To perfect your butterfly stroke body movement and kicking technique you need to strengthen your entire body. When you do the butterfly stroke, you are using your arms, legs and upper body to propel you through the water. Your technique is crucial to this swimming style.

The butterfly stroke consists of three main components, pulling with your arms, pushing with your legs and the recovery. The best thing that you can do to perfect your butterfly stroke body movement and kicking is to know how to swim the other simpler swimming strokes first.

If you already know the correct swimming posture and have been swimming for some time you will already have upper body, and leg strength needed to do the butterfly stroke. For kicking, you will need to learn the dolphin kick. This means keeping your leg together at all times, so you will be imitating the fluid movement of a dolphin.

When you practice to perfect your butterfly stroke body movement and kicking, do not use a kickboard. The use of a kickboard will change your posture and you will have a harder time getting back the correct body movement.

The kick is divided into two parts, the big kick that comes from your hips is first. Keep your knees bent and your legs together and kick your legs forward, your entire body will be propelled forward. The second kick is smaller and comes in when your body is already gliding.

After getting down the dolphin kick, you can focus on your arms. You can practice outside of the water by holding both arms out at full length at your sides. At the same time, swing both of your arms around your body, this is the same action that your arms will be doing in the water.

When you are doing the butterfly stroke in the water, and your arms are up and out of the water, your head will come up, this is the time that you get to breathe. As your arms swing around push them into the water underneath your body, at the same time do the dolphin kick. Bring your head back under the water and exhale.

The only real way to perfect your butterfly stroke body movement and kicking is with practice. Remember that you need to have upper and lower body strength to be able to do the butterfly stroke correctly so that you will be floating over the water. It is a good idea to have someone who knows the correct technique watch and point out any incorrect movements.

Perfect your breaststroke kicking by doing a few different exercises that you can start out of the water. The breaststroke is one of the most exhausting basic swimming strokes. It takes the work of many arm and leg muscles and a lot of concentration, so before working on your speed, work on your kicking strength and concentration.

The  breaststroke kick, is performed by pulling your legs up to your buttocks, turning your feet out, away from your body and then straightening out your legs. This takes concentration to be able to master.

To perfect your breaststroke kicking, lie on your stomach, raise one leg and bring your foot up to your rear end. Turn your foot out and straighten your leg. This is the same motion that you will be doing in the water so you can also get the movement down and it will become second nature to you.

Do this exercise on each leg one at a time, doing at least 20 repetitions on each leg at a time before you enter the water. When you do get into the water try to do several laps just practicing the kick, at this point do not worry about how fast you are going or how your breathing is working with each kick. Focus on the kick and if you are doing it correctly.

If you feel your kick is not working correctly, try practicing on land again and repeat the process. When you are comfortable get back in the water and try again. This time try another exercise in the water to perfect your breaststroke kicking this one will also let you know if your kick is correct.

Lie on your back in the water and practice your kick. If your knees are coming above the surface of the water, your kick can be improved. Do this exercise until your knees do not break the surface of the water. You will be strengthening your legs and you will perfect your breaststroke kicking.

Once you can lie on your back in the water, do the breaststroke kick and not have your knees come above the water, you are ready to move on to getting your rhythm and breathing working together.

Remember to pull your legs up and back towards your rear end, turn your feet out and straighten your legs this is your correct kick for the breaststroke. Do laps up and down the pool by doing two kicks under the water and one breaststroke above the water to take a breath. Move on to doing on kick under water and one with a breath above the water.

If you practice these movements out of the water and in the water, you will begin to perfect your breaststroke kicking. Try to do at least twenty laps in the pool every day until you feel comfortable with your rhythm and breathing.

When you want to improve your breaststroke gliding techniques, you should start with your hips and learn how to drive them forward and let them ride up as you glide forward. If you have already learned how to keep your body streamlined you are ready to work on your glide if not you need to practice keep your body straight.

To do your best at swimming you need to learn how to keep your body as straight as an arrow. You can practice this outside of the water by lying on your side with your lower arm straight out and with your palm on the floor, keep your top arm down by your thigh. Practice the scissor kick by keeping your knees straight and kicking from the hip.

You will not use the scissor kick when you do the breaststroke but this will help to strengthen your legs. This is important for any swimming stroke that you do. For the breaststroke start each stroke with your body as straight as possible so you make the smallest hole in the water.

To improve your breaststroke gliding techniques lean on your chest just enough to feel like you are gliding downhill. This will help move your hips so you are ready to rock forward. This movement will generate the power that you need to drive your stroke.

