swimmerific · surface to deep end

Learn to swim. Swim better. Come home safe.

From your first face-in-the-water breath to your fastest lap, in the order a coach would teach it, with the chapter that matters most kept for last. Pick your level and the whole site changes what it shows you.

Your level, and the site follows

Start in the shallow end Skip to safety

0.9 mthe shallow end

Four things your body has to trust before any stroke works

Nobody drowns from a bad arm pull. Beginners struggle because they hold their breath, lift their head, and fight the water for a float it would give them for free. Get these four right, in this order, and strokes become a detail.

Breatheside view

Blow bubbles. Then turn and sip.

Holding your breath is what makes water feel like panic. Exhale slowly through your nose and mouth the whole time your face is in, so that when you turn to the side there is only a quick sip to take, not a gasp. Practise standing in the shallow end: face in, hum out, turn, sip, repeat, until it is boring.

cue: hum it outnot: lift the whole head

Floatside view

Ears in, chin up, hips to the sky.

You float when your lungs are full and your body is long. Lie back, put both ears in the water, look straight up and push your belly to the surface. If your feet sink, your chin is too far down or you are breathing out and holding empty: breathe in a little deeper than usual and let the water hold you.

cue: ears wet, eyes upnot: sitting in the water

Kickside view

Kick from the hip, not the knee.

A good flutter kick is small and fast and starts at the hip with a nearly straight leg and a floppy ankle. Bent knees and a big splash feel like effort but move you nowhere. Hold the wall or a kickboard, keep your face in (bubbles!), and count sixty small kicks before you need to stop.

cue: kick like your legs are long ribbonsnot: running underwater

Glideside view

Push, hold still, and travel.

Streamline is the fastest shape you will ever make: one hand over the other, arms squeezing your ears, chin tucked, toes pointed. Push off the wall and do nothing. A clean glide carries you five metres before a single kick. Every stroke, every turn, every race starts from this shape.

cue: be a pencil, not a starfishnot: lifting the head to see

For you, beginner

Your first six sessions, thirty minutes each

Standing depth, always with someone, ideally a coach. Do not move to the next session until the current one feels easy.

Session 1. Face in, bubbles out, stand up. Ten times. Then hold the wall and float on your front with your face in.
Session 2. Back float with a hand under your shoulders, then without. Learn to stand up from a float: knees to chest, arms sweep forward, feet down.
Session 3. Kicking on the wall, then with a board, face in, bubbles the whole time.
Session 4. Push and glide, three seconds still, then add a kick. Aim for half a width.
Session 5. Glide plus kick plus one arm pull at a time, breathing by turning, not lifting.
Session 6. Put it together: 10 to 15 metres of front crawl or backstroke, whichever breathes easier for you. That is swimming.

For you, intermediate

Learn is not finished: three things to add

Bilateral breathing. Breathe every three strokes for a week of easy swimming. It fixes the lopsided pull you cannot feel.
A second stroke. Backstroke shares the rotation and kick of freestyle; learning it makes your freestyle body position honest.
Deep-water confidence. Tread water for two minutes with your hands out of the water. Float on your back for one minute without moving. These are the skills that keep you alive in open water.

For you, advanced

Relearn the basics at speed

Exhale audit. Film one length. If your breath comes out in one burst at the turn of the head, you are holding it. It costs you at 200m and beyond.
Streamline under pressure. Measure the metres you travel off the wall at race pace, no kick. Under five means the shape breaks when you are tired.
Open water learn. Sighting every six to eight strokes, swimming straight with eyes closed for twenty strokes, drafting on a partner's hip. New skills, same humility.

1.8 mthe lane

Four strokes, one lane, and the faults each level cannot see in itself

Technique is what the water does to you when you stop thinking. Pick a stroke. The diagram shows the shape; the list below it shows what your level is probably getting wrong and the drill that fixes it.

EntryFingertips first, in line with your shoulder, not the centre line. Extend forward, not down.
CatchElbow stays high and the forearm tips down to face the wall behind you. This is where speed is made.
PullPress water back under your body with the whole forearm. Roll the body with it.
PushFinish past the hip. Most swimmers quit here and lose a third of the stroke.
RecoveryRelaxed, elbow leads, hand hangs. Nothing here moves you; it just resets.

Beginner fault

The head comes up to breathe

Lifting the head sinks the hips and the legs drag. Drill: kick on your side, bottom arm extended, ear on the shoulder, and breathe without turning the whole body. Then catch-up: one arm waits in front until the other touches it, which forces the roll to the side.

