Swim for a Mile
News and Articles

This is our fifth year of Swim For a Mile, each year we run monthly technique clinics during January, February and March. Over the years we have noticed a few common mistakes when it comes to technique.

To help you get a head start on the 2019 Challenge, here are the top four areas that you can focus on improving!

1. Crossing the “centre line”:

The centre line, being an imaginary line that runs down the centre of your body, from your nose to your toes! We want to stay outside of this line to ensure that we are pushing backwards, to move forwards, rather than pushing across your body and moving side to side (known as snaking) as a result.

Your hand should enter in line with your shoulder out in front. Sometimes it is best to over-exaggerate the wideness of this entry. think 10am and 2pm on a clock face for example, you may think it feels too wide, but the chances are, you are still entering and 11am and 1pm! *You can also use hand paddles to train this, as when you cross your centre line with hand paddles it is a lot more obvious and you will be aware of the error.

2. Lifting the head too high when breathing

This causes the hips and legs to sink and makes moving forward a lot harder, with the added water resistance from your lower body. Focus on the 1 goggle rule! If you can see the roof of the swimming pool, then you are lifting your head too high. Aim to keep one goggle in the water while you sneak your breath.

*Snorkel’s can be useful when trying to stay low in the water and is a good way to train yourself into this habit, however don’t rely on your snorkel too much, otherwise you can’t challenge your bad habits!

3. Incorrect Rotation:

This can be too little or too much rotation when swimming Freestyle. You should rotate your body – shoulders and hips as one, around 45 degrees to either side, this allows just enough rotation for an efficient and effective arm cycle, as well as enough space to take your breath without disrupting your rhythm.

If you rotate too much, you will lose the rhythm and momentum of your stroke. This mistake often leads to other mistakes like crossing the centre line and lifting your head high when breathing.

4. Kicking from knees:

When performing Freestyle leg kick, people often focus on using the power of their knees. However, this causes extra drag, as when you bend your knee at a right angle it causes a lot of drag inside this angle.

Focus on kicking from the hips and bum, keeping your legs relatively straight with a soft fix on your knee, keeping the movement of the knee at a minimum. Knees and ankles should remain close together during the freestyle kick and the kicks should be short and rapid rather than long and slow.

Become a more confident swimmer in 2019, Login or Signup to start your Challenge today!

If you don’t believe us when we say that you can swim the mile, why not hear from our 2018 participants! We asked our SFAM’ers what they learnt and found most rewarding about challenge, their responses were motivating, heart warming and eye opening!

Read below to help give you the encouragement to take on the challenge!

1. “That I Can!”
2. “To challenge myself”
3. “It built my confidence in and out of the water!”
4. “I fell back in love with swimming”
5. “How important training is”
6. “That it’s all mind over matter”
7. “How to pace correctly”
8. “How to touch turn properly!”
9. “A better understanding of stroke technique and how it helps me go faster”
10. “To be proud”
11. “The community of swimming in a group”
12. “I learnt that with a good coach and training, everyone can complete a mile swim. In this case congrats to Pat Boyd and the Watershed”
13. “How effective technique leads to efficient swimming”
14. “I found training difficult due to work and other commitments but on the day, with the encouragement of the helpers I swam way better than I thought I could. The atmosphere, even nerves helped push me further than I thought I could go. That’s given me confidence in my swimming and more desire and passion to improve. Great event”
15. “Goal setting and exceeding personal expectations”
16. “That it was not actually that hard and yet very good exercise”

Become a more confident swimmer in 2019, Login or Signup to start your Challenge today!

Technique clinics take place in designated Swim for a Mile (SFAM) pools over the course of the SFAM Challenge. Due to the high demand for these clinics, we are now taking bookings for a number of paid Pre-SFAM clinics in our most popular pools.

These clinics are expert led and give you the opportunity, to strip things right back to focus on the core concepts of swimming:

• Body Position
• Kicking
• Pulling
• Phases of a single Freestyle or Breaststroke stroke cycle