Watching athletes or simply people who swim well, we involuntarily admire their coordinated movements. Swimmers rely on the laws of physics. They have particularly well mastered Archimedes' law. To swim fast, you need to use the buoyant force of water. And for that, you need to become like a fish.
How do amateur-inept swimmers swim? Stretching their neck forward and raising their head high. And if a person swims doggy paddle, their legs are quite deep in the water, which greatly slows movement. With short strokes, not lifting their arms out of the water, the swimmer scoops water under themselves, expending tremendous effort but barely moving. Try moving while swimming in a vertical position. How far will you get?
Athletes and skilled amateurs behave quite differently in the water. They position their bodies in an optimally streamlined position. It is this streamlining that helps not only individual small fish but also large schools of fish maneuver easily, quickly, and almost synchronously in the water.
The head of a skilled swimmer is almost parallel to the bottom, face submerged in water. Powerful, sweeping, carefully measured strokes, strong kicks. Looking at such people, one gets the impression that the person swims easily, relaxed, without exerting much effort, even lazily.
A good swimmer lies freely on the water surface. From time to time he takes a short breath, turning his head to the side. Exhalation is done only into the water. Mastering the science of proper breathing in water is usually not achieved right away. But this is the most important point before establishing swimming technique. Without understanding how to breathe, it makes no sense to push on technique. If you swim well enough but want to do it even better, be sure to work on your breathing skills.
Attention! Recently, in fitness centers and even some swimming pools, instructors offer their clients, who want to learn to swim quickly as soon as possible, to use various devices: fins, paddles, pull buoys, etc. One piece of advice – change the instructor. In fact, an instructor does not have the right to teach anyone. He can only advise something. His main duty is to monitor order and safety. Look for a coach. A real one. And fins, pull buoys, and paddles should only be used after technique has been mastered. These devices are essentially trainers and are intended for strength training as well as developing specific muscle groups.
For example, in freestyle, harmony in the work of arms and legs is important. If a trainee is given a pull buoy right away, he will not be able to swim better and faster, because later his legs will not work correctly. In general, lazy leg work, when they seem to just dangle in the water, is the most common mistake in classical swimming.
The same goes for fins. If the legs technically work incorrectly, then fins will certainly not allow you to feel the correct technique. And paddles, along with pull buoys, serve to increase arm endurance. But if you start your training right away with them, in the future you will not be able to freely extend your arm into the stroke, because it will be constricted, i.e., already tense for the stroke. And technically, the recovery of the arm should be done in a relaxed state.
So: want to swim faster – learn to breathe, be streamlined, and move your limbs correctly. And remember – a fish's strength lies in its tail, not its fins. Feel like dolphins.