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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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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Reasons Why Your Child Should Join A Swim Team

Reasons Why Your Child Should Join A Swim Team

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.

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3 Dryland Exercises To Improve Butterfly

3 Dryland Exercises To Improve Butterfly

All swimmers know that the butterfly technique is hard work. 

The arms as well as the legs are in simultaneous motion, relying on sheer power for breathing. The arms pull is followed by a massive kick with the feet together and vaults the swimmer over the water where they can catch a breath. Rhythm is crucial for efficiency and breathing in butterfly technique. Neither the legs or arms can ever pause without losing the stroke form entirely. So what techniques can you do with dryland training to help your strength and flexibility for butterfly technique?

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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 technique for triathlons

How to improve your technique for triathlons

Triathlon season is fast approaching! Still trying to improve your swimming technique for your next triathlon? We’ve got you covered! Here is how you can improve your technique for triathlons.

Bilateral breathing will open up the ability to take in what is happening around you, but can also reduce damage to your shoulders and neck from the repetitive motion of only breathing on one side. By doing this, you will be able to see more of your surroundings and see any hazards, such as oncoming waves or other swimmers. Try learning to breathe on both sides of your stroke. It will also help make your stroke more symmetrical.

Swimming in open water can throw a lot of variables into the mix. Many routes for triathlons include a turn around a buoy and swimming blindly with your head down will put you at a disadvantage. Identify landmarks before you swim that you will easily recognise and be able to see when taking a quick check of your surroundings.

To sight properly, lift your head slightly up so that only your eyes appear above the surface. Quickly scan to place where you are before lowering your head back underwater. You can do this as often as needed to understand your location and with your positioning in the race.

A major part of success in triathlon is being able to distribute the workload amongst you and your fellow competitors, it is key to not waste unnecessary effort on your first discipline, that you’ll be wanting to save for the rest of your swim. Identify the strongest swimmers around your pace level, and position yourself slightly to the side of them, making sure that you breathe away from the side of the swimmer’s leg. Make sure to push when you have the energy to do so! 

Keeping a high position in the water will keep your legs from weighing you down and sinking into the water, reducing the drag from your own body. Your wetsuit should assist with buoyancy but having the best head position will help guide the rest of your body through the water. Keep your fingers and toes closed to keep your streamline position throughout your body and you will see an increase in your efficiency!

For many triathletes, swimming can be their weakest of the three sports. However, making improvements to your swimming technique will help you move up through the ranks! Try out the points above and win your next triathlon.

How Swimming Increases Self-Esteem

How Swimming Increases Self-Esteem

There is an interesting relationship between self-esteem and sport. But did you know that swimming can help boost self-esteem? Here is how!

Swimming helps to tone muscles and build strength, helping many swimmers build a toned physique that they are proud of and feel confident in. How we see ourselves through our eyes can affect how confident we are about ourselves. It is the personal enjoyment of swimming that can boost someone’s self esteem. Get a swimsuit that makes you feel valued and brings a smile to your face when you wear it. If we add physical and aesthetic benefits of a sport activity into the water, your self-esteem can only benefit you.

Self-esteem in swimming isn’t all about the physical attributes of the exercise. Confidence is something you can train and sharpen and isn’t something you have to fake. Recognising what you have done well helps to boost your self-esteem and to appreciate how far you have come. Are you good at the butterfly technique? How about breaststroke? Maybe you’re struggling with a certain technique? Believing in yourself that you can achieve your goals and overcome any challenges will help you to achieve them! Remember, swimming is fun and you should only ever swim for yourself.

Set yourself goals to reach that are realistic, yet push you. Make sure you feel that you can reach a goal before you make it so you don’t get frustrated. Make small and achievable goals to help you boost your confidence and enjoy the small victories to help you get to those big goals. As your skills, strength and stamina increase through training, you’ll have more confidence in your ability as you will be able to visually see yourself improve! Embrace the challenge to reach your goals and support yourself through the challenging times. You can do it!

If you are part of a team or community, your peers, coach and family can be the boost you need. Your swim team will go through similar struggles with winning and losing and will be there to support you. Having similar like-minded individuals to encourage you, believe in you, and push you to achieve your goals are sometimes the ones you need to help build your self-esteem.

Swimming from a young age helps a child to become more confident in the water and in themselves, lessons help them improve their social skills as well as their confidence that can be used outside of the pool. Having control of an environment that can be potentially unsafe helps a child to feel as though they can achieve anything! Looking for how you can increase your kid’s water confidence? Read more here: https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/blog/how-to-increase-your-kids-water-confidence-/ 

In conclusion, swimming can help you to stay healthy, happy and more prepared. Perhaps try swimming? It might be the boost you need.

Why You Should Try Competitive Swimming

Why you should try competitive swimming

If you already love swimming, you don’t need to be reminded about the benefits of the sport. If you’re a keen swimmer and are looking to take your practice to the next level you may want to consider competitive swimming. 

Whether you choose to train and compete in a club environment or continue solo is up to you. A club environment provides you with a community to interact with, get tips from and to build friendships within, while also giving you the structure to your training routines. A club can make a swim meet incredibly fun and exciting, spending a lot of time with your team and helping to support each other. 

Another great benefit of competitive swimming is the versatility in training, where you can choose between breaststroke, butterfly, and other techniques. Will you focus on a sprint or endurance event? 

