Q&A for How to Get Faster at Swimming Freestyle

When you're swimming, bring your arms all the way down to your thigh. Otherwise, you aren't taking a full stroke, and you won't be able to swim as fast.

Set achievable goals for yourself so you have something to strive toward. Make sure you get in a pool and practice at least 3 times every week as well.

Many people know them well, but haven't maximized their strength. Work on strengthening you shoulders and gluten by doing squats and push-ups. You can also swim laps only using your shoulders.

Exhale before you move your head to the side, then inhale really quickly so you don't get water in your mouth! The exhalation will move any water wanting to go in your mouth out of the way so you can breath in.

Swinging the arm fully is more effective. If you reach out in front of you, you are able to pull more water per stroke. In contrast, if you swing halfway, you are in jeopardy of not pulling as much or hardly any water per stroke, making swimming much harder than it has to be.

To improve your flip turn, you can try standing straight up in the water, jumping, and flipping. As you get better at a faster flip, you can jump towards the wall instead of straight up. When you get to the part of your flip where you are looking up at the ceiling, push off. Next, instead of jumping, take a stroke and use that stroke to help you start to flip. You can know when to flip by looking down at the blue T at the bottom of the pool.

Try starting with a kickboard. Once you practice kicking with that, it's easier to connect it to the rest of your stroke.

Try not to let your breath out when under water. If you splash your face with cold water before you hold your breath it will be easier. Make sure you have relaxed every muscle in your body.

Practice with a set of swim fins or a kickboard to improve the strength, speed, and endurance of your leg muscles.

A swim clip is a perfect way to stop water from getting in the nostrils. The wire ones works best for me.

Stretch behind your back more and do fast arm circles forwards AND backwards. Also, strengthen your shoulders.

On your freestyle leg, you should just go all out. Don't think about how exhausted you are or how much your legs hurt. Just sprint, sprint, sprint.

You don't really swing your arms, you let them glide in the water. Work on upper body strength and gliding through the water when you're swimming, and keeping your pace.

Practice floating on top (laying out your stomach) of a kickboard and when you get comfortable, pull it out from under yourself. Try to keep the same position you were just in when you were on the kickboard.

Yes, Speedos do make you swim faster, but ultimately what will improve your speed is improved technique. If you're a poor swimmer, just putting on Speedos is not going to make you a Michael Phelps, but you will notice an improvement in your times. Personally, for lap swimming (and tanning), I think Speedos are the best.

Relax. Make sure that when you take a breath, it comes from your diaphragm, not your lungs or mouth. Also, getting your stroke in sync with your breathing helps enormously.

Try a six beat kick, which is three kicks for each stroke and six kicks for the entire cycle.

3 to 5 is usually a good number. Make sure you streamline past the backstroke flags.

Nose. Just remember not to let out all of the air out at once or you won't be able to stay underwater longer. Exhaling with nose is also easier to save some air.

Out of the pool, practice turning your head only. Do this over and over until it becomes a habit you can continue when swimming.