How Can I Swim With My Head Always Over Water?

It's difficult for me to take a breath. How can I swim with my head always over water?

The easiest way to swim with your head out of the water is to swim Breaststroke.

The body position for breaststroke allows your legs to be deep in the water and your head, mouth and nose out of the water, and the stroke to still be effective. You will need a strong leg kick to keep you up and moving. A long stretch forward with your arms after each arm pull will also help.

You can download my ebook How To Swim Breaststroke, which contains everything you need to know as well as over 20 exercises to help all areas of your swimming stroke. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

click to preview

HOW TO SWIM BREASTSTROKE EBOOK:  everything you need to master breaststroke swimming stroke. 22 easy drills that focus on each part of breaststroke technique. From body position to breathing and timing. Decades of teaching experience all packaged into 1 easy file. Download to your device and master breaststroke TODAY! (click here for an INSTANT preview).

Don't miss out!  Click here for more details on how to get your copy. 

I cannot get my legs straight behind me

I have been trying to learn to swim for a while, but I cannot get my legs straight behind me. Can you help?

People find it hard to get their legs straight behind them because their head is too high.

Swimming with your face out of the water will make it very difficult to get your legs out behind you and into a good swimming position.

As a beginner, one of the most difficult parts of swimming to master is breathing and submerging. It is sometimes easier to swim without submerging, but this comes at a cost, and that cost is an incorrect body position.

Whatever swimming stroke you try to learn, your face must be submerged at some point.

For front crawl, your face must be submerged nearly all the time unless you roll it to the side to take a breath.

For breaststroke, your face needs to be submerged during the glide phase after the pull and kick phases. This momentarily gives you a near-horizontal body position and helps keep your legs behind you.

I am, of course, making lots of assumptions here. You may be swimming with your face in the water quite happily. Just be sure that your face is fully submerged so that only the top of your head it out of the water.

If you are doing all of this and still your legs are not straight behind you, it could be down to relaxation or lack thereof.

Try to swim slightly slower and kick your legs (for front crawl) from the hips with completely relaxed ankles and feet. Then your feet will act like fins, and you will find it easier to keep them out behind you kicking.

Remember, learning to swim is not all about kicking your legs and getting your legs straight out behind you. All parts of all swimming strokes come together to complete a swimming stroke and make it efficient and easy.

Take front crawl, for example. Movement through the water is caused mainly by the power of the arm pulls, and the stroke is made smooth by the long flat body position. The body position is made long and flat by the long arm action, the steady leg kick and rolling the head to the side to breathe.

Don’t kill yourself trying to focus on your legs! Work on your swimming strokes as a whole, concentrating on all parts. With practice, you will find your legs in the right place without focusing on them.

My best-selling book The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming contains aspects of learning to swim plus over 80 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of basic swimming. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming 

Professional guidance and support to help you through every stage of learning how to swim.

Discover everything you need from first entering the pool and building confidence to floating and breathing. Plus, 82 exercises to master the four basic swimming strokes.(click here for an instant preview) 

Don't miss out! Click here to get your copy of my book!

Swim To Survive

By Steven Leung

(Las Vegas)

To me, it's very important to learn to swim underwater.

I almost drowned on Coney Island in Brooklyn at the age of 6. I was playing in the water on the beach and as I swam into the waves I was being slowly pulled out further by the current. I could no longer touch the ground, and I became very nervous.

My older brother and sister didn't know I was gone, they continued to play on the beach but because my brother and I always took baths together during that age we used to compete for all the time who could hold their breath the longest underwater in the tub.

As I swam above water for the shore, the waves floated me out, I notice I was pretty far; I was as far out as the rocks extended. I tried to cry because I was so scared, but I couldn't.

I decided to cup both my hands and go underwater and use my cup hands and continue to pull, hoping I would get closer to shore. I would come up every few tries and notice I was getting closer to the beach, so I just continued swimming under and cupping my hands.

As I got close I was scared to try and stand up I wasn't taking any chances, but finally, I decided to put my legs down, and I stood up, and I just walked onto the beach as though nothing happened.

I walked passed my brother and sister and went where my parents were lying on the beach blanket and I just sat down and stayed there the rest of the afternoon and did not go back to the water at all after that incident.

Learning to swim or go underwater helped save my life. Most kids want to always stay above water, and that is why they drown. They get so scared just trying to stay above water that they get tired, and go under.

Learn to go under the water with confidence.