Stretching For Swimmers

Stretching For Swimmers

Stretching before a workout will do your body wonders with any physical activity. Although swimming is a low-impact sport, there is still risk to injury for those who hit the pool regularly. Having a good stretching routine to help improve your range of motion and your training longevity is beneficial. Whether swimming is a hobby or a full-time job, a few minutes of stretching can keep the body healthy.

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Aquasphere Defy Ultra - Experience Infinite Vision

Conquer open waters and be the champion of your next goal. The DEFY.Ultra swim mask features an all-new DuoCurve180 lens, offering panoramic vision both laterally and vertically, ultra-thin silicone Precision  Fit Technology skirt for a comfortable, leak-free seal and a groundbreaking ultra-light frameless design for reduced drag in the water. Prepare to lock in your new personal best time with a low-profile hydrodynamic design and the Quick Fit Buckle 2.0 on the strap.

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4 Ways to Finish a Tough Swim

4 Ways to Finish a Tough Swim

With the new year just passed, many swimmers are heading back to the pool and face unique challenges when returning. Returning to a workout can be tough and can be hard to maintain motivation. Here are four ways to help swimmers get through a tough workout.

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3 Tips To Improve Your Swimming Pace

3 Tips To Improve Your Swimming Pace

Swimming pace is vital for any swimmer as it doesn’t just allow you to preserve energy but also to be more efficient in the water and help you with 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.

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The benefits of swimming with fins

The benefits of swimming with fins

Training aids are beneficial to improve your technique and power in the water. Swimming training aids are an essential part of any swim practice session, no matter what your standard or ability. Swim fins are no exception! Let’s explore the benefits of fins.

Kicking in the water can be one of the hardest parts of your technique to improve. Finding that you aren’t moving very far during kick sets? It’s not about leg strength, it’s about your kick technique. The best kick is short and fast, rather than big and powerful. Adding fins to your kicking sets can help build strength. Fins add resistance against the water and to the range of your motion, helping to improve technique and providing you with the correct muscle reinforcement. This will help you be more efficient and faster in the water. 

Swimming fins in kick training will also increase your ankle strength to a more efficient flutter and dolphin kick. The resistance of the fins will reinforce your kicking and help increase the flexibility of your ankle joints. Fins not only make you swim faster, but they also help you to kick for longer periods of time. This helps you to build endurance in your legs whilst also providing a more efficient workout.

Swimming may be a very low-impact sport compared to land based physical sports, but your shoulders will still experience stress. With the repetitive motions that come with swimming, your shoulders are bound to experience tension if you push too hard. Adding fins to your workout can lessen the impact on your shoulders and allow you to work on your kicking technique, taking away some of the pressure from the upper half of your body.

Your body position in the water can determine how fast you move through the water. The higher the elevation you have, the quicker you will accelerate through the water. Most swimmers struggle to hold this body position and fins can provide velocity to your stroke. It also can help teach your body how to keep the correct position and how to swim faster. 

On top of this, fins can help improve your stroke technique. The added stability of fins allows you to focus on the parts you are struggling with the most in your swim techniques. Fins help you to approach more advanced drills that you may not be able to do without fins and a lot of practice! For example, single arm techniques and backstroke can be very difficult techniques. 

Overall, Fins are versatile and can help you improve your technique, flexibility and body position in the water. They are a beneficial piece of equipment for training in the water, no matter your level of swimming.

Looking for some new fins? At ProSwimwear, we have a wide range of swimming fins to help assist you in your next training session: https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/swimming-accessories/swimming-training-aids/training-fins.html 

Reasons why you are not improving and how to fix them

Reasons why you aren’t improving and how to fix them

People who have started swimming recently often expect to improve more quickly than they actually do. This can be frustrating, especially if you set a goal that you struggle to reach. This is common with any new sport and can often get people to quit before they’ve even started! Let us go through some of the reasons why and discuss how to fix them!

Firstly, we need to ask ourselves ‘why can’t I swim that well?’ The main reason that you may not be able to swim well is because you’re new and have not had the right time to learn the right motor skills for a certain technique. Swim instructors will help you to improve your movement in the water to make it more efficient and improve your technique. 

Remember, quantity isn't important as a less experienced swimmer. Set realistic goals for yourself that you can achieve, as well as being willing to train hard. It’s good to set goals that are ambitious but within your reach. Use these variables to determine your goals:

  • Your motivation
  • Current standard in swimming
  • The amount of time you have for training
  • The effects emotions have on exercise

Sometimes the goals you have set are unrealistic, and that’s okay! Look at what you are doing in the pool and you can even track your progress with a training log to see your progress. Remember, working hard for three straight weeks won’t result in a three second drop in your freestyle swim. Practice makes perfect.

