Swimming is an amazing form of exercise, but getting the technique just right can take a lot of practice. Making your arms, legs, and head all move through the water efficiently requires some serious coordination. These YouTube channels can help improve your swimming technique, whether you’re smoothing out a freestyle stroke or perfecting your butterfly.
Learn how to improve your freestyle, fight fatigue, and more with the tremendous collection of swim content on SwimUp. Managed by competitive swim coach Evgeny Lomtev, the channel features tons of content designed to help swimmers at different levels, whether you're just learning or trying to get a few seconds faster.
How To Swim Faster
Learn how your head position, arm stroke timing, and even leg placement affect your speed in the water in this video. Although it may seem counterintuitive, whaling your arms at the water as hard as you can doesn't necessarily translate to speedier times in the pool. Sometimes a lighter touch is best.
Freestyle Swimming: 5 Common Mistakes
Troubleshoot your freestyle technique with these tips. Learn why keeping your elbow high is so crucial and how to time your breathing effectively. Drills to help you correct these issues are also offered, so you can improve a lot of techniques in one quick video.
Freestyle Kicks: Best Tips for Ideal Technique
Although your arms rightfully get a lot of attention when it comes to swim technique, kicking matters, too. In this video, Lomtev explains how the right kind of kicking can help you encounter less water resistance, making your swim a little easier.
Work on rotation, breathing, and hand placement with the detailed videos from Skills N' Talents. This community of swimmers is all about improving in the water and having some fun in the process.
Smooth Swimming Step-by-Step
Maintaining smooth motions while swimming helps you move through the water more efficiently, and it also looks super cool. This video demonstrates several exercises that can help you swim more smoothly over time by reducing any unnecessary motions.
Freestyle Swimming Tutorial for Hands
Everything matters in swimming, and something as simple as hand placement affects your overall form. This video shows how to slip your hands into the water and glide smoothly through the rest of your stroke. Think of using your hand as a paddle to pull yourself forward.
Beginner tips, swim drills, and tricks of the trade are all part of the swim content on GTN’s robust channel. With insight from professional and Olympic-level athletes, this channel features lots of advice on improving your freestyle swim.
5 Beginner Swim Tips For Adults!
Even if you didn't learn how to swim as a child, it's definitely possible to learn how to swim—and even take part in competitions—as an adult. Learn how to reduce drag, breathe while rotating, and pull yourself efficiently with this video. The film, shot both in and out of water, provides a clear view of each exercise and its rationale.
How To Stop Your Legs Sinking Whilst Swimming
Legs that sink into the water are a common issue with swimmers, and they can create some unwanted drag. But making some slight adjustments to your head position and kick motion can help keep your legs higher up.
Stroke timing, sculling drills, and more get explained in SwimGym’s videos. Run by professional coaches, and founded by Olympic swimming medalist Johan Kenkhuis, SwimGym offers lessons for athletes at many levels of performance.
The Benefits of Sculling
A rapid, back-and-forth motion, sculling can help you develop a feel for the water to become a more efficient swimmer. This quick video demonstrates a front scull, back scull, mid-scull, and combination scull that you can add to your drill set.
HOW TO SWIM: Single Arm Freestyle
Focus on your stroke more closely with this single-arm drill. You can check your catch, body position, and overall technique in this video.
Everything from beginner content to dry-land training advice gets covered on MySwimPro’s channel. Founded by swim coach Fares Ksebati, MySwimPro is also a training app and swimming community.
How to Swim Faster Training with Fins
Supercharge your swimming with a pair of fins. This video provides a buyer's guide to different types of fins as well as tips on incorporating them into your workouts.
And if you're shopping for swim gear, consider a fitness tracker you can use in the pool. Many of the best Garmin smartwatches are safe for swim workouts, with one model, the Garmin Swim 2, designed for aquatic workouts in particular.
6 Tips to Get Comfortable Swimming in Open Water
Open water swimming is a whole different world compared to your bright, clear, and wave-free pool. By swimming with a buddy, and staying close to the shore and shallow water, you can help ease those open water fears.
Improve your breathing, swim in a more relaxed way, and generally improve as an athlete with the helpful videos on Effortless Swimming. Founded by championship-winning swim coach Brenton Ford, the videos can help swimmers from all sorts of backgrounds get faster and more confident in the water.
Clean Up Your Front End (For A Smoother Stroke)
After running clinics for hundreds of swimmers, Ford noticed one commonality: setting up the stroke incorrectly makes it harder to move your arm through the water efficiently. In this video, Ford explains how to enter the water the most effective way, with fingers first, to avoid creating drag. Even these tiny details can make a difference in your speed.
Tighten This Up And Feel The Speed | Feedback Friday
Watch a stroke analysis video for a real-life example of swim coaching. In this case, you'll learn about the importance of maintaining your posture in the pool and not kicking too low, which creates drag. As it turns out, one way to keep that position in place is by engaging your glutes. Keep this in mind if you're fighting against sinking legs.
As an aside, if you're interested in making an underwater swim analysis video, double-check whether your camera is waterproof or water-resistant. Also, saltwater pools are becoming more common, but some devices that are fine in freshwater may get damaged by saltwater.
Work on your rotation, kick, and just about everything else with the informative videos from Swimvice. Run by Coach Mandy, a longtime competitive swimmer and triathlete, this channel's videos are engaging and packed with helpful advice.
Learn About Rotation in Freestyle!
The freestyle technique requires your body to rock from side to side, and this motion can feel awkward and counterintuitive at first. This video teaches you how to rotate the correct amount, not too much or too little, and Coach Mandy demonstrates both the correct and incorrect forms. You'll get a clearer understanding of proper freestyle rotation from this quick 5-minute video.
Two Backstroke Technique Quick Tips!
Sure, you get to breathe during the backstroke, but there's still a lot going on technically with this stroke. This video offers advice about making the movements easier by relaxing your shoulders.
How to Get Started with Butterfly Technique!
Learn how to master the timing and rhythm of the butterfly technique with this drill. It's a great way to practice for anyone who wants to improve this stroke.
Zoom Through the Pool With Help From These YouTube Swimming Channels
Perfecting your swim technique can take years, in part because some of the fastest and most effective ways to swim are a bit counterintuitive. Learning to time your breathing, arm stroke, and kicking all at once can be tricky. But with help from these excellent YouTube swimming channels run by longtime competitors and coaches, you can get faster in the pool and have some fun in the process.
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