How do you increase speed in swimming?

Question

If you are suposed to relax while doing strokes and not strain your muscles, how do you increase your swimming speed? I want to increase from 2 km/hr to 3 km/hr

Thanks! a lot of these answers really helped when I tried it out at the pool.

Uhm, although I'd really like the 3 points back, I find its too hard choosing the best answer since most were helpful... so to be fair, I'm going to leave it to a vote.

Thanks again for your insight!

Answer 1

Work on your glide ; stretching each arm in front of your head
And use some resistance like gloves and fins they will help you allot . And most important of all is your breathing , as your muscles will strain if they don't get enough oxygen, and if you don't get rid of air ( CO2 ) in your lungs by exhaling in water.

Answer 2

ok i just know a few tips when ur doing the crawl (freestyle)

. u alwayz loose speed if u life ur head out the water ... so u have to think that ur head is attached to ur spine ... and u should move ur head along with it ... and with each stoke ur bellybutton should face the side walls of the pool ( the side of ur leading arm )

. many ppl exhale and inhale when they are above water wrong ... u only inhale in 2 secs and then u exhale inside the water ..

... the thing about relaxing is that .. if u get too worked up u usually spend more oxygen and carbondioxide and other acids build up in ur body ... that's why the relaxed outlook but once u know how to breath properly without loosing speed u can shove out being relaxed and really fire it up

cheeeerio

Answer 3

use your arms and legs more. extend your arms like your reaching for the end of the pool and scoop with your hands. With your feet kick them like you never kicked them before. And make sure to get a lot of air so you have energy and try not to tense up your muscles and relax.Good Luck.

Answer 4

Try to get your feet going fast or try to reach out further
What stroke do you swim

Free:reach out further
Back:fast feet and rocking your body
Brest:strong strokes
Fly:I dont know I suck at Fly but I think a good pull will help

Answer 5

pull harder, but dont tense up your muscles. i know it doesnt sound like it makes sense but it really does, if you keep your joints and muscles loose, but pull harder you will go alot faster.try swimming with every muscle in your body tense( even though you cant really tense up ALL, of them im just exaggerating) its hard isnt it? now do you see why you have to keep your muscles relaxed? you really just have to tense up a few y=of your muscles, like maybe your shoulders a tiny bit and your fore arm close to your wrist

Answer 6

extend your arms and reach like you are reaching for the other side of the pool also keep looking straight at the other side of the pool. trust me I swim competitively all year long

Answer 7

You should practice more maybe then you speed will increase.