how to swim better – Compass Pools Australia

6 Fail-Proof Freestyle Swimming Tips for Beginners

CPA — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 03:18:59 +0000

This article will reveal some easy-to-follow, fail-proof swimming tips for beginners. If you want to get better at swimming, read on…

Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise you can do. It’s excellent for your mental and physical health, and it’s great fun, too! Swimming regularly gives you a great cardio workout. It also lowers your blood pressure, reduces your levels of stress and anxiety, and helps you sleep better at night. All in all, it’s a wonderful way to achieve a greater feeling of health and wellbeing in your life.

For those who are new to swimming, however, it can take a while to get into your stride – or your stroke! As most people choose to swim freestyle, we have put together this simple guide to freestyle swimming for beginners. We have covered all the basics to help you learn freestyle swimming, and set you up for a lifetime of enjoyment in the water. Here are our 6 fail-proof freestyle swimming tips for beginners.

Freestyle swimming tips for beginners

Wondering how to swim freestyle more efficiently? When you learn freestyle swimming, there is a lot to remember. But, once you get more practice, these things will become second nature to you. Here are our essential freestyle swimming tips for beginners that will have you swimming freestyle well in no time!

1. Swim regularly

It goes without saying that you can’t get better at something unless you practise often. Swimming is no exception. If you want to improve your freestyle swimming technique, you should aim to swim at least twice a week, preferably more.

This can be a lot easier if you have your own pool in your backyard. This way, you can fit your swimming in around your own schedule rather than having to fit in with public pool opening times. It also gives you the opportunity to learn freestyle swimming in the privacy of your own backyard so you don’t have to feel embarrassed!

If you are a beginner learning to swim, and you’re considering investing in your own pool, there are plenty of options when it comes to sizes and shapes of pool, so you should easily be able to find the right choice for your property and your needs.

2. Structure your swimming sessions

Second of our swimming tips has a lot to do with focus and purpose. Every time you get into the pool, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. This means giving a structure to your practice sessions. For example, you could start off by swimming 200 metres to warm up, before concentrating on your arm movements or working on your kicking technique. Choosing a particular part of the body to concentrate on in each session is a good idea as it makes sure your entire body can work together to produce a much stronger freestyle swimming technique overall. It is also a way how to secure a perfect swimmer´s body.

You can finish up your session by swimming laps in perfect size lap pools to put into practice the techniques you have learned that day. Make sure the end of your session is gentler to help your muscles warm down.

3. Work on your breathing

Freestyle swimming for beginners can be daunting because the breathing technique does not always come naturally. It can be tempting to swim with your head too high, or lift it too far out of the water when you need to breathe. This is counterproductive because it puts a lot of strain on your neck and shoulders if your head is too high when you swim. It also slows you down and makes you tire more quickly.

Instead, you should aim to keep your head low in the water, and only tilt it slightly to the side to take a breath. Try keeping one of your goggles in the water instead of both of them coming out when you raise your head to breathe.

Also remember that you don’t need to breathe on every stroke! Try to aim for one breath every three strokes so you are breathing on opposite sides each time. This ensures that both sides of your body are taking equal strain. It’s one of the swimming tips that need some practice, especially if you are used to breathing on one side only.

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4. Keep your strokes efficient

Using too many strokes to get from one end of the pool to the other is a complete waste of energy. You will tire yourself out too quickly and not be able to swim so fast. You should aim to swim a lap with as few strokes as possible – when you become a more proficient swimmer, you should be aiming for less than 20.

The trick is to travel as far as you possibly can with each stroke. Use your arms and hands like oars to propel you through the water. Stretch your arm as far as you can with each stroke, and make sure your hand is flat to pull as much water as possible. Your fingers should always enter the water first, and they should be outstretched and held together to create a smooth stroke. Only start your next stroke when you start to slow down from your previous one.

You can also help yourself along by letting your torso do some of the work. This should be tilting into each stroke so your back muscles and your abs can give your body more power to push through the water.

5. Get your kicking technique right

Many people tend to kick too much when they start swimming. This can actually hold you back instead of helping you along. Your legs are among the heaviest parts of your body, so if you are constantly kicking, you are burning unnecessary energy and slowing yourself down.

The correct swimming kicking technique for beginners is gentle. Try not to worry about it too much when you’re starting out – you will gain far more from getting your head position and your arm strokes right. Once you have perfected these things, you can start working more on your kicking technique.

One thing you need to remember is that a good kicking technique comes from the hips. Some swimmers kick from the knees. This results in your knees being bent, which can slow you down considerably when you’re swimming freestyle. Instead, your legs should be straight, with the leg muscles taut. Your feet need to be loose so they can act like fins and give more momentum to each kick. This will propel you through the water much more effectively than kicking too fast or too much.

6. Take it easy!

The last one of our swimming tips looks easy, doesn’t it? When you start swimming freestyle, it can be an exhilarating feeling. You’re full of enthusiasm, and you can’t wait to get into the pool and start burning off some energy! This means a lot of new swimmers make the mistake of swimming too fast.

If your aim is to learn how to swim freestyle more competently, swimming too fast will do you more harm than good. You need to be able to spend enough time in the pool at each session to improve the swimming of all the different aspects of your technique. If you start off too fast, you won’t have enough energy to take you through the whole session. This means you’ll have to leave some of the learning until another day, and your overall progress will be slower.

It is also essential to start each session gently to give your muscles a chance to warm up. If you put too much strain on cold muscles, you can end up with cramps. This is something you definitely want to avoid!

