Are you planning to start swimming soon and looking for swimming mistakes that beginners do? If you have no idea what and how to learn? This article can help you in finding beginner swimming mistakes.
Going to the pool might not be the first thing that comes to mind when it’s time to get in shape, but it should be.
Without putting too much strain on your joints, you’ll increase your metabolism, firm up your entire body, and burn up to 400 calories in an hour (or melt into a puddle of sweat). To reap the maximum rewards, however, you’ll need to know the proper form and technique.
Whether you want to brush up on your swimming skills or are a complete newbie, there are a few common mistakes we all make. If you follow his expert instruction, you’ll be swimming laps with the best of them in no time.
7 Beginner Swimming Mistakes
List of below 7 beginners’ mistakes while swimming.
Mistake 1: holding your breath.
According to Scott Bay, chair of the coaches committee for U.S. Masters Swimming and an ASCA Level 5 certified Masters swim coach, many of us are told to take a deep breath, hold it, and When we’re young or starting to swim, we immerse our faces in the water.
However, doing so requires using oxygen as fuel. Would you hold your breath and keep running if you had to complete a 5K? It doesn’t because doing so deprives your muscles of the oxygen they so sorely need.
How to fix it: First, practice on dry land. Deeply inhale through your mouth, then start to gradually let the air out through your nose. Hum, as you do, Bay says. He suggests humming to maintain a consistent pace since it forces you to breathe gently rather than hastily.
Underwater breathing is the following phase. Practice slowly exhaling through your nose once more after taking a breath and placing your face in the water. When it feels right, lift your face out of the water.
Mistake 2: that you remove your head from the water to breathe.
We acknowledge that it may seem paradoxical. How are you expected to breathe if you don’t lift your head out of the water? Let’s be clear: Lifting your face out of the water while keeping your head submerged is more crucial.
If you raise your head every time you need to breathe, your body’s alignment will be disrupted. This will frequently cause you to force your hips down into the water, which is the exact opposite of what you want, and changes your straight swim into a zig-zag, according to Linsey Corbin, a CLIF triathlete and five-time Ironman champion.
How to fix it: Corbin suggests concentrating on keeping your head down and your chin tucked beneath your neck to help heal it. Keep your head underwater and breathe on the side of your arm that is out of the water whenever you need to (just enough head movement to prevent your mouth from closing when you need to breathe).
Also Read: What Are The Benefits Of Swimming? 11 Health Benefits Of Swimming
Mistake 3: You let your hips sag.
This causes the water to produce more drag. Additionally, you move slower as a result of increased resistance brought on by higher drag. The goal, according to Corbin, is to “stay flat and float on top of the water,” not to plunge into the water.
To get from point A to point B, beginners frequently default to actions that pull their hips down, such as letting their feet dunk when they should be just below the water’s surface. Their bodies have to work harder as a result.
How to fix it: Corbin suggests getting a swim snorkel or using the one you brought on your most recent trip to the Caribbean. According to the speaker, you can cease focusing on your side breathing by utilizing a snorkel.
Instead, focus on holding your hips as high as you can while drawing through the water with your arms and breathing out slowly. Use it in practice a few times each week to fine-tune your form before progressing to more challenging workouts like speed drills and boosting the tempo.
Also Read: Can I Swim To Lose Weight? 5 Best Swim Workouts To Lose Weight
Mistake 4: you maintain a straight hip.
Another problem is not rotating the hips. Many swimmers propel themselves through the water by using either their legs or merely their upper body.
However, Corbin asserts that because your hips control both your upper and lower body movement, they are where you get the majority of your strength from.
By lying on your side with your belly button toward the wall and your bottom arm lifted above your head so that it rests on that arm, Corbin suggests practicing the technique. Follow it around once, then change directions.
The exercise will help you become acclimated to how your hips feel during full rotation, which will help you decide when to start rotating oppositely.
It will be more challenging if you hold the side position for a few seconds in between each stroke and alternate between it and the middle position for the entire length of the pool.
How to fix it: Start by visualizing the solution as a first step. As you take each stroke, focus on turning with your core muscles and picture your belly button opening to the pool walls, suggests Corbin. Rotating your trunk while using your core will help you go through the water more swiftly.
