Equipment

Next, let’s look at bringing in some equipment. Now then, there are a million and one toys you can take to a swimming practice, believe me, I was so excited whenever a new piece of equipment came out, but I’ll be totally honest with you, there are only a small handful of ‘Must have’s’ in any swimmers kit bag and here they are: pair, the fins that are used for deep sea diving are very different to swimmers fins, go have a look and see, any good swimmers fin should finish an inch or two past where the toes end.

Kick board – This will allow you to work on your leg kick. Your leg kick, depending on the stroke, will generally only supply a smaller proportion of the propulsion compared to the arm stroke. That said, your leg kick can provide important propulsion still and can help stabilise the body, whilst providing a great chance for you to get fit in a totally different way.

Pull Buoy – These pieces of equipment are designed to be placed between your legs to a) support your body and make it more buoyant and b) isolate the legs so you can concentrate on the pulling action. With most Pull Buoys you can still kick if you are finding pulling only difficult.

Snorkel – The swimmers snorkel (not the holiday ones!) are great because they fix to the front of the head and allow swimmers to perform front crawl, especially, without breaking the stroke to breathe.