You can also add training aids to help your sessions, such as kickboards or fins, that can test and push your technique, and challenge your ability to focus. Make sure to check out our range of training aids:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/swimming-accessories/swimming-training-aids.html

With a more dedicated schedule and more swim meets to attend, this means you will need competitive swimwear that is going to support you through your competitions. Investing in competitive swimwear will help to boost your performance, keeping you as streamlined as possible. The FINIS range of swimwear is designed to help swimmers by better improving their performance. Check out our FINA swimwear that we offer at ProSwimwear:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/fina-approved-swimwear.html?approval=284

Swimming can also help to boost your mood and focus, helping to improve mental health. Being a part of a club offers you support from like-minded swimmers. Swimming helps to decrease stress and anxiety, but in competitive swimming, you can increase your mental health from the benefits of this sport. Learn more about how swimming improves your mental health here:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/blog/how-swimming-can-improve-your-mental-health-/

It is important to train your mind, once you know that swimming has many health benefits and is a great exercise to keep you physically fit with a toned/lean body shape, competitive swimming does this and trains your mind too! Both your body and mind will be working at full capacity, it may help you focus on other areas of your life as well. 

We wish you the best of luck at your first swimming competition! Your first medal is just around the corner!

 

Importance of Dryland Training for Swimmers

Importance of Dryland Training for Swimmers

Swimming is a vigorous exercise that works out every muscle in your body. But did you know dryland training improves a swimmer’s power, athleticism, and speed when they get back in the water? Having a good warm-up and warm-down routine can help to aid with recovery and to help with pre-race preparation both physically and mentally. Here are some reasons why dryland training is important for a swimmer and highlights portable equipment to aid you anywhere.

Swimming alone does not build muscle. During strength training exercises, you are fighting against gravity to create resistance against the heaviness of the weight, making the muscle experience micro-tears that repair and help the body to develop muscle. 

Resistance bands are an essential tool for most athletes. Not only are they multifunctional, but they can also be utilised by most athletes to improve recovery, flexibility, mobility, and power. At ProSwimwear, we have resistance bands that range from light to strong.

 

Our lowest Fitness Mad resistance band is ideal for those new to resistance training or for recovering from injury. 

Fitness Mad Light Resistance Band- 15m:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/fitness-mad-light-resistance-band-roll-red-15m.html

We also offer a light resistance band in 1.5 metres:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/fitness-mad-light-resistance-band-red-1-5m.html

If you’re looking for a resistance band that is stronger and gives a bit more of a challenge, we have these too! Our black coloured bands offer a higher amount of resistance compared to the red ones. The stronger resistance bands can be used for various purposes, to increase or decrease an exercise's difficulty for example.

Fitness Mad Strong Resistance Band- 15m:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/fitness-mad-strong-resistance-band-roll-black-15m.html

Fitness Mad Strong Resistance Band- 1.5m:

https://www.proswimwear.co.uk/fitnessmad-resistance-band-black-1-5m.html

 

In any sport, core strength is important for posture, agility, and balance - swimming is the same. Swimmers need a strong core to transfer force efficiently from one part of the body to another, to push off from the wall and essentially win the race. Good core strength enables the swimmer to accelerate faster and to carry more speed in a dive.  

Shoulder injuries are the most common in swimmers, this is caused by the repetitive motions performed in a swimmer’s daily training, when the same muscles are used they can get overworked and stressed. To remedy this, it is important to incorporate dryland exercises to relieve tension in muscle groups.  

The attributes of lifelong swimmers

The attributes of lifelong swimmers

Swimming is a sport for all ages and abilities and has a diverse range of people invested in it. Despite this, lifelong swimmers have many characteristics in common.

Swimming becomes a constant factor in someone’s life who swims regularly for many years. It reaches their persistence and consistency, often forming a routine on when they swim and how long for. Although the odd injury may get in the way, it often makes a swimmer want to return to swimming and get back connected with the water. These people also find it easier to quickly get back into swimming after being absent for a while. 

To be a confident swimmer, a degree of self-belief is necessary, you need to believe that you are strong and capable, because if you do not have that level of confidence in yourself you will not flourish and perform your personal best, whether it’s racing in a competition or managing to do 5 lengths in your local swimming pool without having a break. Tying in with this is a commitment to the sport, because if you do not focus on your swim stroke and practice, then the level of improvement you will have will not be noticeable enough. 

Lifelong swimmers often are more open to new swimming experiences and ideas. Open water swimming? Sure! Competitions? Absolutely. These swimmers get to experience new adventures and even possibly find something new that they love. Experiencing more and swimming for a long time will give you better knowledge about swimming. These kinds of people often go out of their way to encourage others to take up swimming and help them to stick with it!

People who swim long-term often become a part of a community, gaining new friends in the sport that can help to push each other to reach their goals. This can make a swimmer reliable and committed to the sport, the community, and their new network of friends.

Lastly, patience is vital because changes in your ability will not happen overnight, and it is likely you will face a lot more losses than wins due to the competitive nature the sport sometimes has, or even trying to beat your own personal best. This, however, could be why the sport is so popular as effort placed in often shows results. Relating to the points above, optimism is a helpful trait for swimmers, especially when they have to take a break from swimming for recovery or press on through a race when their body is hurting. In the face of adversity, optimism can help you to push on and complete your goals.

Whether you’re swimming in a team, or recreationally, Proswimwear has a vast range of training aids and swimwear that can help you meet your own personal goals. 

Be sure to check it out!

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