Swimming Essentials - What you need to swim faster

    For those who don't know I represented my university, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) for swimming. I was a swimming athlete for the past 3 years from 2017 - 2020. Now, I have graduated and no longer on the team. I can say I have "some" experience in the competitive swimming scene.   

This post is to list down and explain some essential equipment to help you swim faster. 

Before entering the scene, I was a casual swimmer. I just swim for the sake of exercise. When I was in the pool, I saw some people with their swim gears, but I had no idea what was it for. After being on a swim team for the past few years gave me some experience in this. I have to thank my coach and teammates for that. 

Humans are not meant to swim and that is obvious. The anatomy and physiology of a human are meant for us to walk, run, hike, and many more. We are not made to breathe underwater nor are we made to swim fast like a sailfish. This means we need to train ourselves to swim faster, longer, and more efficiently. 

When it comes to training, you expect yourself to swim faster and longer. So, you need equipment to help you do so. Below are some of the equipment I find so useful to help your swim better. All this equipment can be used in your drills when you train. 

1. Hand paddles

Paddles are more commonly used in swimming. From armature to pros, everyone uses paddles. Paddles help you in many ways, but mainly it helps you to build a powerful stroke. Paddles add resistance to your palm so that you need more effort to pull and push the water. 

Basic hand paddles

Other than that, we have paddles that can correct your stroke. Paddles like these below from FINIS (not sponsored) are very helpful to correct your swimming technique. You can now focus on gliding in the water, correct palm position, improve water entry, improve your stroke technique, and many more. 

Below are some paddles for advanced swimmers. These are a little expensive compared to an ordinary paddle. Each of these paddles helps in improving and focusing on a specific technique. I suggest you invest in these paddles once you are used to the basic ones. But, if you insist on buying these FINIS paddles, I suggest you get the FINIS ISO Paddles. 

FINIS ISO Paddles

FINIS Agility Paddles

FINIS Freestyler Paddles

2. Fins

Fins are an important part of drills. You might look silly being the few people who train with these, but fins are the top essential equipment on my list. Fins help you build stronger legs and core strength. Trust me, swimming with fins is actually hard. The fins help you position your feet to point straight, The more you use these, the faster your feet adapt to point out. Other than that, fins help you swim efficiently, with the fast water that comes to your head and hands, you can position your body to reduce the drag coming in. 

There are two types of swimming fins that you will come across. The short-fin and the long-fin. Both serve the same purpose, but the longer one gives you more resistance to kick. This means if you are using a long fin, you need more energy to kick in the water. 

For beginners, I suggest you go for the long fins. 

Short fins (example)

Long fins (example)

3. Pull buoy

A pull buoy is basically a foam that helps you float. Pull buoy is used when doing drills where you don't use your legs. If your legs are not moving, the chances for your leg sinking is high. Legs are not supposed to sink because they will cause drag and imbalanced body position. So, if you use a pull buoy it will help you keep balance in the water and assist you with drills. Other than that, a pull buoy can help strengthen your core. With a strong core, your body will be straight to the pool lanes. This will improve your swimming technique and make you swim with less drag. 

Pull buoy (example)

4. Kickboard

A kickboard is also a foam. It serves the opposite purpose of the pull buoy. It assists in drills that focus on the leg. This means your hand will not be moving in the water causing your upper body to sink. To avoid this hold the kickboard with doing kicking drills. 

Basic kickboard

Some kickboards are made for a 2 in 1 purpose. The kickboard below can be used as a pull buoy or a kickboard. There also some other kickboard that claims to reduce drag when used, but I did not see any good in those. I'd rather use a normal kickboard. 

2 in 1 kickboard

There you go. Here are some swimming essentials that I find useful for an armature swimmer who is interested to dive into the competitive swimming atmosphere.