There’s nothing like Swimming on a hot summer day. However, swimming is also a skill that can save your life. When you know how to swim, you can safely enjoy water activities like kayaking and surfing.

Swimming is a great workout, too. It forces your Body to work against resistance, which strengthens your muscles, heart, and lungs.

The best way to learn how to swim is to take lessons. Let’s look at the most commonly taught strokes and how to improve your technique.

Step 1: submerging

Getting used to the sensation of having water on your face, around your mouth and nose and over your head as you submerge, is a crucial element to learn and experience. 

Step 2: breathing

Learning how to hold your breath and then let your breath out in the most efficient way is the next most important step to learn.  Holding our breath causes many physiological changes that affect how our body behaves in the water.  Experiencing these sensations and learning how to deal with them is an important step.  

Step 3: floating

Not everyone is able to float naturally, but discovering your level of buoyancy and learning how to keep your body at the water's surface is an essential skill when learning how to swim.  

Step 4: regaining a standing position

Learning how to stand up mid swim is one of the most overlooked skills when beginners learn how to swim.  Regaining a standing position from floating or swimming is a key skill and hugely important for boosting confidence in the non-swimmer.  

Step 5: gliding

Gliding not only allows us to get a 'feel' for the water, but teaches us how efficient our body moves through the water.  Creating a streamlined shape (with hands and feet together) allows our body to cut through the water, making us move and swim using less effort and energy. 

Learning the swimming strokes

Which swimming stroke will you find the easiest to learn? Everyone is different, but it will be either front crawl or breaststroke.

Breaststroke is usually the easiest for an adult beginner to learn because you can swim it with the head above the water, and the movements of the arms and legs can be relatively slow and give some balance and stability.

Some beginners find the arm and leg movements of front crawl (or freestyle as it is often called) more manageable, but they can also find the stroke very tiring and, as a result, can be put off by this.

Most swimming teachers use the BLABT approach when teaching swimming strokes, so the same approach is recommended when you learn swimming online for beginners. BLABT stands for:

Body position

Legs

Arms

Breathing

Timing.

Each swimming stroke is broken down into these parts, which are then learnt individually before putting the stroke together.  It is a very effective way of learning what each part of your body should be doing. Click on a swimming stroke below to find out more, and then on an individual part to learn that too. 

• The breaststroke cycle is often described as “pull, breathe, kick, glide.” To remember the sequence, many swimmers recite this phrase in their head. Take a look at the video above to get a visual for how it’s done.

  To do it:

  1. Float with your face in the water, your body straight and horizontal. Stack your hands and keep your arms and legs long.
  2. Point your thumbs down. Press your hands out and back in a circle, elbows high. Lift your head slightly and inhale.
  3. Bring your hands together in front of your shoulders, thumbs pointing up. Keep your elbows close to your body. Simultaneously bend your knees, bringing your feet toward your butt and pointing your feet outward.
  4. Reach your arms forward. Kick out and back in a circle then snap your feet together. Drop your head underwater and exhale.
  5. Glide forward and repeat.