Keep your head as close as you can to your natural line and looking down and between your arms. Never pull your arms back when trying to improve your breaststroke gliding technique. You need to sweep your hands out so they make a Y position.

When your hands are in the Y position, bring your elbows up toward the surface but not past your eye line. Try using your elbows as a hinge when you do the inwards sweep with your forearms and hands. If you can do this, you will create the leverage you need to bring your hips forward.

By using your abdominal muscles to bring your hips forward, it will feel like a stomach crunch. You will be taking the load of pulling from the weaker arm muscles and move it to your stronger torso muscles. When this is done properly, you will not have to lift your head to breathe. Your head will automatically come up and out of the water with the rest of your body.

When your head has reached its highest point out of the water, to keep improving your breaststroke gliding techniques remember to keep looking down into the water. Now you are ready for the dive back into the water.

When you are diving back into the water, keep your arms and hands at full extension. Finish the dive into the water by returning to the streamlined position, slice into the water inches below the surface and you will avoid more drag. These tips should help you improve your breaststroke gliding techniques.

To improve your freestyle breathing techniques you must first get your body position right. One problem many people have when trying to breathe while doing freestyle swimming is their lack of balance. If you body is not balanced in the water you will not be able to turn your head to breathe right.

You need to make sure that you are rolling to the side and not only rotating your head when you go to breathe in. Make sure that you breathe all of your air out through your nose when your head is in the water, the air will come out in the form of bubbles, now when you rotate your head and your mouth is out of the water only take a breath in.

Do not try to breathe in and out in the same turn. Trying to breathe in and out in the same turn is a common mistake that many people make, and there is simply not enough time to do this, when you do try this you will feel like you are sinking and this will hurt your freestyle breathing techniques.

To practice breathing properly you should stand in the water with your arms at your side, bend forward to place your head in the water and practice breathing out through your nose turn your head and breathe in while your head is parallel to the water. Try to keep the top of your head down.

When you have your head turned to the left to breathe in, your right arm should be out in front of you, when your head turns to the right your left arm needs to be out in front of you.  This will help you keep your balance and improve your freestyle breathing techniques. Be conscious of not lifting the crown of your head, this will cause you to feel like you are starting to sink.

Stay aligned as you roll to take a breath of air, try to picture a straight line running through your body from your toes along your spine and through the top of your head. This will help your freestyle breathing techniques immensely. During

each breath, focus on keeping the hand that is in front stretched forward with your fingertips angled down.

After breathing in, focus on pushing the hip that is on the same side your turned to when you took a breath, down into the water.

So if you tur

ned your head to the right to breathe, force your right hip into the water when you put your face back in the water.

All of the breathing in and out while swimming takes a split second. Explaining it takes more time than the actual breathing. When you want to improve your freestyle breathing techniques, practice your breathing while standing in the water before you start to swim. Try to exhale completely through your nose with a final push as if you are breathing from your stomach before you turn to take a breath in.

When you want to learn how to develop body streamline for freestyle swimming, you could practice out of the water. Having your body position and posture correct for freestyle swimming requires discipline on your part. Once you have the correct posture it will help you with any stroke that you do.

To learn how to develop body streamline for freestyle swimming, practice standing straight with your feet together and shoulders back first. Raise your arms so your hands are together and straight above your head.

Having a streamline body style will help you move through the water with more ease and speed.   Look at yourself in a mirror to make sure that your elbows are straight and your arms are directly over your ears. Having this position in the water will reduce any resistance as you move through the water.

Once you are in the water it is important to keep this position after you kick off or dive in. Kick from your hips so you are not bending your legs, keep your legs as straight as possible. Practice kicking from your hips, it is part of how to develop body streamline for freestyle swimming.

Another way to practice body position out of the water is to lie on your side, remember to keep your body as straight as an arrow to have the best streamline position for moving through the water.

When you are lying on your side, outside of the pool, put your bottom arm straight out in line with your body and your palm flat on the floor. Your top arm should be tight against your thigh. Rest your head on the shoulder that is closest to the floor with your face looking to the side.

You can practice your scissor kicking while you are lying on your side out of the pool, this will also help to strengthen your legs. It is a good exercise to do even when you are not practicing how to streamline your body for freestyle swimming. Remember to kick from the hip and not to kick from the knee, you want to keep your legs as straight as you can.

