Front crawl tips from an Olympic swimmer

Swimming is great for toning all areas of your body, as each type of stroke can challenge different muscles. And you can burn over 200 calories every half an hour, as water is denser than air, so you have to work harder.

Olympic swimmer Chris Cook has put together some tips, in collaboration with the Aspire English Channel Swim Challenge, which is taking place between 14 September and 7 December.

Less is more
To improve your front crawl you must achieve as little resistance as possible so you glide through the water.

Stay streamlined
You want to make your stroke as efficient as possible, so think about keeping yourself long and flat, so you can be streamlined in the water.

Make every stroke count
It’s also not about how many strokes you can do, it’s better to think how few.  It’s all about getting as much length as possible in between strokes and making sure your arms glide neatly down either side of your body, through each propelled motion.

Now get in that pool and practice!