Sports Made Well: Swimming basics

Hi readers again. This is Jonathan writing to you again. Today I will turn my attention to swimming. I am going to tell you the benefits of swimming and the different types of swimming techniques. I am also going to recommend the types of swimming attires and wear, and where you can buy those.

Swimming benefits

Builds up a person’s strength, cardiovascular fitness and endurance
Good for people who have asthma
Good for people who have back problems it enables their back to be more straighten
Can help you relax yourself without the use of your weight body
Helps you to burn calories, meaning decrease your weight and maintaining a healthy and fit body
Helps to exercise the whole body – the heart, lungs and your body and muscles.
A way for you to maintain your fitness level when you are injured
Increase your metabolism
Increase your flexibility
Boosts your immune system

Swimwear

A complete set of swimwear comes in different ways. It is up to your preference. It may come with a pair of goggle and swimming trunks or you may buy a swimming costume and a swimming pant. For girls, you can purchase a complete set of swimsuits at the swim wear store.

You can go to any arena outlets in Singapore or you can directly go to the arena website online (http://www.arenaonlineshop.com/it_it/) to purchase it.

Or check out this website for more information: http://www.expatliving.sg/article/life-family/fashion/five-places-to-find-great-swimwear-may-2011

Warm-ups

Before swimming, you have to do some warm-ups so that your body is full stretched and reduce the chances of getting cramps and preventing injuries.

You can do a little stretching on your hands, arms, shoulders, knees and the ankle of your foots.

As you can see from below:

Types of swimming techniques

Dog paddle - One of the most easiest stroke which involves arms underwater and using your legs to perform the flutter kick.

Breaststroke – Uses a frog style kick where you have to bend your knees and kick your legs outward beneath the water. You have to stroke your arms out from your breast area back and forth. Your body have to be straight so that it allows your body to move through the water easily.

Butterfly – This swimming technique calls you to bring both of your arms over your head and then push frontward and down into the water to propel yourself. It uses a so called “dolphin-style kick”. Your legs have to stay straight and together when you kick them through the water. You also must keep yourself in rhythm between the underwater and the above-portions of the stroke.

Back stroke – It is similar to front crawl but you have to do it the opposite way. You have to float on your, rather than propelling your front through the water first. You have to float into the water with your head facing upwards on the surface but with the rest of the body beneath the water. Keep yourself horizontal when you move and you will soon achieve it through your leg kicking movements, propelling your body through the water.

Freestyle – It calls you to kick hard with your feet enabling you to bring your arms over your head and into the water. You must be able to keep your body straight at all times or else it will decrease your pace down. Breathing is one of the important part of it so take note of it.

Sidestroke – Rarely used but it is still one of the swimming techniques you can learn. This technique is used for rescuing someone because it only requires only one arm while the other arm holds onto the person. You can glide in between strokes, allowing you to move easily through the water while tugging along somebody.