Find out more freestyle swimming tips for beginners

At Compass Pools Australia, we’re passionate about encouraging a lifelong love of swimming. We regularly update our blog with articles about all aspects of swimming and pools to help you get maximum enjoyment out of the sport.

If you are thinking of investing in a pool and you’re serious about swimming, check out our lap pool range. And of course, if you would like any help choosing the perfect pool, our expert team at your local Compass Pools dealership will be glad to advise you! Happy Compass Pool owners keep telling us that the’re spending their holidays at their pool (staycationing). Why don’t stay active, improve your swimming and experience a great staycation at your own Compass Pool?

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The post 6 Fail-Proof Freestyle Swimming Tips for Beginners appeared first on Compass Pools Australia.

3 Exercises for Getting Better at Swimming

CPA — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 04:38:28 +0000

Swimming is an excellent low-impact exercise that can help you strengthen almost every muscle group in your body. However, swimming requires a lot of muscles and movements that you wouldn’t typically use when you walk around on land, so a great deal of practice is needed, and you may feel sore early on!

Just like any kind of sport, you need to warm up your body and always make sure it’s ready for any tedious activity. For golf, you would need to perform golf exercises, for basketball, you need to exert effort in circuit training, but since swimming is a watersport, exercises tend to be more difficult, but we’ll help you through it in this article.

There are several exercises to improve swimming available, and we’ll outline how you can use them to get better at swimming. Also, the type of pool you use can impact whether or not you swim better – we’ll go over several that are excellent choices below. Read on to get to our tips for getting better at swimming now!

Three Easy Exercises to Improve Swimming

You can focus on one area at a time to help you learn how to swim better. Dedicate time to each area of your body, and go as quickly or as slowly as you like.

1 – Planks

You don’t have to do all of your exercises in the pool to strengthen your body. One effective way to strengthen your glutes, arms, shoulders, upper and lower body is with planks. Position yourself like you’re going to attempt a pushup with your arms grounded slightly wider than your shoulders. Squeeze your glutes to stabilise yourself and use your toes to hold your feet. Your head should be in line with your back, and you hold this position for 20 seconds. Your legs shouldn’t hold any of the pressure. Planks, loved and recommended by (almost) all PTs, can significantly help you with getting better at swimming.

2 – Warmups

Before you get into the pool, you should be performing warmups to loosen your muscles up. This session should stay under 30 minutes. Do prone holds, stretch your hamstrings, do push-ups, burpees, and sit-ups. You can do this right alongside the pool, or you can do it in your home before getting into your pool. This reduces the risk of developing cramps.

3 – Core Exercises

Your core is the one place that will go through the biggest workout when you swim, so it makes sense to strengthen it any way you can. Start with the bird dog position. Get on your hands and knees and make your spine flat. Extend your right leg and left arm out, keeping them below your spine. Hold this position for five seconds before switching limbs. For V-sits, start in a seated position before raising your legs to a 45° angle. Extend your arms out to your knees and hold for 30 seconds. Strengthening can contribute to you getting better at swimming.

Six Big Benefits of Exercising in the Pool

There are several benefits that come with exercising in the pool or any body of water. These benefits are why many forms of therapy take place in the water, especially if people have injuries and they need to restrengthen their muscles. We’ve picked out the biggest ones and outlined them below.

Low Impact – Unlike traditional exercise that can put more stress on your joints, swimming is very low impact. Water gives you buoyancy. This means you float once you enter the water. When you do your exercises, the water will save your joints from excess stress and reduce your risk of injury.
Built-In Resistance – When you push against the water, you meet resistance. This resistance makes your body work harder to complete whatever exercise routine you have set up. You can adjust your resistance level depending on what you’re doing and the water depth. Deeper water has more resistance than more shallow water.
Slowly Increase the Intensity – Water exercising is beginner-friendly. It allows you to start out slow and gradually work your way up to more complicated routines. To do this, you increase your time in the pool and take shorter rest breaks between exercise sets. You can also go to a greater resistance level.
Tones Muscles – Working out in the water allows you to tone a huge range of muscles that you may not work out if you exercise on land. You can focus on more than one muscle group at once as well, and it helps keep your joints nimble because it’s so low-impact.
Whole Body Support – No one wants to hurt their back because this can set you up for a lifetime of problems. Water exercises help to protect your body, particularly your back and spine. The water will support your weight and keep it off of your spine.
Heart Healthy – Swimming laps, water jogging, or other water exercises are all aerobic. They get your heart pumping faster and encourage your vascular system to work. In turn, this can improve your heart health. Water also has a naturally cooling effect that lets you exercise for longer periods without feeling uncomfortably hot or sweaty.

Consider Investing in a Lap Pool

Lap pools are designed for swimming and swimming laps in your own lap pool can become an excellent way of getting better at swimming. We have several great lap pool models available at Compass Pools. They feature a narrow design that fits into more versatile areas, and they’re big enough to help you practice your swimming strokes. You can have this pool right outside your door, and this gives you the freedom to practice your swimming in the comfort of your own home. Spend the holidays at home and swim every day!

First up is the Fastlane lap pool design. This pool is excellent for serious swimmers because it offers lengths up to 30m. There are also two standard lengths coming in at 12 and 10m. This is more than enough space to help you clean up your strokes and improve your swimming speed. The flat bottom allows you to swim unhindered, and you can add optional external steps in several places along the pool wall.

Locate Your Nearest Compass Pools Dealer to Design Your Lap Pool

If you’re ready to try getting better at swimming in your own home, locate a Compass Pools dealer near you. They’ll be happy to answer all of your questions and help you decide which lap pool would work best for your needs. With dozens of colours and sizes available, you’ll get a pool you can’t wait to use for years to come!

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