Living for Swimming!

Like learning any skill, swimming is best learnt under a tutor who can break it down and tell you where you need to improve. In the meantime, here are some tips to get started:

• Firstly, you need to be comfortable in the water; start in a suitable depth for your own height, and never swim alone.

Buoyancy is the next step; swimming is only possible if you can float! Practice floating in different positions like a star (arms and legs spread out) and a streamline (arms and legs pointed like a letter "I"). The key is trying to maintain a level position in the water. Your feet, knees, hips, shoulders and arms should be all in line when you are floating. You will find that naturally your legs sink. The main source of buoyancy comes from the air in your lungs; this is the most important thing to realise about learning to swim.

• Think "chest down, hips up".
  

Once you are comfortable floating, try including some kick. This may be freestlye (flutter) kick, or breaststroke kick. Start with a board and keep relaxed.

• Imagine that you are "flicking your shoes off."

From there, build the arm strokes in. You'll need to start thinking about your breathing technique here; the most important requirement is that you are ready to breathe in by the time your head has been rolled out.

• In ideal freestyle swimming technique, you should roll the body to breathe rather than turn the head.

Keep in mind that freestyle swimming is mostly spent on your sides, rather than on your front. Spend time kicking on both your left and right sides with one arm up and the other arm down by your side. Your body should be almost vertical.

Practice, practice, practice! if you want to swim like a fish, you need to spend time in the water!

For more technical assistance contact your local Quality Swim School or swimming club.

Trivia

• There are four strokes in competitive swimming strokes: Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly.
• A "medley" event comprises of all four competitive strokes, Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle- in that order.
• Danyon Loader is New Zealand's most successful swimmer, winning 2 gold medals at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, and a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992.
• The fastest swimmer in New Zealand ever (as at January 2009)  is Orinoco Faamausili-Banse-Prince, who can swim 50m Freestyle in an Olympic size pool in 22.37s. This time was set in July 2008 at the FINA World Youth Championships. See more New Zealand swimming records
• 3 swimming events were held at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. There were no stroke rules governing the sport at that time
• The first female swimmer to break the 1 minute barrier for 100m Freestyle was Dawn Frazer (Aus) in 1962 (59.9s).
• New Zealands first three time Olympians to compete in swimming events are Helen Norfolk and Dean Kent, who both competed in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
• There are 34 Olympic swimming events.