Proper swimming technique is crucial to making your swim stroke more natural and relaxed.

What’s the proper swimming technique?

That’s a question a lot of people ask themselves when they first become Ironstruck, and just know they want to take on the Ironman one day. No, let me re-phrase that.

They know they “have” to take on the Ironman one day. Somehow it just gets into your blood, your brain, and your psyche, that you just have to cross that Ironman finish line.


But then that question pops up?

How do I learn proper swimming technique?

I struggled with that same question myself when I was struck with the Ironman bug almost 25 years ago.

I was afraid of the water and couldn’t swim a single stroke. However, decided I would do whatever it took to learn how to swim.

It started out with taking kids lessons for adults(I was 34 years old).

Once I learned the basics, and could make it from one end of the pool to the other non-stop, I just started to swim every day. I would go further and further until after about six months I could swim 2 miles in the pool.

The rest as they say, is history. I entered Ironman Hawaii in Kona in 1984 and crossed the finish line in just over 14 hours.

Twenty-five years later, I think I can finally answer the question, “how do I learn proper swimming technique”? If you can’t swim at all, you’ll do what I did.

You stay close to the edge of the pool and whenever you let go, you kick your legs and dog-paddle with your arms just so you can keep your head above water.

The more you struggle, the farther you are from learning how to swim. I learned that the key to swimming is to imitate a fish. You don’t see fish thrashing around unless they have a hook in their mouth.

They are relaxed and smooth and hardly seem to do any work and yet can overcome intense river currents.

There is a swimming book called “Total Immersion”(get your 10% discount code below) that I would recommend to anyone, triathlete or not. This is the program that changed my swim technique forever and the program that really taught me how to swim properly.

The Total Immersion swimming technique teaches you to “relax” and get comfortable in the water. Struggling to breathe is a natural reaction, and swimming is not natural to people, so we have to teach ourselves to relax and only by learning proper swim technique can this be accomplished.

Total Immersion is perhaps one of the best swim techniques available for triathletes trying to get the most out of their swimming.

 

TOTAL IMMERSION DISCOUNT CODE

TOTAL IMMERSION is offering all IronStruck visitors a 10% discount on Books, DVD’s, and all other Total Immersion teaching tools.

Simply click on TOTAL IMMERSION go to their store page. Use the Coupon Code “ironstruck” (all small case letters) into the shopping cart coupon box and you will automatically receive your 10% discount!

The trick is to develop a long, smooth swimming stroke. A stroke that takes little energy and is more efficient than 3 short, choppy strokes.

Once you can swim to the end of the pool, work on making your stroke longer and smoother and teach yourself to get to the other end of the pool with fewer and fewer strokes.

Whether you have an Ironman finish line in mind, or just want to enjoy the relaxation and fitness level that swimming provides, learning how to become one with the water is the key to learning how to swim and it is proper swimming technique that will help you realize that goal.