LEARN TO SWIM

Learn How To Swim Without Struggle

Often in the past, learning how to swim was literally a sink or swim experience.
ou were thrown in the water, an instructor standing on the deck was showing you the motions you were supposed to do while you were trying not to drown, and he was holding a long stick in front of you that you could grab if things became too overwhelming.
Luckily, those times are over and the swimming instruction has evolved in the right direction.
You can now learn each swimming stroke by following sets of progressive drills. These drills teach you all the skills you need for a swim stroke, one skill at a time. They build one on top of the other and gradually integrate stroke components.
Once you have mastered the last drill of a progression, you will have the feeling to have learned a swim stroke almost magically, without any struggle.

Basic Technique

The Basic Swimming Techniques: As a novice it is important to know a few basic swimming techniques to be comfortable in the water. Once these techniques have been mastered, you can start to learn the popular swimming strokes with much more ease and relaxation. This article gives you an overview of those techniques.

Learning The Different Swimming Strokes

Learn How To Swim The Freestyle Stroke: Teaches a set of progressive swimming drills to learn the freestyle stroke with ease. At first, balance is learned while floating on the back, on the chest and on the side. The next step is to learn dynamic balance, which means balance must be maintained while switching positions. Then balance is learned while extending the arms to the front. The final set of drills teaches correct arm motions and swimming rhythms.
Learn To Swim The Butterfly Stroke: Teaches a set of progressive swimming drills to learn the butterfly stroke. At first you learn the body undulation and dolphin kick which are the foundations of the stroke. Then you learn the under water catch, pull and push phases of the arms. Afterwards you learn the recovery of the arms above the water. Finally you integrate all the motions learned in the previous drills and transition into swimming butterfly.
Learn Swimming Breaststroke: Teaches swimming drills and exercises to learn the breast stroke with ease. At first the arm motions, leg motions and breathing are practiced in isolation on dry land. Then each part of the swim stroke is practiced in the water using pull buoys and water noodles for additional support. Finally all parts are put together and practiced in the water, first with swimming aids and then without which means you are finally swimming breaststroke.
Learn To Swim Backstroke: Teaches swimming drills and exercises to learn the backstroke.
Learn To Swim The Sidestroke: Teaches a set of drills to learn the side stroke. At first you practice the scissor kick and the arm strokes on dry land separately. Next you practice the arm and leg motions separately in the water using floating devices. Finally when you have become proficient with both techniques you put them together and swim sidestroke.

Additional Learning Resources

Why and How to Practice Swimming Drills? Discusses why drills are the best tools to learn a new stroke or to improve one's swimming technique. Also discusses how to practice swimming drills for best results.

sculling the basic technique to survive

How To Learn Sculling Water

Sculling water is one of the basic swimming techniques where you use quick motions of your hands and forearms to maintain your head out of the water basically you are in a vertical position with the arms extended to the sides at shoulder level, elbows slightly bent. The water is kept at shoulder level with the sculling motion of the arms.

Sculling Water Technique

If you have ever extended one of your arms out of the open window of a driving car and played with the wind to lift your arm, you already know how to scull in the water.
The sculling motion goes like this:

• Extend the arms to the sides at shoulder level, elbows slightly bent.
• The palms turn 45° to the front, then the elbows bend some more and the arms move simultaneously to the front. The arms stay close to the water surface.
• When the arms have moved halfway to the front, the palms turn 45° backwards and the arms move backwards, still close to the water surface. The angle of the elbows decreases but they never become completely straight.
• Finally the palms turn 45° forward again and the arms move to the front again.

The pressure of the arms and palms angled at 45° against the water is basically what creates lift and keeps the body afloat.

Learn Sculling Water

To learn the sculling motion, you can do the following progression of swimming exercises:

• First simply practice the motion standing on dry land, visualizing how it will feel like to push with your arms against the water.
• Go the shallow end of the pool, duck so that the water arrives at your shoulders' level, and practice the motion as described above.
• Grab a water noodle, put it under one armpit, wrap it around the back and make it exit under the other armpit. Assume the same sitting position as previously, draw your knees towards your chest, and use the sculling motion to float in the water.
• Once this works well, remove the water noodle, duck in the water, start the sculling motion, draw your feet towards your chest and use the sculling motion to keep your body floating in the water.

After you have practiced the exercises above for some time and feel that your sculling motion supports your body well, you can venture towards the deeper area of the pool with the next exercises. In the beginning, only attempt these exercises under supervision of the lifeguard or an experienced swimmer!

• Grab the swim noodle again and place it around your back as described previously. Make sure the swim noodle can support your weight in the water all by itself. Now head towards the deeper area of the pool. When your feet lose the ground, start the sculling motion with the hands and at the same time start to flutter kick vertically with your feet. Practice for some time.
• When you feel confident enough in your sculling motion and flutter kick to support you, return to the shallow area of the pool. Remove the swim noodle, head to the deeper area of the pool again, and repeat the previous exercise. In the beginning, only do short repeats to build endurance and confidence.

Once you can do this with confidence, congratulations! How have learned sculling water and as a bonus you also have learned how to tread water!