National Learn to Swim Day

Did you know that this Saturday, May 20th, is National Learn to Swim Day?  Neither did I until a company contacted me to see if I was interested in writing a post about water safety for my children.  *Cough*  Children?  Haha, clearly an email where they did not know their audience and believe it or not I have received more irrelevant ones – like diaper rash cream or denture clearer.  But seriously, I am thankful for this email to let me know about this very important day as swimming is such a near and dear topic to my heart.  I have covered it more than a dozen times over the last four and a half years of Sparkles and Shoes and am actually surprised I have not written about it more. 

^ Me swimming, in case you could not tell!

Most people I know are able to swim, they tell me, but not very good at it.  And like most things, practice makes perfect but so does the right equipment.  A few years ago when I was on the Equinox swim team I noticed that about half the people in the pool were really held back by their lack of proper equipment and the things you need are not that hard to get or expensive.  Let me break it down for you.   For any female swimmer you NEED three things; a suit, a cap, and a pair of goggles, and then there is equipment that can help you get a better workout.  These are my favorites in each category:

Swim Suits |  I highly recommend polyester suits for swimming laps.  They do not stretch out even after years of use  and the color does not fade. Most swimmers are preferential to a thin strapped suit and all five of these are classified on SwimOutlet.com (where I buy all of my swim stuff)  as Women’s Swimwear > Competitive Swimwear > One Piece and are definitely the way to go!  (I am partial to Nike but TYR and Speedo are also great brands) These colorful suits are the best investment pieces and regardless if you are an Olympic swimmer or someone who just wants to swim a few laps at your local YMCA once a month!

Caps & Goggles | In my opinion, there is only one choice for goggles – Speedo Women’s Vanquishers.  After thousands of hours of swimming and dozens of different goggles these are the most comfortable and the least likely to leak and as an added bonus they are only $13,  on the more reasonable side as goggles go.  I have included a regular pair, the light blue, perfect for indoor swimming, and a mirrored pair for outside, think of them like sunglasses!  In opposition, caps are really up to you. I much prefer latex caps as they keep all of your hair inside and are non-slip but the brand really does not matter, $3 caps are sometimes the best!

Training Equipment | If you all leave comments below and are interested in the other kinds of training equipment you can bringg to the pool with you to enhance your workout I can absolutely go into them but for now the right suit, cap, and goggles are key and then adding fins, a kick board, a pull buoy, and paddles can help you take it to the next level.  Note: I actually own each item shown below (And don’t even get me started on snorkels).