If you’ve always fancied basking in the sea’s waves and yet don’t have much confidence in the water, then this handy guide will help you finally learn to swim like a fish. We’re sure you can do it if you make the effort!

  1. Overcome fear:

Breathe in sufficient air and adopt different poses in the water.

You will feel how the water itself lifts you to the surface.

The water should not be more than 1-1.5 meter

  1. Learning to breathe while swimming

Breathe in through your mouth when above the water, breath out through your nose or your mouth. Try to breath in rhythm.

It’s also important to learn how to hold your breath

  1. Making water your friend

Lie back on the water surface. Spread out your arms to your sides and relax.

Try on your front and on your back. Get a feel for how the water supports you.

Try to relaxe and do a bit of yoga.

  1. Learning to use your legs

The crawl:

Stretch out your arms and grab hold of the side of the pool or swimming board. Move one leg up and down and then repeat with the other.

Only slightly bend your legs, trying to stretch out your feet. Move only your hips.

Breaststroke:

Hold on to a swimming board with your hands. Spread your legs outward and back in different directions, bending your knees and push forward. This is similar to the movement of frogs.

  1. Learning to use your arms

If you can confidently and rhythmically use your legs, you are now ready to use your arms.

Crawl:

On your back: start working your legs using the crawl method.

Place your arms alongside your torso, and begin to lift them over the water, making half circles in the air and stretching back your head as much as possible.

As they go under the water, your arms should draw half-circles at the level of your body and return to the starting position.

Your hands should be stretched out, and you should paddle in sequence.

On your front: with your arms in front, paddle using one after the other, paddle using one after the other.

Pass your arms under the water in half-circular motions, returning to the starting position.Then paddle with the other arm.

Breathe in when your arm rises into the air, turning your head in its direction.

Important: coordinate the movements of your arms and legs.

Breaststroke:

When pushing forward with your legs stretch your arms forward like an arrow.  

Now spread your arms out simultaneously in a symmetrical half-circular motion, bringing them together at your breastbone and then moving them back to the starting position.

Important: when you spread your arms out, lift your head above the water and draw in air. You can also swim with your head always raised.

  1. Treading water

If you are swimming confidently, you can now learn to tread water vertically. For this, you need to move your legs as with breaststroke, dragging the water under you.

Spread your arms out to your sides, and make circular motions with them.

You can also tuck in your outstretched legs and imitate riding a bike, with your arms bent at the elbows and moving in circular motions away from your body.

7.Learning to swim underwater:

Push off the floor and dive under the water from where you are standing.

Place your arms in front of you, forming an arrow shape, Pull your chin down towards your chest without touching it. Push  forward slightly towards a point in front of you. When the water you can use the arm movements from the breaststroke, pushing forward every time you stretch them out.

Move one leg at a time in sequence, as with breaststroke and crawl or move like a dolphin in waves. Wave-live movements are easy to do using flippers.

  1. Safety comes first

If you experience pain, dizziness or cramping, get out of the water immediately.

Don’t drive if you have consumed alcohol.

Diving from a pier is dangerous.

  1. Swim Only

- On well maintained sandy beaches;

- where there are no strong currents;

- where there are lifeguards;

- where the water is regularly checked.

When you are swimming in the sea water it can be easy to get caught in a tide that can take you away from the coast. In a such a situation like this, do not lose your head. Never try to fight the tide either. You will be left with no powers to get yourself out of that difficult situation. Instead of this  you can  try to control your breath, never get panic, try to approach the coast by first swimming parallel to the tide, then slowly coming closer in a motion diagonal to the tide.

About The Author

Chetan Sharma is an Indian fact-checker and news writer, writing news for Ayupp since 2014.

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