Introduction: Why Posture Matters in Swimming When it comes to swimming efficiently, technique trumps brute strength. One of the most important yet often misunderstood elements of technique is body posture. In other words, how you hold and move your body in the water. Whether you are swimming...

Recognizing flaws in a swimming stroke is the first step to fixing them. Often, what feels right in the water looks very different on video. This article breaks down a video analysis of a swimmer with four common but critical freestyle mistakes. By learning to spot these errors, from a deep kick t...

We are caught up in a fast-paced society, often forgetting to stop and think. This causes us to do things over and over without realizing that there might be a smarter way. As a swimmer, you should always be trying to explore new things, whether it's swimming backstroke, morning practices, or wor...

This post is long overdue, but finally, I kicked myself to introduce you to the wonderful world of the Palm Paddle. I am not kidding when I say it is the world’s smallest hand paddle. At first sight, they’re so tiny and cute that you just want to cuddle them in your palm :). But don’t let the...

There is no doubt in my mind that anyone can learn how to swim and anyone can swim with ease if the right approach to learning is taken. In order to convey a certain feeling or a message to the swimmers and to keep swim workouts interesting, every coach should once in a while think outside the box....

Being a beginner swimmer isn't easy. Where do you start? How come it looks so much harder than it is? These are questions I get all the time. The reality is that swimming motions are complex and difficult to master without breaking them down into specific drills. Drills allow you to isolate one or...

Over the years, we've covered hundreds of swimming tips, drills, and techniques. To help you navigate it all, we've dug into our archives to create a roundup of the most popular and impactful lessons ever published on the Swimator Blog. Whether you're a novice overcoming a fear of the water or an...

Every few years, a revolutionary piece of swim gear is launched with promises of free speed and record-breaking performance. One of the most famous examples was Speedo's Fastskin3 "racing system." While new technology is exciting, it often obscures a fundamental truth: for 99% of swimmers, the sec...

"Bilateral breathing" is one of the most misunderstood terms in swimming. Many beginners assume it means you must breathe every third stroke, only to find themselves gasping for air and hitting a frustrating plateau. The truth is, there's a huge difference between the act of rhythmic bilateral...

The Swim Smooth's Clean Up Your Stroke DVD set is not your usual learn to swim program on DVDs. It is more of a series of short hints and tips addressing a few important aspects of an efficient freestyle stroke. Paul Newsome, an accredited level II triathlon coach who coaches triathletes in Wester...

One of the toughest things to learn in swimming is a proper effective and efficient kick. Many coaches can tell you that having a great kick is the essence of fast swimming, however, they also struggle with teaching the proper kicking technique. No wonder though, the right kicking movement, wh...

In 2011, British comedian David Walliams did something extraordinary. He swam 140 miles (225 km) down the River Thames in just 8 days for charity. To put that in perspective, that's an average of 18 miles a day, a distance that even Olympic athletes rarely cover in training, let alone in dirty riv...