I am not a swimming trainer. I am neither a professional swimmer either. But I have felt that at least for casual swimming, there is a huge gap in teaching swimming. The traditional method focuses more on peddling than making a person comfortable with the water. Here is a better way to learn swimming.
- When in water, always inhale from the mouth and exhale through the nose It does not matter whether you are swimming or not. Just following this fixes a lot of issues. If you inhaled water in, you can swallow/spit it out from the mouth. And since the nose is only used for exhalation, the chance of water going in is low. As soon as water enters the nose, people become uncomfortable, their reflex actions go into the motion and they stop in the middle of the water.
- Get comfortable with water Go to the deep side, hold the ladder and slowly go into the water. Open your eyes. Slowly release the breath from the nose. The standard pool water, being slightly heavier than the human body, will push you up. As you repeat this motion, again and again, you will become more comfortable with having your head on the surface and below the surface of the water.
- Try floating Don’t move legs, don’t move hands, just float with your face facing downwards. If you have become comfortable with the water, this won’t be hard. Just learn to enjoy this floating.
- Try swinging your legs Now, since you can float, try moving your legs from the hip, no motion of the knee, just at the hip joint. Later start swinging the ankle joint as well for faster movements.
- Try moving your arms Now, move the arms, one following the other, cutting straight into the water, in front of your head, and pushing water backwards.
- Learn to breathe while swimming Breath out from the nose while your head is in the water. Breath in from the mouth, after pulling your head out of the water from the side.
That’s it. That’s all you need to become a casual swimmer.