How to Swim--Alezza

 

Swimming is a very important skill you need to learn in life. Do you know how to swim in the deep end of a pool? Do you know how to do backstroke? Do you think you can swim more than 25 meters without dying after or during it?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, you should try to start learning how to swim. I started swimming at the age of 5 but you didn’t have to have taken swimming lessons then to be considered a really good swimmer. I know a couple people who started swimming a few years ago and now they are one of the most talented swimmers I know.

All it takes is just time, effort, and some money. You just need 4 things if you’re a guy, and 5 things if you're a girl. Both guys and girls need swimsuits, goggles, kickboards, and a pull buoy. Girls just need a head cap so their hair won’t get in the way when they swim.

I suggest for guys to get the speedo swim briefs. I suggest you don’t use trunks when swimming because the extra material from the trunks can be a drag and weigh you down. If you ever encounter a shark, you will need to swim fast and wearing trunks can make it harder to swim away fast enough.

For girls, I suggest a one piece swimsuit or a bikini when swimming. When wearing a bikini though, you shouldn’t get the one with extra stuff on it. It should be plain and simple or else the extra stuff can drag you down.

As for goggles, if it’s your first time swimming, I suggest the speedo ones because they are cheap, sometimes they come in multiples, and they also have some pretty designs on them. If you do want to become a professional swimmer though, I would recommend the Michael Phelps one because they are good quality, they don’t become loose easily, and they can last for a long time.

For caps, I suggest you get speedo ones because the quality is good, they won’t break so easily, and you can wear them for a long period of time. Try not to stretch out your caps that much when putting them on or else they might break easily.

For kickboards, I suggest that you get one from swimoutlets.com. They have different types of kickboards and different arrays of colors you can choose from.

Last but not least, pull buoys. I also suggest getting your pull buoy from swimoutlets.com. There are different types of brands and colors to choose from there.

STEPS:

1. Try to find the perfect fit for a swimsuit. It is important because if it's too loose, the material can weigh you down. If it’s too tight, you will struggle to breathe underwater. To find your perfect swimsuit, it must be tight enough on you so you can still breathe, but not loose enough where the material can weigh you down.

2. Find a pool that is 25 meters long. This is because in swimming, one lap is 25 meters long. In swim, if you have a coach, they will tell you to swim a 50 or a 100. How you can determine how many laps that is, think of it as a quarter. 1 quarter is 25 cents or 1 lap in swimming. 2 quarters is 50 cents or 2 laps. So when your coach tells you to swim a 50, they are telling you to swim 2 laps. A competitive swimming pool you can look for can look like this:

3. Next is learning how to float. Floating is important because you need to be able to stay up in the     water so you don’t accidentally drown. First, start by trying to float with your head looking at the sky or roof depending on where you are swimming at. You need to have a strong stomach and legs to help keep you afloat. Try not to let your legs start sinking down when you float. Same goes for when you have your head in the water. Just pop your head out to the side when you need to breathe. Here is a visual representation of how you should look like:

4. Next is kicking. When starting out, I suggest you go to the shallow end first and to have a wall in front of you so you could hold onto it. Start out by trying to float up and have your head either sticking out of the water or in the water. Next, start kicking your legs but keep them up the entire time. You should start off with small and slow kicks. Slowly though start kicking faster and faster until your legs hurt. It might take a few minutes or maybe a couple hours for you to finally get the hang of kicking. It all really depends on how determined you are and how fast of a learner you are. Once you are totally confident in it, you should grab your kickboard. You can start holding onto your kickboard and kicking with it. You will slowly start inching towards the other side. You will get to the other side either really fast or slow depending on how fast you decide to kick. There are both pros and cons to kicking slow and fast:

Kicking fast (Pros):

• ●  You get to the other side fast.

• ●  You don’t spend too much time kicking. So you can spend more time on other

  techniques.

• ●  You can help get your stamina fast so you can swim faster in the future.

  Cons:

• ●  You will get tired fast so you might not have enough energy for other things.

• ●  Your legs will be very sore for the other exercises.

  Kicking slow (Pros):

● You will have enough energy for the other exercises.

• ●  You won’t be sore in your legs.

• ●  You can focus on perfecting your kick. Cons:

• ●  You will spend a long time kicking.

• ●  Your stamina won’t be built up so later exercises will tire you out faster.

5. Next is arm stroke. Go back to the wall you were on when you started kicking. Start moving your right arm in circles. Then do the same with your left arm. Try to alternate between the arms as you do them. Then after enough times, float in front of the wall with your head up. Then instead of doing big circles, start bending your arm and slowly start extending your arm and unbending it. Like this:

Start alternating your arms as well. Once you get the hang of it, grab your pull buoy. Put the pull buoy between your legs in the top half of your leg. Like this:

Then start trying to get to the other side with only using the arm strokes. It may be very hard but don’t start kicking!

6. Next is putting it together. It might be hard at first since you learned both things separately but it will be quite easy. Start by trying to kick fast so you can get a little boost. Do it underwater as well so you're not just there kicking and not moving your arms. In swim, we start off doing laps by kicking off the wall and dolphin kicking underwater. If you want to know how to dolphin kick I will teach you how in the next step. Once we get to the top of the water, we start kicking fast and making arm movements. In order to breathe, we take 2 or 3 arm circle movements, and then we breathe to the side. We do it on the side where our arm is out of the water or else it will look weird. Here are some images of what it should look like:

7.  Next step is dolphin kicking. Dolphin kicking simply put it is a kick that allows a swimmer to go far underwater and not have to swim as much in a lap. If you look at the Olympics and see the swimming section, you can see that you barely see Michael Phelps swim at all until the last couple of strokes. He dolphin kicks almost the entire lap until the last few strokes. That is so he doesn’t have to swim as much and lose as much energy. In order to do a dolphin kick, you need to have your two legs right together. And you have to do the wave motion with it. There are videos I recommend watching on YouTube. Just search up “swimming dolphin kick” on YouTube and there is a bunch of good videos to watch on it.

8. There are more strokes that you can do in swimming. I taught you the freestyle stroke in this “How To” guide since it is the easiest out of the 4 strokes and the one you’ll most likely use in a dangerous situation. All the other strokes are pretty complicated to teach through the internet but if you wanted to know about the others, just search it up on YouTube or go get swimming lessons or a private teacher to help you.

Swimming is something that I am passionate about and something that has helped me strengthen myself and my stamina over time. It’s a fun workout to do with friends and family as well as music playing. The swim team I am a part of is a big family and I am happy to be a part of it. It has brought me so many memories and is the reason why I love swim so much. All the fun memories I made over the years from swim will always bring me happiness and I am so glad to be a part of this sport. I hope that if you decide to start swimming, you will find a great team that you will make so many good memories with.