An often overlooked basic skill in swimming is the ability to time your breaths. If you're not comfortable breathing while swimming, you'll struggle to make streamlined, coordinated movements. The basic idea involves breathing out through both nose and mouth when your head is underwater, then lift your head to the side, taking a full breath before plunging your face back down under the surface. In his book "Swimming: Steps to Success," David G. Thomas suggests practicing this motion when holding onto the side of the pool with your arms outstretched.

Gliding

Gliding through the water is a basic skill to master before you even consider kicking and paddling, according to swimming instructor Ian Cross, speaking to "The Guardian." Gliding helps you to get used to the sensation of moving through the water headfirst. Try gently pushing off the side wall of the pool with your arms stretched out in front of your head. Keep your head face-down in the water and glide until you slow down.

Coordination

Beginner swimmers often find themselves messily chopping through the water with their limbs. That's fine. It takes a while to get a feel for moving your limbs in time. You must also get used to moving muscles in your lower back, abdomen and hips to power you forward. Similarly, try to let your legs come up behind your body, and keep a slim, streamlined position. Over time, this reduces drag from the water and makes you a more efficient swimmer.

Breaststroke

Once you feel confident with basic swimming techniques, mastering a specific stroke is your next challenge. Breaststroke, while requiring slightly more coordination than front crawl, offers a stable, gentle stroke that's ideal for beginners. To do the breaststroke, you need to stay straight at the water's surface, holding your head up. Pull your arms in together with the hands almost touching. As your hands reach your chest, bend your knees and lift your feet up in a frog-like shape with the soles of your feet pointed out to each side. Push back with your legs and reach forward with your hands simultaneously. This double-propulsion should help you surge through the water.

Diving

Diving into the pool is a basic swimming skill -- even if it starts out of the water. Always practice diving in a deep pool with a lifeguard on duty. When you begin, diving may only involve putting your hands together above your head and gently curling your body forward toward the water until you fall in, headfirst. As you progress, try jumping slightly and straightening your legs behind you as you dive to enter the water smoothly.

Keeping your face in the water is step one, because if you swim with your head up or your face out of the water, your legs and hips will invariably drop. A high-head/low-hip position requires you to push more surface area through the water, creating more drag. This makes it harder to swim because there is more resistance. Imagine cycling with a parachute attached to your back. This will force you to take additional rest breaks in training or on race day as your heart rate increases and you cannot keep up with the oxygen demands of your muscles.

There are different tricks to keeping your face in the water. Be sure to have comfortable goggles. Focus on looking at the bottom or staring at the black line down the center of the lane in the pool. If you experience anxiety related to submersion, take a lot of rest breaks and remember that as far as pool training goes, you are never very far from the wall and an exit. Private swim lessons and a lot of practice will help.

Rhythmic Breathing

Once you are comfortable keeping your face/head in the water while swimming, you need to figure out how and when to breath. The critical action here is to begin exhaling through your nose/mouth as soon as you finish breathing in.

The major problem I see with beginner swimmers related to breathing is that they hold their breath while their face is in the water, then tries to exhale and inhale very quickly when turning to breathe. This results in a poor, shallow breath and a quick buildup of carbon dioxide in the lungs. Swimmers will have to stop and take a break in training or roll over on their backs to catch a few deep breaths in racing.

You must exhale while your face is in the water. So when you turn to breathe, your lungs are mostly empty and ready to accept a fresh breath of air. You do need to force the rhythm a bit. You should forcefully exhale through your nose/mouth as soon as you complete the breath. There's no pausing. It is a constant rhythm.

THAT IS ALL.