After practicing the techniques to keep your body straight out of the water you can practice in the water with your breathing. For breathing remember to only breath out when you turn your head, when you turn your head to the right to breath your left arm should be extended in front of you. Breathe out through your nose when your face is in the water. Keep the top of head down at all time.

Remember when practicing how to develop body streamline for freestyle swimming that you can practice when you are out of the water. Keep your body as straight as possible with your arm over your head so that they are in line with your ears. Keep the palms of your hands together and straight as an arrow.

SwimSafer, a new national water safety programme, combines the National Survival Swimming Award (NASSA) and Learn-To-Swim-Programme (LTSP) into a progressive six-stage programme. At the end of each stage, each child will receive a stage completion certificate indicating his/her individual skill achievements. A badge will be awarded upon the completion of every stage.

In addition, each child will be awarded a coloured pin upon completion of each stage from stages 4 to 6.

Stage 1: Introduction to Water Skills

The objective is for your child to gain confidence and develop independence in the water, as well as learn general and deep-end water safety. Techniques taught include forward and backward movement, safe entry and exit, and introduction to personal water survival skills.

Stage 2: Fundamental Water Skills

General skills development will include unassisted step entry into water, sculling, feet-first surface dives, personal water safety skills and water safety awareness in an aquatic environment. Your child will be encouraged to achieve 25 metres of continuous swim.

Stage 3: Personal Water Survival and Stroke Development Skills

Principles of personal water survival and basic rescue skills will be taught. Your child will demonstrate proficiency in sculling, underwater skills, and the use of Personal Floatation Device. Your child will be encouraged to achieve 50 metres of continuous swim.

Stage 4 (Bronze Pin): Personal Water Survival and Stroke Improvement Skills

Development of your child’s stroke technique will be a focus here, along with coordinated breathing in deep water while swimming 100 metres. Principles of water craft safety will be introduced, as well as continual work on rescue and personal water survival skills.

Stage 5 (Silver Pin): Intermediate Personal Water Survival and Stroke Refinement Skills

Fundamentals of diving will be introduced. Development of rescue skills and personal water survival skills will also continue at more advance levels. Your child will be required to demonstrate efficient stroke techniques to complete stage 5 before progressing to stage 6.

Stage 6 (Gold Pin): Advanced Personal Water Survival and Swimming Skills Proficiency

Your child will be required to perform strokes with greater ease, efficiency, power and smoothness over 400 metres. Rescue skills and water safety knowledge will focus on lifesaving readiness. Standing dive and advanced personal water survival skills will continue to be taught.

The SwimSafer Programme serves to promote safe swimming and aims to provide a safer and positive experience for those involved in water sports. All swimmers must exercise their own caution and everyone is nevertheless responsible for their own wellbeing. Singapore Sports Council total excludes any liability whatsoever for any death, personal injury or mishap that may occur.

Have Fun, Swim Safe.

** Information from Singapore Sports Council
** More information regarding SwimSafer.

SwimSafer Programme is an initiative by the National Water Safety Council. In collaboration with Safer Swimming Division, Singapore Sports Council.

I recently saw the new movie “Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief.” It was quite a nice movie to watch. The story line is somehow like what one would find in the Harry Potter series. However, it was expressed in a different way. I’m not going to review the story today. Instead, I’m going to look into how the movie has affected the swimming lessons industry.

Percy has become the idol of many kids. As we all know, Percy is the son of Poseidon, the God of the Ocean. Many kids in school try to role-play their idol Percy in various different kinds of games. This is especially the case when it comes to swimming.

Kids know that Percy is a very impressive swimmer. After all, he is directly related to Poseidon. Kids these days are looking to learn how to swim just as well as he can. This is something that has caused more kinds to get into swimming lessons than ever before.

I personally thought that the reason why Percy is cool in this movie is because he has the ability to control the water. He’s very powerful when he has water on his side. That makes kids who don’t know how to swim more interested in swimming. They know that they can maintain the power of water when they know how to swim.

In the movie Percy hold his breath underwater for 7 minutes. This is a scene that has caused lots of people to try it. Two weeks before the movie I recorded a four and a half minute video of myself holding my breath underwater. I then posted it on YouTube. After that I received several responses from people who were asking for tips on how to do that. This is because of how two minutes is the average record that a person can have.

Everything that you can do underwater has become cool thanks to this movie. I did some videos underwater and all of them have received quite of number of clicks on YouTube.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tan_Jian_Yong

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tan_Jian_Yong

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tan_Jian_Yong