Intermediate fault

Dropped elbow and a flat body

The arm pulls straight and the hips stay square. Drill: fingertip drag (trail fingers along the surface on recovery) to teach a high elbow, and 6-kick switch (six kicks on one side, one stroke, six on the other) to make rotation a habit. Breathe every three.

Advanced fault

The stroke shortens when you are tired

Count strokes per 25m at easy pace, then at race pace. If the count climbs by more than two, the push is dying. Drill: single-arm freestyle with the other arm at the side, focusing on finishing past the hip, and sculling at the front to rebuild the catch. Then hold your easy count at threshold.

Body rotationfront view

Swim on your sides, not your front.

Freestyle is swum on a rolling long axis. The hips and shoulders turn together; the head stays still and looks at the bottom. Rotation is what lets the breath come to you and what puts your back muscles, not just your shoulders, into the pull.

Breathing patterntiming

Breathe every three, at least some of the time.

Breathing to one side only builds a lopsided stroke you cannot feel. Bilateral breathing (every third stroke) evens it out and lets you see both ways in open water. Race on whatever pattern gives you air; train the other side every session.

cue: turn the head with the roll, one goggle stays innot: lifting to look forward

PositionEars in, eyes up, hips high. Same float from the shallow end, now moving.
EntryLittle finger first, arm straight, in line with the shoulder.
Catch and pullBend the elbow under water and press to the hip, like throwing a ball backwards.
KickContinuous flutter from the hip, toes just breaking the surface, never knees.
RotationShoulders roll with each arm; the head stays fixed on the ceiling.

Beginner

The stroke that lets you breathe whenever you like

Backstroke is often the first stroke beginners swim a full length in, because the face is out of the water. The fear is the wall: count your strokes from the flags (five metres out) so you never hit it.

Intermediate fault

Sitting up, hips sinking

Drill: kick on your back with a cup on your forehead (a real one, or the idea of one): if the head moves, the hips drop. Then single-arm backstroke with the other arm at your side to feel the roll.

Advanced

Underwater dolphin off every wall

The fastest part of a backstroke race is under the water. Work the flip turn (roll to the front one stroke out, tumble, push on the back) and hold a tight streamline dolphin kick to the 15 m mark that the rules allow.

PullSmall: hands sweep out no wider than the shoulders, then in fast under the chin.
BreatheThe chin lifts as the hands come in. Eyes down at the water, not the far wall.
KickHeels to the bum, feet turned out, then whip round and together. The kick is the engine of this stroke.
GlideArms and legs long, face in, count one. The glide is where breaststroke is fast; rushing it is the universal fault.

Beginner

Say it out loud: pull, breathe, kick, glide

Most beginners kick and pull at the same time and go nowhere. Do the sequence with a board first: kick, glide, count. Then arms only with a pull buoy. Then together, saying the four words.

Intermediate fault

Screw kick

One foot turns out and the other does not, so you corkscrew. Drill: kick on your back, hands on your hips, watching your knees stay inside your hands, then two kicks, one pull to exaggerate the glide.

Advanced

Timing at race pace

Breaststroke is a knee-injury stroke when the kick is wide and the volume is high. Keep the kick narrow, build the pull-out (one pull, one dolphin kick, one kick, surface) and train the stroke in short fast sets, not long slow ones.

UndulationThe whole body makes a wave from the chest; the hips drive it. No wave, no butterfly.
Kick oneAs the hands enter, the first kick sends you forward and down.
PullKeyhole shape: out, in under the body, then back past the hips.
Kick twoAs the hands exit, the second kick lifts you to breathe and recover.
RecoveryArms low over the water, chin close to the surface, eyes down.

Beginner

Not yet, and that is fine

Butterfly asks for the freestyle pull, the breaststroke timing and a dolphin kick. Learn dolphin kick on your back first (arms at your side, hips driving) and come back to this panel when 200 m of freestyle is easy.

Intermediate fault

Only one kick, and the head too high

Drill: single-arm butterfly with the other arm in front, breathing to the side, two kicks per cycle counted out loud. Then three kicks one pull to feel the rhythm without exhausting the arms.

Advanced

Keep the wave when it hurts

Butterfly falls apart at the 35 m mark when the hips stop driving. Train it in 25s and 50s with full recovery, breathe every two strokes, and keep the recovery low: a high recovery is the tell that the kick has died.

Turnsevery level

The wall is free speed

Open turn (beginner, and every breaststroke and butterfly turn): touch, knees to chest, feet to the wall, push off in streamline. Flip turn (intermediate onward, freestyle and backstroke): last stroke, tuck, somersault, feet plant, push off on your side, rotate to your front as you glide. Learn it with a coach and a shallow, uncrowded lane.

