How to Get Faster at Swimming: 10 Essential Tips for Speed
by Coach Mark
Swimming faster isn’t just about logging endless laps; it’s about refining technique, reducing resistance, and maximizing efficiency in the water. By focusing on key elements such as body balance, a strong and precise kick, and a powerful pull, swimmers can glide through the water with greater speed and ease.
1. Improve Your Balance
Achieving peak swimming velocity requires a fundamental shift in focus from power to horizontal alignment.
In the water, any deviation from a streamlined posture creates immediate hydrodynamic drag, particularly when the hips and legs begin to sink. To mitigate this resistance, aim to keep your body aligned with the surface by engaging your core, gently pressing your chest into the water, and allowing your hips to rise naturally.
Visualizing a subtle downhill angle can help redistribute weight more evenly, reducing frontal resistance and allowing you to glide forward with greater control and agility through each stroke.
2. Master Your Technique
With better balance in place, refining your technique allows you to swim faster without unnecessary effort. An optimal technique focuses on how each movement contributes to forward motion, from clean hand entry to establishing a hold on the water and cleanly finishing the stroke.
Reducing wasted movements, such as overreaching or crossing the arms, helps maintain rhythm and consistency. When technique is well-timed and precise, every stroke delivers more speed, allowing you to move through the water smoothly while conserving energy for sustained performance.
3. Build a Stronger Kick
Once your technique is improved, practice developing a stronger kick to increase your swimming speed. A well-timed, downward kick from the hips supports body alignment, adds forward drive, and makes rotation easier. It is critical to avoid excessive knee flexion, which creates a braking effect and increases drag in the water.
Instead, practice kick-focused drills that encourage hip movement, helping you stay balanced, rotate more effectively, and maintain speed even as your arms begin to tire.
4. Develop a Powerful Pull Technique
The next step is to improve how you pull through the water to become a faster swimmer.
A high-elbow catch allows you to engage your back muscles rather than relying solely on your arms. During the catch phase, it is important to monitor elbow position closely, as a dropped elbow reduces power and slows forward movement.
By mastering these biomechanics, you ensure that every pull is an intentional transfer of energy, converting upper-body strength into sustained forward momentum.
5. Lengthen Your Stroke
After strengthening your pull, focus on swimming longer rather than faster straight away. Extending your body position helps you travel further with each stroke.
Also, try catch-up drills to refine timing and encourage your leading arm to stay extended for longer. An elongated stroke cycle reduces rushed movements, allowing you to maintain swimming speed without increasing effort.
6. Rotate Effectively From Side to Side
As stroke length improves, correct rotation becomes essential for swimming faster.
By rotating from the hips and torso, you move through the water with less resistance, allowing each stroke to travel farther with less effort. This also facilitates breathing, reduces shoulder strain, and improves overall stroke reach.
To develop proper rotation, side-kick drills are especially helpful, as they train you to stay balanced on each side while maintaining steady, controlled forward movement.
7. Fix Your Breathing Technique
Once rotation becomes instinctive, breathing should integrate seamlessly into your swimming stroke without disrupting flow.
Poorly timed breaths can affect balance and reduce momentum, which is why breath control in swimming is essential for maintaining speed and efficiency. Thus, focus on inhaling and exhaling in rhythm with your stroke and body roll, keeping head movement to a minimum.
8. Build Explosive Underwater Power
Beyond surface swimming, underwater phases offer a clear opportunity to get faster at swimming.
Push-offs and turns are the fastest moments in a swim, so use them wisely. Stay streamlined and execute controlled dolphin kicks to glide smoothly beneath the surface. Moreover, incorporating short underwater sets into your training helps build strength and confidence, enabling you to carry maximum speed into every length.
9. Track and Measure Your Progress
To ensure your training is working, regularly track your performance. Time your laps, note improvements, and use the data to set realistic goals. Measuring progress not only highlights what’s working but also keeps motivation high.
10. Invest in Proper Swimming Gear
Once you’ve focused on improving your technique, the next step is to make sure the equipment you use complements your training.
Well-fitted swimwear reduces surface friction, while quality goggles and silicone caps streamline your profile in the water. Training aids such as fins, paddles, and snorkels can also help refine technique and build strength when used correctly.
The right gear won’t replace good technique, but it can make training more effective.
Improve Your Swimming Speed with Expert Coaching at Marsden Swim School
While these tips can certainly help you swim faster by improving technique, strength, and efficiency, they can’t replace the impact of professional guidance. Working with experienced coaches ensures that mistakes are corrected early, progress is tracked, and training is tailored to individual needs.
That’s what we do at Marsden Swim School.
Our expert swim instructors hold recognized accreditations and deliver personalized swimming lessons for all ages. Whether you are an adult looking to increase speed or a parent enrolling a child, our structured 10-level progression takes students from early water safety and confidence-building to capable squad swimmers with strong technique.
Enroll yourself or your child today at our Bukit Timah swimming pool or at other locations across Singapore, and start swimming with confidence.