Have you ever been in a swimming pool and seen the person next to swim length after length whilst you are struggling to swim just one or a few of these. Does it feel like your swimming style is employed to keep you afloat rather than going forwards in the water, whilst others seem to have no problem in maintaining a nice freestyle rhythm, making a stroke that you find hard to master simple and uncomplicated?
Wouldn't it be good to be able to swim front crawl over an increased distance, maybe like that person in the next lane. The feeling as you move through the water, swimming stronger as you easily overtake slower swimmers, the same ones that used to keep you company as you struggled through your session.
The key that I have found to this since coming from a non-swimming background into triathlon 10 years ago, and with it swims from anywhere between 400m to 3.8 km is that it is imperative to develop a confidence in the water that can only come from learning a good solid technique and body position, one that will enable you to swim through the water rather than using up energy basically fighting to stay afloat. Once you have mastered a few basic techniques and drills that enables you to do this, the wasted energy can then be better utilised to build up your endurance levels which in turn will enable you to swim a mile.
With a solid freestyle technique you will also find that you swimming times per length will undoubtedly reduce and with it the number of strokes you take with each length. That's right, when you develop a proper swimming stroke you go faster with less strokes.
Think of the benefits if you could learn how to swim a mile:
--> Low impact exercise reducing the risk of injury.
--> Longer swimming sessions leading to an improved level of fitness.
--> A complete upper body workout without those weights, watch those muscles grow.
--> Increased confidence in the water.
--> The ability to breath properly whilst in the water.
--> No more panicking or splashing.
--> A more powerful and efficient swimming stroke.
--> To be able to participate in open water swimming events or triathlon.
--> To be able to swim confidently in the sea.
--> Bragging rights to your friends that you have learnt how to swim a mile.
--> And I am talking freestyle here, not breast crawl or floating on your back.
So to summarise the key to achieving the above is to develop a good solid technique which will allow you to feel comfortable and at ease in the water instead of wasting energy in just staying afloat, which in turn will lead into being able to swim further with better endurance and using less strokes.