How to Learn Swimming Online

Front Crawl

• 1

  Put your body in a horizontal position, parallel to the water's surface, with your legs straight behind you. Practice the following motions with your head out of the water. However, when you get the hang of it, your face should be pointing down under the water unless coming out to breathe.

• 2

  Straighten arms in front of you with your palms turned away from the body. Sweep one arm down under the body, thumb pointing down, and continue the movement down by bringing that arm to the side of the body. Raise the elbow of this arm above the water's surface, with the rest of the arm and hand now relaxed, using your torso to rotate the elbow and arm toward the starting position. As you are bringing this arm to the starting position, you are starting the entire movement with the other arm. Your arms should continue this movement in a rotating manner. Practice this movement until you get the hang of it, and then proceed to incorporate the legs.

• 3

  Kick your legs in an alternating pattern as you continue your alternating arm movements. The legs should start with a slightly bent knee, then kicking the lower leg and foot in a downward direction. The kicking motion stabilizes your body's position in the water. Try not to splash too much with these kicks. If you notice that you are splashing with your kicks, try to make smaller kicks.

• 4

  Breathe through your mouth as your face comes out of the water during the portion of the stroke when one arm comes out of the water. Any other time while you are executing this stroke, your face should be in the water. If you need to breathe at any other time you can, of course, stop this stroke and raise your head above water. Return to this swimming stroke when you are ready.

Breaststroke

• 5

  Get into the water and position your body in the water, parallel with the surface of the water. Your hips and shoulders should remain parallel to the surface throughout the breaststroke. Hold onto the side of the pool or another support as you practice the motions of the breaststroke without the arm movements.

• 6

  Pull feet and legs straight together, then proceed to bend your knees and bring your feet toward your tailbone. Imagine the movements of a frog in water when you execute the breaststroke.

• 7

  Point your feet in an outward direction as they come close to your tailbone. Push out in an outward sweeping motion with your feet and legs as you straighten your legs and bring them back to your straight starting position. Practice this movement a few times to get used to it.

• 8

  Let go of the side of the pool or your support and position yourself away from the support so you don't hit or run into anything. For now, only practice the arm movements. Straighten your arms with your palms pointing out and position them in front of your body. Push both your arms down toward your waist in an outward sweeping motion. Continue to finish the fluid movement by bringing the hands together at your waist and bringing them up together into their beginning position. Your arms should remain underwater at all times during this stroke. A complete arm motion will look like you are drawing wings on the sides of your body and bringing your hands up your torso to start over again. Practice this a few times until you are comfortable with it.

• 9

  Incorporate the leg and arm movements together. When your arms are in front of you, your legs should be bent with feet toward the tailbone. When you bring your arms out and toward your waist, you sweep your feet and legs out to a straightened position. As you are swinging your arms out and down, your head will naturally rise out of the water. This is when you breathe in. Remember, it is a movement like a frog. If executed correctly, you should not splash water and your body will be under the surface of the water the whole time, with the exception of your head.