Swimmers' Secrets: breast stroke, breathing, competitions

Problems
How do you swim better? How do you do talks on swimming?

Answers
I heard a speech about swimming at a meeting of an IT college in Singapore. He told us how after failing in academic subjects at school he recovered confidence as a swimmer.

His tips on swimming included that when you are in a competition you need to swim faster (than other competitors) by reducing 'drag' which slows you down. Your arms, legs, head and body have to be streamlined as much as possible.

In the interval I chatted to the speaker. I asked him about breathing. Surprise tips were:

1 Breathing
If you are right handed you tend to have a stronger pull on one arm and you tend to breathe on one side. You could have been trained to breathe on the other side. Some swimmers breathe on both sides (eg when doing the crawl?).

2 Technical terms
He described the way your feet move when swimming as acting like a propeller.

3 Breast Stoke Arm Movements
I thought that when doing breast stroke you had to turn your hands backwards cupped or flat against the water for maximum force and thrust. However, his system was to use the legs and feet for gliding and reduce the resistance to arms by bringing them back bent and closer to the body, (I would say almost like praying or lifting a bowl to your mouth - but I could be wrong).

Now you know what to ask your swimming teacher and what to research on line.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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