A Beginner’s Guide to Swimming Equipment / Gear

This article discusses the swimming equipment you need when you learn how to swim. There are a few essentials you should get and then there is some additional swimming gear that can really help you to improve faster. Find out more below!

The Essentials

Swimsuit: Obviously you will need a swimsuit to learn how to swim. For men, these are usually swim briefs or swim trunks. Boardshorts aren’t very good for swimming as they create too much drag. Furthermore, they are forbidden in certain pools for hygienic reasons. For women, the most comfortable swimsuit is the one-piece swimsuit.

Swim cap: In most cases, a swim cap is required when swimming in a public pool. And a swim cap is also very useful if you have long hair and want to avoid that it gets into your face while swimming.

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Swimming Goggles: If you are serious about learning how to swim, swimming goggles are also mandatory as they will allow you to put your head under water without getting water in the eyes. This will permit more relaxed and streamlined swimming.

The Nice-To-Have’s

Nose clip: When you are learning front crawl or backstroke, it takes coordination to integrate breathing into the stroke, and it usually takes a while to learn how to do this. Using a nose clip keeps water out of the nose, so it’s one thing less to worry about during the initial learning stage.

Swim fins: Swim fins are a great tool to have while learning the crawl and butterfly strokes. They give you an efficient kick and allow you to focus on the arm motions in crawl and on the body undulation in butterfly. My preference goes to the short kind of swim fins, like Zoomers or the Speedo Biofuse, as they put less strain on the Achilles Tendon.

Other Swimming Equipment

The following swimming equipment is usually available at the local swimming pool, so you usually don’t need to buy it.

Pull Buoys: The pull buoy is a figure-eight shaped flotation device made of foam which you put between your legs. It gives the lower body enough buoyancy so that you don’t need to do leg work and is great to learn arm motions. Certain swimmers also use it to do front crawl lap swimming, but in my opinion this isn’t very useful as it masks balance problems.

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Water noodles: Water noodles (also called swim noodles) are long colored flexible cylinders made of foam. They are great pool toys but also interesting to use as flotation devices that support the upper body while learning correct leg motions.

Kickboard: The kickboard is also used to isolate leg work and can be interesting in certain cases. However, it can strain the shoulders, especially it is held in front of you with extended arms, and that’s why I prefer to use a water noodle in most cases as an alternative.

Conclusion

There is other nice swimming gear available, but if you are starting out, the swimming equipment listed on this page should already get you far in your new favorite sport!