Having inconsistent training sessions can also be a reason. Some swimmers may do ten sessions a week but only perform well at one of those. Have a consistent training schedule that suits you. Can you practise three times a week? Awesome! Put your effort into these sessions to improve your performance. Have a training regime that works for you and what you want to achieve, one that you can work on and improve on throughout your training sessions.

The most frustrating setbacks are the mistakes we are aware of and ones that we experience over and over again. Don’t repeat the mistake over and over to expect a different outcome, the conclusion will be the same. It will only continue as a mistake if you don’t learn from it and learn how to improve from it. Are you kicking too low in the water? Try changing your body position to push yourself quicker through the water. Try not to focus on just your strengths, as fun as they are to do! Be sure to improve what is holding you back.

Don’t compare yourself to other swimmers because you will improve at your own pace. Often, a lot of the failure can come from a lack of self-belief. Confidence is a critical aspect for swimming. Learn to love and accept yourself as a person, train hard, do your best, give everything you can but also learn to take time for yourself. 

Understanding the pace of your own body on how quickly you can improve your skills is important but don’t think you have to push these limits. It takes time, and that’s okay! Believe in yourself and you will reach your goals, no matter how long it may take to reach them.

There may be other reasons that you are not improving as quickly as you would like at swimming, but remember that practice makes perfect and time. Set yourself realistic goals that you can reach and continue to improve your technique. You can do it! 

A Beginners Common Swimming Mistakes

A Beginners Common Swimming Mistakes

Have you recently started swimming? That’s awesome! Swimming is a great sport to get involved with. But there’s a lot about swimming that you may not know. You’re bound to make a few mistakes, as you do with anything you are trying for the first time! Don’t let these mistakes stop you! Here are a few mistakes that are common for beginners.

Holding your breath underwater is the right thing to do, right? A lot of beginners hold their breath when their head is underwater and while you certainly shouldn’t breathe underwater, it’s not good to just hold your breath either! You should exhale through your nose when underwater, helping you to work on breath control which is very important for swimmers. Practice on dry land first. Take a deep breath in through your mouth and hum as you exhale. This helps you understand the pacing of your breathing and gets you used to the feeling of inhaling through your mouth and exhaling through your nose.

Swimming is a tough form of exercise, working out almost every muscle group in your body. It’s tiring, especially for people just starting out. Your technique won’t be perfect yet and your awareness of your body position will also not be quite there yet. This often leads to swimmers letting their hips sink in the water. This increases drag, making swimming much more difficult and can increase the risk of injury. It’s very common this happens because  a swimmer is lifting their head to breathe instead of turning it to the side. 

To get your hips and legs to stay positioned correctly in the water, you can always practice with a snorkel. This takes away the head movement and allows you to focus on technique. Once you feel more comfortable, you can start to add the head movements back in.

A lot of beginners also don’t finish a stroke completely. If you pull your hands and arms out too early, you are bound to lose some of the momentum and energy you could be generating. Focus on moving through each and every stroke before moving onto the next. Your arms should reach back to your hips before pulling them out of the water to begin your next stroke.

Remember, everyone makes mistakes in the beginning! Don’t be discouraged! If you are struggling, attend a few swimming lessons where you will gain valuable instructions and important feedback on your swimming techniques! 

How to improve your breathing technique

How to improve your breathing technique

On average we breathe 20,000 times per day. Most of the time, breathing is natural and a subconscious activity to sustain life. However, this style of breathing can often be inadequate for swimming and can limit the distance and speed you achieve in competitions.

Confident swimmers develop control of their breathing as an integral part of an easy and relaxed swimming technique, so let’s look at some of the tips about the inhale/exhale breathing cycle you may need to consider before heading to your next swimming meet.

 

Exhalation

This is the critical part of the cycle to get right. Correct breathing technique requires you to exhale strongly and evenly under the water, between breaths. Exhaling must be regulated, and slow enough to leave you ready to inhale at the right moment when you turn your head to have a breather. Doing correctly with good timing and rhythm will help the quality and speed of your stroke.

 

Head position

It is also important to keep your head still in between breaths. Some swimmers allow their heads to roll with every body rotation, making good coordination almost impossible. For example, if you imagine you have a cup and saucer on your head which must stay balanced, this can help your awareness and development of a steady head position. Another tip is to look down at one spot on the pool floor, this also guarantees that your head will not roll side to side. Getting this right helps you to coordinate your stroke, and build a strong swimming rhythm.

Good breathing will not improve your stroke speed and efficiency by itself, it is further improved if you prevent yourself from rolling your head too far as you inhale. You should be looking to the side, not skywards so only one goggle lens needs to be above the water as you breathe. Otherwise, the resulting head rotation will cause you to lose balance and slow you down, which is not what you want this race season! Just remember, except when inhaling your head stays still.