Your job now: never breathe on the stroke into the wall, and push off in a streamline every single time.

Your job now: start the tumble one stroke earlier than feels right. Most learners flip too close and jam their knees.

Your job now: measure it. Time from 5 m in to 5 m out. A tight turn is worth more than a month of aerobic work.

Markerswhere you are

What separates the three levels

BeginnerCan float, exhale under water, and swim 25 m of one stroke without stopping. Prefers standing depth.
IntermediateSwims 400 m of freestyle continuously with bilateral breathing, knows two other strokes, can tread water two minutes and float on the back.
AdvancedHolds an even pace over 1500 m, has a stroke count that survives fatigue, does flip turns, and can swim in open water with sighting.

2.5 mthe black line

Swimming for fitness is a set, not a swim

Up and down for forty minutes at one pace makes you good at forty minutes at one pace. A session has a shape: a warm-up that wakes the shoulders, drills that keep the stroke honest, a main set with a purpose, and a cool-down. Here is the shape, a way to find your pace, and a session for your level.

Session shapeproportions

warm-up

drills

main set

cool

Warm up, drill, work, come down

Warm-up is easy swimming with some kick and some backstroke to open the shoulders. Drills are short, technical, and slow. The main set is the reason you came: intervals with rest, at a pace you can repeat. The cool-down is easy and honest.

Intensity without a watch

1 to 2chat easily, breathe every 3 or more

3 to 4steady, could hold it for an hour

5 to 6working, breathing every 2

7 to 8hard, threshold, can't chat

9 to 10sprint, 25s and 50s only

Your pacecritical swim speed

Find the pace you can actually hold

Swim a timed 400 m and, after full rest, a timed 200 m, both as fast as you can hold evenly. The difference in distance over the difference in time is your critical swim speed, the pace you can sustain for a long swim. Everything else in training is a step above or below it.

CSS pace per 100 m

--:--

Pace clockblack face, red digits, like the one on the wall

Clock at zero.

Every pool has one on the wall. This one is a stopwatch: start it as you push off, tap Lap at every wall, and read your splits. Rest on the number you agreed with yourself, and never argue with it.

For you, beginner · about 600 m, 25 to 30 minutes

The first session that is a session

warm-up4 x 25 m easy, any stroke, rest as long as you need. Face in, bubbles out.

drills4 x 25 m: kick with a board, then glide plus three strokes, alternating.

main8 x 25 m front crawl or backstroke with 30 to 45 seconds rest. Same easy pace every time. Stop if the stroke falls apart.

cool4 x 25 m backstroke or float and breathe.

Twice a week. When 8 x 25 feels easy, make it 8 x 50 before you make it faster.

For you, intermediate · about 1,600 m, 40 to 45 minutes

A threshold session built on your CSS

warm-up300 m easy as 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 backstroke.

drills6 x 50 m as 25 drill (catch-up, fingertip drag, 6-kick switch) plus 25 swim, 15 s rest.

main8 x 100 m at CSS pace plus 4 seconds, 20 s rest. Even splits; the last one should be the same as the first.

cool200 m easy, breathe every 3, long strokes.

Three sessions a week: one like this, one easy and long, one with short fast 50s.

For you, advanced · about 3,200 m, 60 to 70 minutes

CSS development with a pace ladder

warm-up600 m as 300 swim, 200 kick with fins, 100 build.

drills8 x 50 m: sculling, single-arm, 3-kick 1-pull fly, 10 s rest.

main3 x (4 x 100 m at CSS, 15 s rest) with 1 minute between rounds, then 4 x 50 m at CSS minus 4 seconds, 30 s rest. Hold stroke count.

cool300 m easy, mixed strokes, count strokes down.

Four to five sessions a week; increase weekly distance gradually and retest CSS every four to six weeks. The shoulder warning: pain at the front of the shoulder that lingers after a session is not a badge, it is the paddles, the volume or the catch. Fix the catch first.

0.0 mthe deck

Buy three things. Earn the rest.