Mistake 5: You point your toes.
Bay believes that this mistake occurs frequently because it is simple to ignore the little guys at the end of your foot.
But flexing them out “is like kicking and not going anywhere because it tightens up your ankles,” he says, adding that they are crucial in determining your speed and direction. Swimmers prefer to have fluid, flexible ankles in the water because it makes them move more rapidly.
How to fix it: Bay suggests curling your toes to represent scooping up a penny off the floor. It keeps your ankles flexible while allowing you to position your foot correctly.
It’s a good idea to practice with your toes even while you’re not in the water to get used to how they feel curled up. Practice moving coins by placing a tiny bowl and a pile of pennies next to each other on the floor.
Mistake 6: You rely too much on your upper body.
Corbin suggests keeping in mind that swimming works your entire body. Most people make the mistake of believing it to be just an upper body workout, The possibility of not finishing a stroke, which will slow down how quickly you cut through the water, exists if you rely only on your shoulders, arms, and lats to accomplish the heavy lifting.
How to fix it: Instead of overcompensating in one of those areas, Corbin advises maintaining a constant balance between your upper body, core, and lower body throughout your workout.
As you swim, use your core to spin, your arms to drag you through the water, and your legs to kick you forward.
If you notice that one portion of your body, such as the lower body, is weak, she suggests performing kick drills on a kickboard a few times a week. Do not be afraid to strengthen yourself on the deck as well. Hello, squats.
Also Read: How To Fix And Prevent A Swimmer’s Shoulder Injury?
Mistake 7: You don’t complete your stroke.
Bay bemoans the fact that many swimmers lift their hand out of the water before it reaches their hip, delaying the start of a new stroke. But that seems counterproductive. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don’t get the most energy possible out of the work you just finished.
How to fix it: Simply said, finish the job you started. Imagine your forearm as a giant paddle that will force water backward as you swim forward, says Corbin. As you thrust your forearm into the water, keep your elbows up and rotate them as you do so (avoid crossing your arms over to the opposite side of your body). Pull your arm out of the water and begin a fresh stroke to begin the “recovery” phase of the stroke after you have pushed the water back till it reaches your hips.
Conclusion
Even while it could seem that way to people with no expertise or who only swim for fun, swimming is highly complex. Many various body parts require a great deal of expertise to perform well. And when we refer to an approach as “right,” we only mean one that increases speed while decreasing weariness.
After learning the basic strokes and honing them via practice, the ideal strategy to adopt is to concentrate on the common swimming mistakes made by novices. Clean them up as a quick way to start swimming better.
FAQs For Beginner Swimming Mistakes
There are so many questions comes to mind while starting swimming some of the commonly asked questions are answered below.
Q.1 What is the most common kicking mistake in swimming?
To bend your knees while kicking
Knee bending during kicking is the most typical kicking error. By doing this, you expand the surface area where resistance is created. Instead, you should maintain as much straightness in your legs as you can.
Q.2 What is the golden rule in swimming?
Avoid swimming alone: When swimming, be sure someone is keeping an eye on you. even grownups. Learn to swim: Children should begin swimming instruction at six months of age. Adults who are unable to swim should do so as well.
Q.3 Which swimming style is the hardest?
Butterfly
The hardest stroke to master, it takes a lot of strength before you can start to match the other strokes’ speeds. With a rate of about 820 calories burned per hour, it is also one of the top calorie burners.
Q.4 Should you kick your legs when you swim?
As you kick, you should allow for a slight natural bend in the knee. However, maintain your legs as straight as you can, and create motion with your hips and core. You are more effective and use less energy because, in addition to producing less drag, your legs wear out more quickly than your core.
Q.5 Should you bend your knees when swimming?
Some swimmers start their kicks with their knees, which results in a significant knee bend. Your knees should only be bent around 120 degrees, not more. This is comparable to how much your knees bend when you walk.
Tell Us In The Comment As per your Experience what are the Best Beginner Swimming Mistakes?
Also, don’t forget to check other articles on World Sports Gear. Enhance your knowledge about swimming and other related sports.
