmer. However, making changes to your technique can prove to be a daunting task. It should be performed one step at a time. Even if you want to work different aspects of your stroke, train for them separately. Eventually, they will blend seamlessly into your swimming technique.
Get Feedback
All of us have our own preferences and biases. These downplay our strengths and exaggerate our fears, making us pessimistic about our technique as well as practice. In order to cope with this, it is important to have a coach or get video feedback from someone qualified if training solo. This will help in correcting all the mistakes in the technique early on. In order to cover the yards and meters in front of you, it is fundamentally important to get your stroke right. The further you go down on the path of your swimming career, the harder it will get to make those technique adjustments.
Be efficient
Water offers great resistance. It is over 800 times denser than the air present at sea level. In order to battle this resistance, swimmers streamline their bodies and don expensive tech suits. Remember, swimming is not all about being powerful or stronger, it is about being more efficient. A swimmer’s body has to be lean and designed specifically to battle the resistance levels of water. Swim long and regularly to seek out the flaws of your stroke and make it more efficient by correcting the same. Keep a low profile in the water and make your stroke long to make it more efficient and swim faster in water.
Practice Hard
The top swimmers make swimming fast look extremely easy. When we watch an expert swimmer like Michael Phelps, we often think that swimming is an easy and relaxed sport. However, this relaxed stroke is only achieved after years and years of ruthless training and mastery over speed. That powerful and ‘easy’ stroke has been achieved after miles and miles of focused training in the pool. Remember, it is awesome to swim a few lengths with a great technique; it is great to do the same repeatedly for a few years.
Measure and progress
Swimming can be considered to be a sport of numbers. It is a dream comes true for a statistician with all the numbers regarding heart rate, stroke rate, stroke intervals, and stroke counts. These numbers are important as they give a specific and measurable target for you to work on. Whether it is holding the count of a particular stroke for a longer distance or doing more distance at a race, progression should be the final goal for every swimmer. It is that momentum of going forward that will keep you inspired and focused on the future.
Importance of swimming pool in swimming
There is an added factor that is often overlooked when discussing swimming- the type of pool used. In contrast to the concrete pools, large fibreglass pools prove to be a better choice. The popularity and quality of fibreglass pools can be reflected in the fact that over 60 percent of the new pools that are being installed globally are fibreglass. Other than improving swimming, there are several other advantages of these pools like the flexibility, quality, feel, price, and warranty associated with it.
Remember, It is important to structure your workout into sets to improve your speed. Several other swimming exercises are done outside the pool like Tabata and hill sprints also help in maximizing your aerobic capacity. It is important to have core strength in swimming and these exercises help you in taking your training up a notch. Just focus on your inner strength and set a goal for yourself. This will give you a measurable goal to progress and measure your swimming technique and speed.
