Swimming can look frightening. All of you have to do is get comfortable in the water, learn those beginning strokes, and then move on to more advanced techniques when you're ready.
You first of all have to learn to not be afraid of water. People who fear the water, their hearts since the freeze. The best way to overcome is to expose your face in the water more often.
Learning to deal with getting your face wet and building up to partial and total submersion and holding your breath is the next step.
The second step is to learn how to relax your body. Our body is made out of water most, that it floats logically it should be very easy.
Main Tips from Ballay Beri (Swimming Coach) :
- Let go of Your Fear : A lot of people put off learning how to swim because they are afraid of drowning.
- Get used to Floating : When you are in the water, hold on to the side of the pool or a dock and let your legs float out behind you. They should lift easily if you let them. Practice doing this on your stomach and on your back, until you are comfortable letting half of your body float.
- Get Comfortable in the Water : The second step toward talented swimming is to be comfortable in the water. Practice treading water for gradually longer periods of time. Practice holding your head under water and opening your eyes. Practice floating on your back and on your stomach.
- The Crawl Stroke : The front crawl consists of alternating strokes with your arms while maintaining a kick. Draw one arm up from your side through the air, break the surface with your hand and pull the water back down to your side. When your backward pull begins, your other arm should exit the water at your side and begin its way forward. Allow your body to rotate slightly back and forth with the alternating momentum of your strokes.
- Practice Exhaling Underwater : While you are still in a shallow depth, take a deep breath and put your face underwater. Slowly exhale out your nose until you are out of breath, then come back up. If you are uncomfortable exhaling through your nose, you can hold it closed or wear a nose plug and exhale through your mouth.
- Practice kicking Your Legs : Whether you are floating on your back or still holding on to the side of the pool, you can practice kicking. This allows you to focus on your kicking technique without worrying about keeping your head above water.
- Try a Flutter Kick : Point your toes out like a ballerina, keep your legs mostly straight, and alternate legs as you make small kicks. You should feel the most flexion in your ankles.
- Try an Eggbeater Kick : This kick is used to tread water and stay in a vertical position with your head and shoulders above water. Start with your knees bent and your legs slightly wider than hip-width apart. Then pedal each leg as you would on a bike, only they will go in opposite directions: while one leg pedals forward, the other leg should pedal backward.
- Breathing : To breathe while swimming the crawl, tilt your head sideways on the side where your arm is just leaving the water. The natural tilt of your body at this point in the stroke means you will only have to tilt your head a little bit to get your mouth above water. Do not raise your head and face out of the water to breathe. Breathe in through your mouth and exhale through your nose or mouth and nose underwater.
- Freestyle
- Breaststroke
- Backstroke
- Butterfly
Try some more advanced strokes. Once you are more comfortable in the water, you can start learning new strokes that will move you more quickly or with less energy. They are as follow :
- Dolphin Stroke
- Butterfly Stroke
- Breaststroke
- Sidestroke
Try Diving : Dives can be a fun way to get into the water and start a stroke. Start with a basic dive and move on to more complicated swan dive, back dive, and rolling dive.
Health Benefit of Swimming :
A relaxing form of exercise means weight lost by swimming is fun too.
- Swimming is very effective at reducing blood pressure and improving vascular function.
- Swimming helps lose weight, burn calories and puts little stress on your body. Swimming works all the major muscles, and will tone you up and slim you down.
- As swimming uses so many muscles in your body, your heart and lungs must work hard to supply them all with oxygen and it improve breathing capacity of our lungs.
- Your resting heart rate will decrease and blood pressure will lower.
- Regular swimming when losing weight will improve your health and may reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, Diabetes type 2 and stroke.
- Swimming provides constant resistance exercise as you are battling against the water to propel your body forward. This makes it excellent for increasing strength especially in the upper body.
- Swimming is also an activity that can aid people of any age with their asthma.
