Swimming With Arms and Legs Together
I have a problem swimming with arms and legs together. I have been trying to swim but with little progress. I am not able to use the arms and legs together, when I start using the arms I forget the legs ..please help
This is a very common problem and is nearly always connected to one’s coordination.
Much will depend on which swimming stroke you are attempting to learn, as the coordination is different for certain strokes.
For example front crawl is an alternating stroke where the arms and legs kick and pull in an alternating action. In other words as one leg kicks up the other kicks down and when one arm pulls the other recovers over the water.
Breaststroke on the other hand is a simultaneous stroke where both legs kick at the same time and both arms pull at the same time.
I recommend you try both strokes if you have not already. You may find that you find one easier than the other to coordinate the arms and legs.
Breaststroke is usually the easiest to coordinate because the arms pull just before the legs kick.
They are almost separate movements which makes learning and performing the swimming stroke a little easier than front crawl or backstroke.
If you are determined to learn front crawl then you must break down the stroke into its parts first. Then slowly piece them back together to master the coordination of the arms and legs.
Kick your legs holding a kick board, kicking at a steady speed but not too fast. Then perform one arm pull and hold the float again. Then the opposite arm pulls and holds the float again.
Repeat this pattern until you maintain a steady rhythm ensuring that you maintain the speed of your leg kick all the way though.
This exercise is called ‘catch up’ and is a great way of getting your arms and legs to work together.
The next step is to perform the same exercise but without holding the kickboard maintaining the leg kick speed all the time.
Don’t get frustrated when it goes wrong or goes back to how you did it before. Be patient and practice and it will all come together in time.
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