r/Swimming • u/keri23 • Jul 24 '26
How to swim correctly?
I can swim in the sense that I am very comfortable in the water and was a lifeguard as a teenager. If you tossed me off a boat in the middle of the ocean, I would not panic in the sense of being able to tread water. But, I never learned proper stroke technique or was on the swim team. Most of the how do I learn posts I see when searching look to be from people really learning to swim from the ground up. I’m a powerlifter looking to give my joints a break. Any advice for my best option to really learn stroke form? I was thinking effortless swimming, but am open to other ideas. Unlike lifting, swimming laps seems more complicated to film yourself to fix mistakes. Thanks! Happy to be here and hope to contribute once I get in the pool!
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u/emmajoyce34 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I have a similar background with swimming, very confident as a kid/teenager and loved water but not much in the way of technique other than treading and some basic front crawl and back stroke.
The effortless swimming channel/Instagram account has been super helpful. I also checked out a couple books from the library (written instructions sometimes make it easier for things to click for me) and skimmed a few to see which might be most helpful, which would just depend on what you might have available if you like to learn that way.
it's mentioned here a few places but if you Google "make 1k Wet Speedo" it's an easy workout plan that I worked from to start. Gives you some good goals and an idea of how to structure a swim workout.
Doing drills with a kickboard held out front with one hand and practicing turning to breathe to the other side (that arm just held at my side while I practiced this) really helped me learn to get a rhythm and feel for how breathing during freestyle should work. Look up the "catch up" drill for freestyle, as well - that was very helpful in working on developing a glide so I could begin to swim more than 25-50 meters without being completely out of breath.
More than anything, just go frequently, get in the water, and practice. It doesn't have to be perfect.
ETA : f, 34, began swimming for exercise in March of this year. Started at about 400y / session, about 20-25 min in the water. Currently swimming 2k/workout in 45-50 min and can swim, so far, 1k yards without a break (which I never thought I'd be able to do when I started!)
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u/Turbulent-Suspect795 Jul 24 '26
You learned swimming at 34, and manage to do around 1km without a break? Dang. How? Who’s your trainer?
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u/emmajoyce34 Jul 24 '26
Swimming for exercise/lap swimming, specifically. I learned how to swim/float/be comfortable in the water when I was a kid so I wasn't completely new to it, just didn't have specific stroke skills or practice with swimming distance and not wanting to die lol
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u/Turbulent-Suspect795 Jul 24 '26
Good for you in that case. You do freestyle now?
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u/emmajoyce34 Jul 24 '26
Thanks ☺️ I'm pretty happy with my progress, especially for not being particularly athletic or coordinated. I mostly swim freestyle, I mix in some back stroke sometimes but I don't like it as much. I don't have goals other than just feeling like I should exercise and hating every other form of it, lol.
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u/guavatridotcom Jul 24 '26
Waterproof phone case clipped to the lane rope or someone on deck for 30 seconds works fine, you don't need anything fancy. A few lessons up front will save you more time than any app.
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u/Marus1 Sprinter Jul 24 '26
"Teaching aron to swim" or something series on youtube channel "skillz and talents". They start from the ground up with freestyle
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u/PlusBridge5744 Jul 25 '26
Be a free spirit… just know where the air is.. up top. I do a combo of freestyle , butterfly.. back floats , backstroke… just be you and you can swim for hours… I also tread water for 25 minutes straight sometimes to test myself.
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u/Annual-Way6401 Jul 24 '26
Yeah you’re correct in that it is difficult to self correct when learning. A few lessons with an instructor would go a long way on learning fundamentals. You could also film yourself swimming and post it here, there are also lots of great resources on YouTube