Swimming needs almost nothing, which is why the shop wants to sell you everything. Goggles that seal, a cap, a suit that does not drag. The rest are tools for a specific fault, and a badge marks the ones worth buying at your level, and no badge means not yet.

buy first

Goggles

choose: Fit before brand. Press them to your eyes without the strap: if they hold by suction for a second, they seal. Try a different nose bridge before a different model.
care: Never touch the inside of the lens; the anti-fog is a coating. Rinse in fresh water, air dry.
tint: Clear or light for indoors, mirrored or dark for sun, prescription lenses exist and are cheap.

buy first

Cap

Silicone for most, bright for open water

choose: Silicone lasts and does not pull hair; latex is thin and cheap; lycra keeps hair tidy but soaks through.
why: Less drag, keeps goggle straps in place, keeps chlorine off hair, and in open water it is how the safety boat sees you. Bright orange or pink outdoors, always.

buy first

Suit

Snug, chlorine-resistant, no pockets

choose: Polyester or PBT fabric outlasts elastane by years. Jammers or briefs, a one-piece with a racer back; it should feel a size tight dry.
mistake: Board shorts and loose swimwear drag like a parachute. Racing tech suits are for racing; they are rule-limited and fall apart with use.

optional now

Kickboard

The honest float

use: Isolates the kick so you can feel it start at the hip. Face in and breathing with bubbles, not chin on the board.
when: Beginners from session three. Pools usually lend them, so borrow before you buy.

earned

Fins

Short fins for technique, not speed

choose: Short, stiff-ish blades. Long snorkelling fins wreck your kick rhythm and your ankles.
use: Drills, kick sets and butterfly learning. They lift the hips so you can feel a good body position, then you must find it without them.
mistake: Wearing them for whole sessions and thinking you got faster.

earned

Pull buoy

Floats your legs so the arms can learn

use: Between the thighs; swim arms only. Teaches the catch and the rotation without the kick hiding a sinking body.
mistake: Living on it. If you feel faster with a buoy than without, your kick or your body position is the fault, not your arms.

earned

Paddles

Small ones, and only with a good catch

choose: Barely bigger than your hand. Big paddles load the shoulder harder than the water ever will.
when: Advanced swimmers with a high-elbow catch, in short sets. Shoulder pain that lingers after paddles is the paddles.

earned

Centre snorkel

Take breathing out of the equation

use: Lets you swim with the head still and both arms working, so you can feel rotation and the catch without the breath interrupting. Exhale into it fully or it fills with CO2.
mistake: Using it to avoid learning to breathe. It is a mirror, not a crutch.

earned

Tempo trainer and watch

Numbers, once the stroke is worth measuring

tempo: A beeper under your cap that sets stroke rate or pace per length. The cheapest coach you will ever buy.
watch: Counts lengths, pace and stroke count; guesses heart rate; cannot see your elbow. Use it for the main set, ignore it for drills.

open water

Tow floatsafety

A bright bag you tow behind you

why: Makes you visible to boats and the shore, and gives you something to hold and rest on. It is not a flotation device to rely on and not a substitute for a buddy.
with: A bright cap, a whistle, and someone on the shore who knows your route and your return time.

open water

Wetsuit

Warmth and buoyancy, for cold water

choose: A swimming wetsuit (thin, flexible shoulders), not a surfing one. Thickness by water temperature; neoprene cap, gloves and socks when it is properly cold.
know: It floats you high, which changes your stroke. Practise in it before an event, and never let the buoyancy talk you into water you would not swim without it.

nice to have

Plugs, clip, bag

Comfort is allowed

ears: Swimmer's ear is common; silicone plugs or a drop of drying solution after each swim keeps it away.
nose: A clip lets beginners and backstrokers stop fighting water up the nose while they learn to exhale.
bag: Mesh, so everything dries.

no bottomopen water, dusk

Drowning is quiet. This chapter is not.

Nobody waves and shouts. A person in trouble is upright, mouth at the surface, arms pressing down, silent, for twenty to sixty seconds before they go under. Every rule below exists because somebody good at swimming forgot it. Read it at every level, every year.

Never swim alone. Not once. Not because you are weak, but because the water does not check.

Never swim alone.A buddy in the water or a watcher on the shore who knows your route and your return time. This is the whole chapter in one line.
Children within arm's reach, always.Touch supervision: an adult in the water, an arm away, eyes on the child, phone away. Floaties are toys, not lifeguards.
Swim where there is a lifeguard, between the flags.Red and yellow flags mark the patrolled zone. A lifeguard is the only piece of gear that can come and get you.
Cold water: float first.Sudden cold makes you gasp and hyperventilate for around 60 to 90 seconds. Do not swim. Lean back, spread your arms and legs, breathe, and wait for the gasping to pass before you do anything else.
Rip current: do not fight it.Float, breathe, signal for help, then swim across the current, parallel to the shore, and back in with the waves. Rips pull you out, not under.
Never dive into water you cannot see the bottom of.Feet first, every time, in lakes, rivers, rock pools and the shallow end. Diving headfirst into unknown water causes serious, lifelong spinal injuries every year.
No alcohol, no drugs, no swimming.Around a quarter of adult drownings involve alcohol. It kills judgement, coordination and awareness, and it does nothing to soften cold shock, which hits you just as hard.
Never hyperventilate before an underwater swim.Deep fast breaths before a breath-hold do not add oxygen; they remove the urge to breathe until you black out without warning. Underwater distance games have killed strong swimmers.
Know your limits and the day's.Tides, currents, wind, temperature, your own tiredness. If in doubt, stay out. Coming back tomorrow is a swim; not coming back is not.
Reach or throw, never go.If someone is in trouble, do not jump in after them. Reach with a pole, throw a float or a rope, shout for the lifeguard, call the emergency number. Untrained rescuers drown with the person they went to save.

