Most swim coaches agree that stretching is one of the most important warm ups for swimmers. Stretch thoroughly before swim lessons and before every meet.

Seek to have perfect form while swimming. This will inevitably bring speed because it improves the efficiency of each stroke.

Take time to study the famous swimmers of the past. You can learn from their stories, their mistakes, and their advice. Read swimming books and swimmer's biographies.

Drink lots of fluids. Keep a sports bottle with you filled with fresh water or Gatorade. Sip regulartly throughout your practices and competitions.

Practice inhalation and exhalation. Most younger swimmers will complain about not being able to breathe when they swim. They'll often hold their breath. They need to slow down when they're practicing and concentrate on inhaling when their face is out of the water, and exhaling when it's in.

Before you practice swimming faster, practice perfecting your technique. It is the perfect technique that must work with speed to win the competitions.

Give it your all but don't be discouraged if you lose. There will always be someone out there that swims faster or better than you. This is life.

If you want to swim faster in your meets, swim faster in your practice sessions.

Learning to breathe less while swimming is preferrable. But you musn't stop breathing. You must maintain a balance between the two.

Don't forget to "warm down" after swim training. Your body needs to recoup from the intense training you just subjected it to. Swim slow hundred meter laps and take your time. Studies have shown warming down also decreases sudden heart attacks due to over-training.

In the butterfly use your hips, in the breaststroke use that underwater pull, in the backstroke fast arms and underwater kick and in the freestyle reach as far as possible.

With backstroke make sure you keep your head still while pulling your arms. Also try to do 4-8 dolphin kicks off the wall. In freestyle make sure your arms go in smoothly and don't slap the water. In butterfly and breaststroke make sure you do a 2 hand touch on your turn. For your dive, push off the block as hard as you can with your feet. Make sure you go into the water smoothly with your hands going in first. Keep your head down. In breaststroke, do an underwater pullout to make you go faster. Pull your arms down first all the way down to your waist. Then do a breaststroke kick while you pull your arms back up. Butterfly is the hardest stroke so don't get discouraged if it's too hard. One of the things that can help is if you make sure you keep your arms straight and get your head down. Also if you kick under water longer off the wall, you won't have to swim as much, but make sure you don't go too far. In a meet, if you are looking at the results and it says DQ it means that you're dissqualified, it doesn't mean you go to "Dairy Queen".

Remember to relax and have fun. If all you are worried about is your times and your technique then you are no longer enjoying being in the water.

You can purchase items such as swim fins, hand mitts, paddles, and kickboards to make each time you swim a little different. These aids will also allow you to work your muscles differently then swimming alone.

Shaving your body hair can cut down on the water resistence on your body as you swim through the water thus improving the laminar flow. The laminar flow is when a fluid is able to flow in parallel layers thus making travel through a fluid, such as water, faster. It is only fractions of a second, but in a race every little bit can help. Make sure that you know how to properly use a shaving razor before attempting though!

Join a swimming club or organization so you can trade hints and tips with other swimmers. Some clubs may also hold workouts, competitions, and workshops.