How to Swim Faster: 9 Proven Tips to Improve Your Speed
/I’m the strength and swim coach who’s spent years helping swimmers of all levels find their rhythm in the water. From beginners just learning the ropes to competitive athletes looking to shave seconds off their time, the quest to swim faster is universal. But it’s not just about going hard in the pool; it’s about working smarter, too.
In this article, I’ll share 9 proven tips to help you swim faster, improve your technique, and build lasting efficiency in the water. Let’s dive in!
1. How to Get Better at Swimming
When it comes to swimming faster, technique is king. Even the strongest athlete won’t reach their full potential with sloppy form. Focus on refining your stroke mechanics by:
Maintaining a high body position: Keep your body horizontal and aligned to reduce drag. Imagine your body as a skimboard cutting through the water.
Perfecting your catch: Initiate your pull early by engaging your forearm and hand as one large paddle. This maximizes propulsion.
Streamlining your movements: Every part of your stroke—from hand entry to the pull to recovery—should flow efficiently without wasted motion.
Invest time in drills like sculling or one-arm freestyle to isolate specific parts of your stroke. Remember, speed starts with precision.
2. Prioritize Interval Training
If you want to swim faster, you need to train faster. Interval training, or breaking your workouts into short bursts of high-intensity effort followed by recovery, is a game-changer.
For example:
Swim 10x50 meters at 90% effort, resting 20 seconds between each.
As your fitness improves, gradually increase your speed or the number of repeats at your goal speed, while keeping the rest interval consistent.
These sets train your body to handle higher intensities while maintaining form. Plus, they mimic race conditions, building the stamina needed to sustain fast swimming.
In the US, high school and college swimming programs often emphasize interval training to prepare athletes for meets. The competitive nature of these events makes speed work essential.
3. Build a Better Feel for the Water
“Feeling” the water is a skill that separates good swimmers from great ones. This ability to sense and manipulate water effectively allows for maximum propulsion.
Drills to enhance your feel include:
Sculling: Focus on moving water with your hands in various directions to develop sensitivity.
Closed-fist swimming: Swim with your hand closed in fists, learning to hold and move water with your forearm, then open your hands to feel the contrast in surface area and pressure against the water.
Be patient; improving your “feel” for the water takes time and consistent practice.
4. Count Your Strokes
Efficiency is just as important as speed. Race strategy is a specific formula of stroke count and stroke rate. By counting your strokes per lap, you’ll identify areas where you’re losing efficiency.
Here’s how to start:
Swim a lap and count how many strokes it takes.
Focus on reducing your stroke count while maintaining speed by lengthening each stroke.
As you identify the ideal stroke count for your event and level, work on getting faster at a fixed stroke count.
This method builds both efficiency and awareness in your swimming technique.
Count your strokes each length as your hand enters the water. Focus on maximizing your position, streamline, and propulsion on each stroke. Attempt to take as few strokes as possible each length and or reducing stroke count each length within an interval or set.
5. Nail Your Streamline Position
A tight streamline reduces drag and helps you maintain momentum during starts and turns. Many swimmers underestimate how much speed they can gain simply by perfecting this skill.
Tips for better streamline:
Keep your arms fully extended, hands stacked, and biceps tight against your ears.
Engage your core to keep your body straight by stacking your ribs over your pelvis with straight arms and legs.
Practice streamlining off every wall in practice.
Little adjustments here can lead to big improvements in speed.
Watching videos of Caeleb Dressel’s explosive starts and turns is a lesson in how a perfect streamline can lead to record-breaking swims. Dressel’s precision in this area is a significant factor in his dominance.
This is a video guide on How to Improve your Streamline with mobility
6. Strengthen Your Core
A strong core is the foundation of swimming efficiency. Your core helps you maintain body alignment, transfer power from your kicks to your pulls, and stay balanced in the water.
Effective core exercises for swimmers include:
Isometric holds: Front, side, and rotational planks.
Heavy lifts: Cover all your basis the the foundational compound lifts, which simultaneously train your core to brace, while your arms and legs get stronger.
Medicine Balls: Develop explosive power, and develop your core dynamically, with medicine ball throwing exercises.
Incorporate core training into your dryland routine to enhance your swimming speed and stability. For a complete approach, check out our Core Training for Swimmers program ➡️ - and dive deeper in Chapter 13, Core Training for Swimming, which I authored in the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s 2nd edition of Developing the Core ➡️ .
7. Add Resisted Swim Training
To build power and speed, nothing is more specific than incorporating resisted swim training into your routine. Tools like swim parachutes, drag socks, or resistance bands create added water resistance, training you to hold and move more water, to swim faster.
Equipment like these not only increase your power over time, but they have an immediate effect on your nervous system, increasing the amount of muscle you can recruit and the speed of muscle contraction. Removing the resistance provides an immediate improvement in feel and speed in the water.. Start with short sprints using resistance gear to build strength without compromising your technique, and add it to your next pre-event warmup for immediate race results.
Many US collegiate programs, such as those at the University of Texas or Stanford, integrate resisted swim training into their regimens, helping athletes develop explosive power.
See also: Top 15 Youth U.S. Swim Teams
8. Practice Race Pace
To swim faster, you need to practice swimming fast. Regularly incorporating race-pace and skill sets into your training prepares your body for the demands of competition.
For example:
Swim a broken 100 sprint: 4x25 meters at your goal race pace with: 05 rest. Record your time, deducting the: 15 of rest after each 25, for a close prediction of your current racing ability.
200m swimmers can perform a similar set of 4x50m.
These sets build both physical and mental confidence, essential for racing success.
Summer league meets in the US often emphasize race-pace preparation. Swimmers who consistently practice at competition speeds perform better under pressure.
See Also: What to Eat Before a Swim Meet
9. Focus on Recovery
Fast swimming isn’t just about hard work; it’s about smart work. Recovery allows your body to adapt and grow stronger. Without it, you risk burnout and injury.
Prioritize:
Active recovery swims: Low-intensity sessions to flush out lactic acid.
Mobility work: Stretching and foam rolling to improve flexibility and reduce soreness.
Sleep and nutrition: Fuel your body with the rest and nutrients it needs to perform at its best.
Remember, you don’t get stronger in the pool; you get stronger when you recover properly.
Improving your swimming speed takes time, consistency, and attention to detail. By implementing these nine tips—from mastering technique to prioritizing recovery—you’ll be on your way to becoming a faster, more efficient swimmer.
If you’re ready to take the next step, consider joining one of my coaching programs. Whether it’s refining your freestyle or building strength through dryland training programs ➡️ , I’m here to help you achieve your goals.
Questions for You:
What’s one area of your swimming you want to improve?
Have you tried any of these tips before? Let me know how they worked for you!
Swim Coaching
Take your swimming to the next level with personalized coaching sessions ➡️ tailored to your goals. Whether it’s mastering technique, building strength, or improving race-day performance, I’m here to guide you every step of the way.
Contact me today to start your journey to faster swimming!