Rip currentfrom above

Look for a darker, calmer channel between breaking waves, foam or debris moving out to sea, and a gap in the wave line. That calm-looking water can run at over two metres a second, faster than an Olympic swimmer. If you are caught: float, wave an arm, then swim sideways out of it.

Cold water shockthe first ninety seconds

0 to 10 sThe gasp. Cold on the skin forces an involuntary breath in. If your face is under, that breath is water. Get your mouth clear first.

10 to 90 sFast, uncontrollable breathing and a racing heart, worst around thirty seconds in. Swimming now uses air you do not have. Lean back, arms and legs out, ears in, and let the water hold you.

after 90 sBreathing settles. Now decide: swim to safety, hold a float, or stay put and signal. In very cold water your arms and legs cool and swimming fails within about ten minutes, so decide early.

Float first. It is the single most useful thing to know about cold water, and it is why the back float from the shallow end is a survival skill, not a beginner exercise.

What drowning looks likewhat a lifeguard sees

Quiet, upright, and facing the shore

Head low in the water, mouth at the surface. Head tilted back, mouth open. Eyes glassy or closed. Hair over the face. Body vertical, no kick, arms pressing down on the water as if climbing a ladder. Trying to roll onto the back. Trying to swim in one direction and not moving. Silence. Children playing make noise; a child who has gone quiet in the water needs you now.

Emergency numbers

112India, EU

911US, Canada

999UK

Learn the number for wherever you are swimming before you get in. Learn CPR; a basic two to three hour course is the most useful afternoon a swimmer can spend.

Before you get inevery swim

Someone is with me, or someone on land knows my route and return time
I know the depth, the entry and the exit, and I will not dive
I have checked the temperature, the current or tide, and the weather
No alcohol, no drugs, not exhausted, not ill
Bright cap or tow float if outdoors; lifeguard or flags if there are any
I have a turnaround point and I will respect it

Tick all six before you get in.

Saved on this device only. It resets to unticked every day, on purpose.

For you, beginner

Standing depth is not safe by itself

Standing depth is where beginners get caught out: a slip, a step off a ledge, a wave. Stay where you can stand, stay with someone, and learn the back float before anything else, because it is the thing that keeps your mouth out of the water while you calm down.

For you, intermediate

The dangerous level

You swim well enough to go further than your judgement. Open water is colder, darker and longer than it looks from the shore. First swims: short, close to shore, with someone, in a bright cap, in water you have measured with a thermometer, not a guess.

For you, advanced

Strong swimmers drown differently

Distance, cold, solo training, breath-hold games and alcohol at the end of a long day. Train with a tow float and a buddy, keep breath-hold work supervised and short, respect cold water even in a wetsuit, and remember that a race with safety cover is a different sport from the same distance alone.

Sources · who says so

The bodies behind these pages

Safety guidance follows the RNLI's Float to Live campaign, the Royal Life Saving Society UK Water Safety Code, Surf Life Saving Australia's rip current advice, the American Red Cross water safety guidance and Dr Francesco Pia's description of the Instinctive Drowning Response, published in the US Coast Guard's On Scene magazine (Fall 2006). The cold water timings follow Professor Mike Tipton's work at the University of Portsmouth. Drowning facts, including the link between alcohol and adult drownings, follow the World Health Organization drowning fact sheet.

Learn-to-swim content draws on Swim England's Learn to Swim Framework and USA Swimming's learn-to-swim guidance; the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels here are this site's own grouping, not their stages. Technique cues are the standard coaching vocabulary used by Swim Smooth and USA Swimming; the critical swim speed test is from Wakayoshi and colleagues (1992) as popularised by Swim Smooth. Gear guidance is manufacturer-neutral.

Nothing here replaces lessons with a qualified coach or the instructions of a lifeguard. If a rule on this site and a lifeguard disagree, the lifeguard is right.