Everyone has a hobby, and If your hobby is swimming, you want to ensure that you are always doing it right. There are many ways to be smart in swimming – if you want to make this a career as an athlete, you should master these tips.
In this article, we share with you some of the proven swimming tips every athlete should know. Keep reading to learn more from the best in swimming, like Graeme Servantes.
1. The neutral head
In freestyle swimming, the best swimming technique is all you need to succeed. You should keep your head in line with your body swimming to avoid losing direction.
Avoid looking forward but down if you want to move faster.
When you look forward, you cause the leg and the hips to sink, which means you have to kick much faster to have your legs up. In the process, you’ll get tired and start breathing fast. You will also strain your neck when you look forward every time you swim.
2. Press the buoy
Learning how to press the buoy is the secret to maintaining a good balance in freestyle swimming. It makes it easy for you to set your body horizontal so you don’t sink easily.
Pressing the buoy means that you try to push your chest down a bit most of the time when you are inside the water. Imagine your body as a seesaw with the navel and the groin being the fulcrum.
The upper part of your body is one side of the seesaw, and the air-filled lungs act as the buoy. Once you push your body down a bit, your body should turn at the pivot point and allow your legs to move upwards.
3. Start swimming tall
Water is denser than air, which means you should slip your body through any smallest hole in the water if you want to move faster. You can imagine a central axis that extends from the top of your head to the opposite end of the pool and keeps rotating your body along this axis, with each of the strokes stretching your leading arm as fast as you can.
As you power yourself through the water, you should try to keep the muscles in your lower back and the abs tight.
4. Drop your anchor
Swimming is not as easy as you may think. It involves your whole body and using your hands alone to swim is like jumping with your feet alone in the air. When swimming, you should grip the water with your entire hand and forearm as if you are digging down to gather sand.
You should keep your hands broad, firm, and flat. You should also be pushing your arm through the water as much as anchoring it and pulling your body over it.
5. Maintain your breath
If you are breathing, maintain the pace if you want to swim far. You will go down easily if you keep gasping for air every time your head nears the surface. Therefore, before you can take a full breath on the high side, you want to ensure you are exhaling the air emphatically. Breathe faster and on alternate sides with each stroke you make. This way, you reduce the strain on your neck, resulting in breathing on one side of the body.
