Swimming is one of the sports that a priori may be easier to practice, since we can think that everything comes down to throwing ourselves in the water and begin to move arms and legs and go breathing as we move.

But having a proper swimming technique, whatever our style (crawl, breaststroke, back or butterfly) , can make a big difference in terms of our times, in case of competing, or simply in that the movement is more or less efficient.

Stroke length too short

We can think that the less time our arms are in contact with water, the faster we will move as resistance and friction with water will be lower, but this is not always true.

When we are swimming, what will really increase the speed of swimming will be the impulse that we give with our arms and legs with the water, so that the time that we are in contact with this should be the necessary, neither more nor less. This means that an arm stroke that is too short will not allow us to generate enough momentum to move , so the movement will be inefficient and we will lose time.

Losing alignment of the body axis

As in many exercises, in swimming it is essential to maintain a correct alignment of the body axis to maintain an adequate posture ( besides avoiding possible injuries ) and, given that the water generates a special resistance, losing this posture will imply a slower displacement. Some of the reasons that may imply a misalignment of the postural axis can be:

• A flexion of our wrist when putting your hand in the water , which would imply that it does not enter the correct angle and instead of sliding hit the water, generating greater resistance and less momentum.
• Swimming with the head in cervical hyperextension position will again cause a loss of body alignment and a forced position, so we will be more rigid when moving in the water.

Do not perform the leg shake

Many times people who make the mistake nothing to push only with the strength or power of your stroke, avoiding the kick of the legs, and this error is going to suppose a loss more than considerable speed and performance , because we are driving only with the half of our limbs and this halves our speed.

Performing a correct leg shake in a coordinated way with the movement of our arms is vital for a correct movement on the water.

Incorrect breathing technique

Breathing is fundamental in a sport such as swimming, and therefore a correct technique is necessary. There are two main faults that can be committed when talking about the breathing technique:

• The first of these is to breathe by performing a cervical hyperextension, which in the first place will generate excessive tension in all the muscles of the neckplus we will most likely swallow more water than if we breathed correctly.
• The second of the mistakes that are usually made with the breathing technique is that of wanting to hold the breath for a few seconds once we submerge the head again . When we take air and submerge the head again in the water, we must expel the air continuously, since holding the breath under water while performing the movement will cause a loss of performance.

Bad coordination between upper and lower train

The coordination between our upper train and our lower train is one of the most important points when it comes to having a good swimming technique, because if we do not coordinate arms and legs properly, the speed of displacement will be considerably lower.

The position of the feet in the leg shake

To achieve a correct leg shake is not enough simply to move the legs up and down. These must be fully extended to take full advantage of the lever they entail. In addition, our feet should not be flexed , but we should adopt an extended position, as if we did not want to stand on tiptoe to be taller.

The hip and the leg shake

Another mistake we can make in the leg shake is to generate the movement of our legs from the knee, as if a knee flexion / extension was involved. This will considerably reduce our travel speed.

To correct this error, we must try that the movement of the leg shaking is generated from our hips , which will give us a greater driving force and, therefore, our displacement will be greater in each beat.