5 Essential Swimming Tips for Beginners

by Sudarsan Chakraborty
Swimming

About half of all adults can’t swim well enough to save themselves. If you find yourself in this group, then it’s time to make a change. Improving your swimming skills can not only be safer, but it can also improve your physical fitness. 

Follow these swimming tips for beginners and improve your skills. 

1. Do a Warm-Up 

Don’t just hop in the pool and try to go hard swimming laps. Swimming is physically strenuous, and just like any other exercise, you need to warm up first. 

Start by doing stretches out of the pool. Then make a gliding motion while in the pool. To glide, start on one side of the pool and push off the wall by bending your knees and pushing your feet. 

Keep your head tucked between your arms and your hands out in front of you. Do a few swim strokes when you feel yourself slowing down. Repeat the glide and swim motion until your body is warm and your blood is flowing. 

2. Practice at the Right Time 

Look for the lane time or session time on your pool’s calendar. This is when the pool is closed to generally swimming. You’ll have a dedicated lane that’s yours for practicing. 

This is nice because it gives you dedicated space for learning to swim. Otherwise, you’ll be weaving in and out of other swimmers. This will be distracting and frustrating. 

3. Practice Your Breathing 

One of the best tips beginners can listen to is to practice your breathing when mastering your swimming technique. When we’re little, we are taught to take a deep breath and hold it. This is the exact opposite of what you should do as an adult. 

You wouldn’t hold your breath while running a 5K, would you? So don’t deprive your body of oxygen while swimming. Practice adding rhythmic breathing when practicing your strokes, so you don’t deprive your muscles of much-needed oxygen. 

4. Have the Right Swimming Gear

You’re only as good as your tools. If you want to get better at swimming, then you need gear you can depend on. This includes a quality pair of goggles, swimsuit, swim cap, swimmer’s snorkel, kickboard, and hand paddles.

As you develop your skills, you’ll want to consider adding to your gear. A tempo trainer can help you establish a steady pace or rhythm. You can learn more about buying gear on churchillfinsreview.com.

5. Don’t Get Lazy 

All too often, beginners find their comfort place and get stuck there. It’s smart as a beginner to take a slow and steady approach. Once you get the basics down, push yourself beyond this pace. 

When you leisurely log laps, you can easily become complacent and lose your correct form. You can prevent this by switching up your practices. Some days you should swim for a distance and other days you should swim for speed. 

Swimming faster forces you to focus on your form and technique because it’s essential to achieving better times. 

Follow These Swimming Tips for Beginners

If you’re looking to improve your swimming ability, then you need to keep these swimming tips for beginners in mind. Start by gathering the right gear and finding the best time to practice. 

Do a warm-up before each swim, practice your breathing, and keep your practice varied. In time, you’ll see your skills improve. 

Browse our other lifestyle articles and get more tips and tricks on all areas of your life. 

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