The best way to learn how to swim is from a teacher or instructor at your local swimming pool, or from a coach at a local swimming club. Most pools offer lessons for people of all ages and abilities. You may even have swimming lessons during school time if you are near enough to a pool.
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Learning to SwimConfidence in the waterPart of learning is getting used to being in the water. Spend some time in the shallow end of the pool to build up your confidence. Splash water on your face and if you can, put your face in the water to practise blowing bubbles. Eventually dunk yourself under the water.
Floating
Gliding When you feel safe and confident in the water, you are ready to learn the basic swimming strokes.
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Swimming StrokesSwimming is about developing the correct arm and leg movements to propel you through the water. At the same time you learn how to breathe properly in the water so that you can keep swimming. Each instructor will have their own teaching methods but basically there are four strokes you can learn.
Front crawl In a freestyle race, swimmers often use front crawl because it is the stroke that gets the fastest time.
Breaststroke As with all strokes, breathing is important. In breaststroke, you lift your head out of the water slightly to take in air as you pull your arms back. Many people find breaststroke the most relaxing of all the strokes.
Backstroke
Butterfly Butterfly is quite a physically demanding stroke and is often the last one that you will learn.
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Turning and DivingIn most competitive events, there are races for all the different strokes. [See Testing the Water: Competitive Swimming] but you also need to learn some additional techniques such as turning and diving.There are strict rules that govern starting, turning and finishing a race. There are even rules that say how you must perform the swimming strokes. Make sure you are aware of the rules if you take part in any competitions. A breach of the rules usually results in disqualification.
Turning
Diving in Caution: Never practise diving at the shallow end of the pool. You can get a serious head injury if you dive into water that is too shallow. If you are swimming in a pool that you are unfamiliar with, check out the depth of the water before you swim. In a UK pool, the depth is marked at the side of a pool. Where there are no depth marking, get into the pool first to check the depth. Never dive into a leisure pool. There may be underwater obstacles such as pillars or sloping sides and the depth of the pool may decrease widthways rather than lengthways.
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