 

Inhale

When swimmers move through the water, they create a ‘bow wave’ in the front, as a boat does in the water. This leaves a trough, which swimmers call a ‘pocket’, on each side of your head. This allows a pocket to let you inhale without lifting your head above the water. If your exhalation has been long and steady, you should find that inhaling through your mouth is natural. Observe other swimmers, especially professionals, to observe how they use the bow wave effect whilst swimming to help visualise how you may use it in your own swimming. Lifting your head from the water actually reduces your waves and makes good breathing harder. Furthermore, lifting your head above the water can also lower your body, tilting it downwards, which generates drag and makes swimming harder and more effort.

 

Bilateral breathing

At first, you should breathe on the side you find most comfortable as you work on mastering your breathing techniques. However, ‘bilateral breathing’ which is breathing on both sides has many advantages. Breathing on one side makes it difficult to rotate evenly as you swim, and swimming in a straight line down the race lane subsequently becomes more difficult. Bilateral breathing will give you a more symmetrical stroke and thus better control of direction. An example of a bilateral swimming pattern could mean breathing every three strokes and thus breathing side to side, before switching and spreading the same pattern on the other side.

Improving any of these aspects listed above can help you to relax, improve your swimming, and essentially put in less effort.

At Proswimwear, we have a vast range of training aids that can help you improve your stroke, and performance in the pool this race season. Be sure to check out our website for great deals!

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/swimming-accessories/swimming-training-aids.html?product_list_limit=60

How to stay safe when open water swimming

How to stay safe when open water swimming

With the open-water season approaching it is important to take into consideration the dangers that could come with it, and follow all of the safety steps required. It is important for everyone to have fun and experience the beauty of natural areas but do so in a safe manner.  

So how do you stay safe whilst swimming in open water? It can be dangerous sometimes to swim on your own. Swimming with another person that you trust can help improve your safety. Even if they don’t get in the water and sit on the side, they will be able to keep an eye on you to ensure that you are safe and comfortable in the water. Check the route that you are taking with your friend and plan it in advance. Swimming with a group means you always have others looking out for you. 

Check the tides, currents, the weather, and check for hidden structures and foliage on your route that may get in your way or could cause any danger. The weather can especially play a large part in the difficulty of open water swimming conditions, so check the weather conditions on the day of your swim before heading out into the open water. 

You can always seek out advice from locals to ensure you understand your route as best as possible. Let another responsible person know where you are swimming so they have knowledge of your location to keep you safe if they need to call for help. Make sure that you don’t dive or jump into the water, enter slowly to allow yourself to acclimatize to the temperature, and not have a shock due to it.  

If you are new to open water swimming or are still not comfortable, swim within a depth where you are able to stand comfortably with easy access in and out of the water. A steady slope or beach is ideal for this. If you still feel unsafe, don’t get in the water. Knowing your limitations whilst swimming in open water is important. If you happen to get in and find out that there are currents, make sure that you swim upstream (against the current or tide) first and get to shore safely.   

Take a tow float and whistle on your swim. A tow float is a visual aid for others to find you in the water if needed and the whistle will help to attract attention if you are in trouble. Wearing a brightly coloured swim cap is also a great way to be seen in the water by your friends, peers, and rescuers. Make sure that you also check for any motorised boat traffic in the area. 

Wear a wetsuit. It will help to provide your body with extra warmth and avoid you getting cold whilst in the open water. The temperature of the water can be shocking in just a swimsuit. It is advised to practice swimming in a wetsuit before going out in the open water as it can change your swimming stroke slightly. 

If at any point you feel your body getting too cold, get out of the water. Make sure you lubricate around your neck to avoid chafing from your wetsuit. You should also wear goggles to help protect your eyes and increase visibility in lakes, rivers, and seas that have poor water visibility. At Proswimwear we have a large range of tow-floats and wetsuits to protect your body when swimming, take a look at what we have in stock. 

Overall, open water can be fun and exciting, but you should stay vigilant and wary when in the water of any dangers that may occur. For example, the changing currents and change in weather conditions. If you are ever in doubt, stay out of the water. Make sure that you have all of the open-water essentials provided by Proswimwear shown in the link below, and swim safely!

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/wetsuits/open-water/safety-buoys.html?product_list_limit=60 

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/wetsuits/open-water.html 

 

Time and Time Again: Top 4 Stopwatches for the Poolside

In this blog we will look at the top 4 stopwatches that can help your poolside timekeeping!  Stopwatch Cover

We will look at... 

  • Four different stopwatches by different brands
  • What makes each stopwatch unique and which key features they have
  • Pictures of each stopwatch!
  • And other great pieces of equipment that can help you swim your best! 

These watches can help you and your coach keep time in a simpler way!

So, why wait to stop watching the time when the stopwatch can watch the time today?

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The ProSwimwear Guide To Swimming Fins

Many professional swimmers are using swim fins regularly as a swim training tool. They are becoming a very common site at pools all over the world, but people are often confused by the benefits of a swimming fin and the different types. This guide can fill you in on why you should wear fins and what kind of swimming fins are right for you.

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