What swimming equipment will I need and where can I buy it?

Video in the text
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As soon as you walk into a sporting goods store, the salespeople will try to sell you absolutely everything. Let’s look at the gear that actually makes sense to buy and what you’ll need for this course. You can get everything for a reasonable price at Decathlon. Alternatively, you can check out an online store—under the video, I’ll share a few links with good selections.

Goggles and Swim Cap
Swimming goggles are the absolute minimum. Don’t try to learn without them—pond water or chlorinated pool water won’t do your eyes any favors. Everyone has a different face shape, so the best thing is to try them on. Even in the store it can feel like a gamble, because you can’t test them in the water.
Once you find a pair that fits you—like a lid on a pot—just keep buying the same ones when they wear out. What’s important is that they sit just on your eye sockets (not over the eyebrows), and they should lightly press in when you place them on your face. If you don’t feel that light suction, water will leak in during your swim because there’s likely a small gap around your eye socket.
I use three types of goggles – “shells”, which are practically indestructible because they have no silicone (which often becomes brittle, doesn’t fit well, and leaks).
Then I use these ones from Decathlon, B-fast 900, which cost around 25 € – they’re quite comfortable, better for larger faces, although sometimes they pinch my nose a little.
And then I swim in Speedo Fastskin Elite Mirror competition goggles, which cost about 60 €. They’re more hydrodynamic, but after an hour of swimming, the difference doesn’t matter that much, so such an investment isn’t really necessary. Otherwise, Decathlon also offers prescription swimming goggles – the Selfit line, where you buy just the frames and then separate lenses according to your prescription. The full set costs about 16 €.
Prices for goggles range from 2 € to 80 €– and price definitely doesn’t guarantee a better fit. It’s much better to try them on in a store than to order online.
Swimming caps are more for people with long hair, to keep it from getting in the way like seaweed. Short-haired swimmers mostly don’t need them.
There are silicone caps – the standard ones (the only difference is usually the design), fabric caps, which don’t pull your hair as much but can slip off, and latex caps, which I don’t recommend – they pull your hair like crazy. Prices range from 4 to 12 €.

Swim Fins
Be careful – for swimming, we don’t use long diving fins, but short swim fins. You can buy them at any online store, no need to experiment – just go for the classic ones that look like this.
If your size is between two options, go for the smaller one – the front is open for your toes to stick out if needed. But with oversized fins, where your foot moves around inside, you’ll just end up with blisters on your heels and cramps.
For competitive swimmers, fins are mainly used to train leg strength because they increase water resistance, so you have to kick harder.
We’ll use them for basic swimming drills, because fins greatly improve your body position in the water – which makes everything much easier.
Why is that? Because fins make you faster, and speed is one of the factors that keeps you higher on the water surface.
It’s just like a motorboat – when it’s stationary, it sinks deep into the water. But when it speeds up, it rises and glides on the surface like it’s floating.
But here’s a little trap – try to set them aside whenever possible. Just because you can swim with fins doesn’t mean you can swim well.
Fins are great, but I personally try to avoid using them as much as possible when teaching, especially once you’re starting to swim full crawl.
Swim fins cost about 24 to 40 €, and the softer and more flexible the material, the better they are for learning. Usually, the cheaper ones tend to be softer.

Kickboard / Pull Buoy
Kickboards and pull buoys are buoyant aids, and I love using them often for crawl training.
In the first lesson, I always bring colorful boards and buoys, and clients often feel embarrassed, thinking they look like toys for toddlers. Nope – kickboards and buoys are not for kids.
They are the most commonly used aids, even among competitive swimmers – they’re part of almost every training.
You don’t need to buy both – they’re interchangeable, it’s a matter of comfort.
The kickboard is held in the hands and used when training kicking. The pull buoy (sometimes called a “pull float”) is used to train arm strokes and for balance exercises related to body position.
Even if you only have one of these tools, it’s fine: you can hold the board between your thighs, while you’d hold the buoy with your hands and kick.
If you’re only buying one, I’d recommend the pull buoy, because we’ll use it more often, and thanks to its shape, it won’t slip out and will stay better positioned between your thighs.
Kickboards and pull buoys cost about 6 to 24 €, and I’d recommend choosing based on how well you float. If you float easily on the surface, go for a smaller size. If you tend to sink like an anchor – go for a larger one. Let me know if you’d like this section rewritten in your preferred relaxed video style.

Snorkel
The snorkel is a relatively new training aid – and just to be clear, we don’t want a diving snorkel, but a swimming snorkel.
The difference is that a diving snorkel goes to the side, while a swimming snorkel runs straight through the middle of the face. The mouthpiece goes in your mouth, and the tube sits along the center of your face, resting against your forehead.
In the beginning, you’ll probably have a hard time with water getting into your nose, because without diving goggles, your nose is exposed.
Swimmers today use snorkels without any trouble – they simply don’t breathe in through their nose underwater.
I personally still struggle a bit with it. I’m old school, and back in the day, we didn’t have snorkels, so I never got used to it, and sometimes I still get water up my nose.
For these situations, there’s a little tool called a nose clip, which is a small clip for your nose. It’s used precisely for swimming with a snorkel or for backstroke training to prevent water from getting in.
That said, many of my clients learn to swim with a snorkel without a nose clip, so it’s really just a matter of habit.
You can get a snorkel for 14 to 40 €, but I don’t see any added value in the more expensive ones.
And a nose clip costs around 4 €.

Hand Paddles
Paddles are great strength-training tools for the arms. I have them here just to show you, but we won’t be using them in this course because they are absolutely not necessary for learning how to swim crawl.
They’re great for building strength in your arms, so feel free to get them later on – once you’re swimming crawl back and forth and feel like speeding up.

So now you have everything you need for our swim course.
You can manage just fine without any equipment – the journey will just be a bit more rugged.
Are you ready? Then let’s do this.