A swimmer’s snorkel is nothing like the standard snorkel you might take to discover the colourful fish on a reef in Rarotonga. No, a swimmer’s snorkel is a specially and beautifully crafted device that allows you to forget about your breathing technique momentarily, to swim with a smooth stroke and full range of motion.

So let's unpack this...what are the benefits of swimming with a snorkel?

Balances out your stroke (and helps to prevent muscle imbalances)

When you swim with a snorkel, there is no need to breathe to your dominant side as most swimmers do, which in return helps to balance out your stroke. This means that your muscles will be working the same amount on each side and will help you to swim with complete balance in the water. 

It will also help to stop muscle imbalances from forming or if you already have an imbalance it can help to even things out a bit and make your swimming more comfortable and enjoyable.

Help to improve your lung capacity

Did you know that a swimming snorkel actually has the ability to improve your lung capacity? How you may ask? Well, when swimming with a snorkel you’ll naturally reduce the amount of oxygen you can inhale at once.

This probably isn’t going to make a huge difference in itself though, but it doesn’t stop there - a lot of swimming snorkels come with little tops called Cardio caps, that fit over the top of the spout. These are designed to limit your oxygen consumption which makes your lungs work harder, thereby increasing their capacity.

This creates possibilities for fun little hypoxic sets with your snorkel where you can focus on improving lung capacity which will help you to become a better swimmer, as you’ve probably already figured out…

Improves your swimming technique

There are lots of ways that a snorkel can either directly or indirectly help you to improve your swimming technique. Let’s take a look at them.

Direct improvements in technique 

Head position - by taking breathing to the side out of the picture temporarily, you can focus on keeping your head in one, strong position. Great for people who tend to rock their head from side to side.

Indirect improvements in technique

The options here are endless, swimming with a snorkel takes the hassle out of having to worry about breathing so instead you’ll be able to place all of your focus on a specific part of your stroke like your hand entry or your body position, while still receiving all of the oxygen you’ll need. Over the course of time, this can lead to significant improvements in technique and can greatly improve your swimming and your speed in the water.

Great to use with kicking sets

There are a few ways that a snorkel will actually help enhance your kicking sets. The first is an improvement in the freestyle kick. A lot of the time when doing body position freestyle kicking swimmers will cross their ankles for a second when taking a breath, this halts the flutter kick motion behind you and can slow you down. When using a snorkel there’s no need to take a breath and you can focus solely on kicking as fast and effectively as possible.

The second area a snorkel comes in handy when doing kick sets is when using a kickboards. A lot of the time the kickboard doesn’t encourage the best body-position with your head looking straight up. With a snorkel, you’ll be able to kick in a streamline position with max speed and good body position or you can also place your arms by your side and mimic the rolling motion of the shoulders and hips such as when swimming a full stroke.

Now you've read about the benefits of swimming with a snorkel, you'll need to decide on whether you want one with a purge valve or without. 

Check out our full range of snorkels here