How to swim without tiring ?

1 Manage your breathing and oxygenation

Your muscles need to be properly supplied with oxygen if you don't want to feel asphyxiated after three lengths. The first thing to concentrate on is your breathing. If you don't have much breath and stamina, then choose to breathe every 2 arm movements. After a few weeks, you'll feel more stamina and be able to breathe less often. Ideally, you should breathe every 3 arm movements to give yourself time to exhale properly underwater and glide smoothly. Be aware that each pivot of the head to breathe will slow you down

The time you take to take a breath is also important. The longer you keep your head out of the water to take a breath, the more you'll slow down your progress. I therefore advise you to inhale quickly and invigoratingly, but sufficiently.

2 Mastering gliding technique

The more you glide, the less energy you'll have to expend to move and the more you'll enjoy swimming. If you observe a beginner swimmer and a competitive swimmer, you'll soon notice that the latter makes far fewer arm movements while swimming much faster. To glide well between each arm movement, you need to:

Limit resistance to forward movement by being as hydrodynamic as possible. Work on your body's horizontality, keeping your head well aligned with your spine, as well as your sheathing.

Stay sheathed and grow as tall as possible in the water

Master your kicks to keep your body at the water's surface

Work on your footing in the water. Good supports enable you to pull yourself efficiently. For the crawl stroke, reach as far forward as possible, in line with your shoulder, and position your hand correctly in the water, so as to catch as much water as possible with your hands and forearms. The pulling movement should be tonic and the arm return smooth. Don't hesitate to swim with paddles in training, so that you can find your support and reproduce the same movements afterwards, but this time without accessories

To find out if you've improved your technique, swim a few lengths, counting the number of arm movements you make per length. The more hydrodynamic and efficient you are on your supports, the fewer arm movements you'll have to make. But be careful, it's all about reducing arm strokes without losing speed.

3 Coordinate your movements correctly

Swimming is a discipline that can sometimes seem difficult for beginners, especially for those who have difficulty coordinating several movements or thinking about several things at the same time. To master a stroke, you need to be able to coordinate your arm movements, leg movements and breathing, while remembering to stay sheathed and exhale when your head is submerged. Training and repetition are the only way to progress over time

The perfect coordination of your breathing with your arm movements will enable you to move forward continuously, without losing speed. In fact, part of your head comes out of the water to breathe. From the side in crawl and from the front in breaststroke and butterfly. It only takes half a second's difference from perfect timing to slow you down considerably and exhaust you. Again, remember to breathe quickly and tonically, and find the perfect timing to get your head out at the right moment.

4 Finding a rhythm

There's nothing worse than constantly changing swim speed and arm-pull frequency to feel out of breath and tired. Start slowly, especially in the first few minutes of warm-up, gradually increasing until you feel comfortable in one rhythm. Your pace may vary slightly as you swim. It will often evolve by accelerating after the warm-up.

Be careful not to start your session too intensely. The warm-up is important and remains a means of waking up the body gradually so that you can then work properly, longer and without injury.

5 Control the frequency of your leg beats

Leg muscles are big consumers of oxygen. Beating your legs too fast will tend to make you really out of breath. The main purpose of the beats is to keep your legs on the surface, not to move forward. It's your arms that pull and your legs that keep your body horizontal. Maintain a regular stroke frequency without too much power or speed. Save this for sprints.

6 Stay relaxed

The hardest thing is to find the balance between being supple and relaxed, and sheathed and toned at the same time. As seen above, arm pulls must be toned. The abdominal belt must remain sheathed. But the ankles must remain supple for an effective leg kick. The arm return is also done in a supple manner, with the elbow bent and the hand skimming the surface of the water.

7 Casting and undulating

To gain a few seconds on the clock and make fewer arm movements, make a powerful push from the wall and then swim in undulations as you sink after the plunge start and after each turn.

8 Swim regularly to gain endurance

You'll need to train regularly to find your support, regulate your breathing and strengthen your cardiovascular system. A single weekly session isn't enough to get you started and feel comfortable in the crawl. The ideal is to swim twice a week to start with.