Tagged with ' Swim Tips'

 It's crucial for competitive swimmers to prioritize rest and recovery for optimal performance, both physically and mentally. The rigorous training and stress on the muscles can really wear down the body, so without adequate rest, a swimmer's performance may decline. Here are a few key reasons why rest and recovery are vital.

Reduced Risk of Injury - Contrast training can put stress on your muscles and joints, leading to injuries like muscle strains and tendonitis. But, by making sure you give your body ample rest and recovery time, you can greatly reduce the risk of these injuries. This gives your body the opportunity to repair and heal itself effectively, keeping you safe and free from harm.

Boosts Performance -  It's important to give your body the time it needs to recover after tough workouts or competitions. Giving your body the chance to heal properly will increase muscle strength and boost your performance in your next swim.

Helps Your Mental Well-being - Competitive swimming is tough on the body and mind. Making sure to get enough rest can lower stress levels, reduce anxiety, and boost a swimmer's mental health.

You can learn more on:

How swimming reduces anxiety and stress

How swimming can improve mental health

Improves Sleep - Sleep is a crucial time for the body to recover and repair, helping swimmers to sleep better and wake up feeling more energised and ready to improve their performance.

Increases Energy Levels - If you push your body without rest, it can also lead to fatigue and burnout. Making time to recover and rest can help increase your energy levels which will improve performance as your muscles won’t feel as tired.

Rest and recovery may not be as exciting as training and competitions, but it’s just as important for a swimmer's overall performance and well-being.

It's Learn to Swim Day! 

Learn To Swim Day is all about encouraging people to learn how to swim and to ensure that from a young age children are encouraged to learn how to swim for safety in the water. 

Don’t be shy, no matter how old you are! Adults can learn to swim too! Here are a few of the many reasons you should learn to swim.

 Mastering the freestyle flip turn is crucial for improving your swimming abilities. It enables you to smoothly transition at the wall and maintain a steady swimming rhythm without interruptions.

Having the correct nutrition is critical to meet the challenges of swim training. Having a lack of proper nutrition can cause swimmers to face fatigue, depletion of hydration and glucose levels, all of which inhabit performance. Here are some tips to get the correct nutrition to fuel you for your swim.

Pullbuoys are buoyant pieces of foam that swimmers hold between their thighs whilst swimming to help keep their legs and hips at the surface of the water. This allows swimmers to stop kicking and concentrate exclusively on pulling and body rotation, and can also help increase arm strength.

There are different kinds of pull buoys that can be used and may help swimmers for different reasons. The right shape and buoyancy can make quite a bit of difference in the value pull buoys provide, and this guide outlines the various benefits of different pull buoy styles.

With the warm weather now in full swing, everyone is excited to have some fun in the sun at the swimming pool with their little ones. But before you jump in the water, it is crucial to prioritise pool safety for your children to let you have a more joyful and accident-free swimming experience.

Do you have a fear of deep water that is preventing you from learning how to swim? Or maybe the deep water is holding you back? Here’s some ways that you can overcome your fear.

Looking back at the start of your swimming journey, what do you wish you knew? Would you do anything differently? Here are four things that swimmers wish they knew sooner.

Improving your swimming pace is crucial for every swimmer because it not only helps you conserve energy but also enhances your efficiency in the water, enabling better forward propulsion. 

There are not many secrets to be learnt on how to improve your swim pace, but here are three tips to help your swim become more under control with a consistent and efficient rhythm and pace.

Swimming is a one-of-a-kind sport that stands out from the rest, but it's common for swimmers who put in long hours of training to feel a dip in motivation. Don't worry, it happens to everyone! Here are a few tips to keep you going strong.

Swimming pool chlorine is essential to kill bacteria, viruses and fungus to keep the water safe for swimmers, but chlorine can also affect us! Chlorine can make your hair dry and weak, causing breakages and loss of moisture. It can make hair coarse and tangly. Here are some tips on how to protect your hair from chlorine.

Swimming is an important skill to learn and can be tons of fun, but did you know that swimming is good for a child’s development? Let us explain!

So how can we prevent swimming injuries? Here’s five steps that can help decrease the risk of injury!

Any activity your child wants to commit to, you want to make sure is adding value to their life in some way - Are they having fun? Are they learning? Are they growing?

It’s hard to know what will suit your child before they try it, but if your child has asked to join a swim team, we have some benefits on swim teams for kids that may help with your decision.

Although swimming can look easy, it requires full-body strength and coordination. There are five simple skills that every swimmer needs to learn. Let us explain.

Breathing properly is often overlooked among the skills needed, but the ability to time your breaths with your strokes is important. Beginners tend to lift their heads above water when they run out of air and gasp for more. Breaking your rhythm while swimming slows you down and tires toy out, and if you are not breathing properly, you’ll struggle to make smooth, coordinated movements.

The basic idea for breathing whilst swimming is to breathe out through your nose and mouth when your head is underwater, then lifting your head to the side to take a full breath. Then you can plunge your face back down under the surface. You can practise this by:

1. Stand chest-deep in water, facing the wall and hands on pool edge

2. Breathe in and place your face in the water

3. Slowly, but forcefully, blow out the air in your lungs through nose and mouth

4. Rotate your head whilst exhaling, tilting it to the side

5. When your cheek and mouth emerge above the water, inhale.

6. Repeat the exercise. Try turning your head in both directions.

Once comfortable with this, you can build your way up to doing the same exercise while holding onto a kickboard or using a pull-buoy.

Sculling for swimmers is a technique that helps swimmers build strength and improve form. Sculling is a technique that allows swimmers to “feel the water,” by focusing on the pitch of the hands in the water. It's one of the first safety skills beginners learn, but expert synchronised swimmers and water polo players also depend on sculling. Learn more about sculling here.

Beginner swimmers often find themselves chopping through the water rather than coordinating their limbs to move all in time. That’s okay! It takes a while to get used to it! You must also get used to moving muscles in your lower back, abdomen and hips to power you forwards. Your body position in the water is important to help reduce drag and to help you become a more efficient swimmer. 

Once you’re comfortable with the basics, learning swimming strokes is the next big challenge. Breaststroke, while requiring more coordination than front crawl, offers a gentle stroke for beginners. Here is a video to help with this!

Speedo Swim Technique - Breaststroke - Created by Speedo, Presented by ProSwimwear

Finally, diving into the pool is one of the necessary swimming skills. Always practice diving in a deep pool with a lifeguard on duty. When you start, diving may only involve putting your hands together above your head and curling your body to fall into the water head first. As you progress, try jumping slightly with straightened legs behind you as you enter the water.

Unfortunately, burnout happens to many swimmers. Here’s what you can do to help prevent burnout.

When you’re stressed or anxious, exercise is usually one thing you probably don’t want to do. But what if swimming can help reduce stress and anxiety? It can! Let us explain.