What the expert says...
Karen Pickering MBE is the UK's most decorated female swimmer, with 73 international and national titles, including eight world championship medals.

Sort out your goggles
Don't even think about swimming without goggles. It's impossible to swim properly with your eyes shut half the time. If you find that your goggles leak, the nose piece probably needs adjusting - or try a diff erent shaped goggle that fits your face better.

Use training accessories
Make the most of equipment to add interest and variety to your pool session, and to focus on specific aspects of your stroke. Holding a kickboard helps you hone your leg kick (keep ankles floppy and feet slightly pigeon-toed); a pull buoy keeps you afloat while you focus on the upper body.

Test your catch
One of the most important parts of the front crawl stroke is the 'catch', when you pull the arm back towards the body. To evaluate your technique, wear hand paddles attached only around the middle finger, not the wrist. If you don't pull correctly, the paddle will slip to the side or come off altogether - but if your technique is perfect, it will stay flush with your hand.

Learn to breathe
Even though I've been asthmatic since childhood, years of swimming training has given me a lung capacity better than the average male. Practise breathing to both sides. If you breathe on only one side, you'll use the arm, shoulder and the back muscles on that side more, and so develop muscular imbalance. Another lung-strengthening exercise to try is to breathe every three strokes on one lap, every five on the next, building up to seven or even nine. This teaches you to breathe out while your head is in the water. Some people try to inhale and exhale when their face is out of the water and end up gasping for breath.

Roll with it
If you watch elite swimmers, they are never flat in the water during front crawl - they 'roll' from side to side. This maximises your reach in the water, and engages the large muscles in the back. Initiate the roll from your hips.

Mix it up
Swimming up and down the pool at the same pace, using the same stroke, day in day out, is boring. So intersperse 25m-50m of faster swimming every few lengths followed by a 15- to 30-second rest, with more moderate-paced laps. Try different strokes to engage a wider variety of muscle groups. In freestyle (front crawl), about 80% of the work comes from the back, shoulders and arms; in breaststroke, the thighs (including inner thighs), bottom and abs are the major players.

Swimming makes you hungry, so unless you go prepared with a healthy snack to eat afterwards, you may well end up buying junk from the vending machine.

Getting started

Find a venue
Visit sportsbase and search by postcode or town (for al fresco swimming, explore outdoorswimmingsociety).

Join a club
Most leisure centres with a pool offer swimming clubs, or find an instructor or coach from the national governing body of swimming, the Amateur Swimming Association (britishswimming, 01509 618765).

Go on a course
Karen Pickering Swim, a swim school for all ages and abilities, launched earlier this year (karenpickering, 07920 198313). Total Immersion offers weekend courses across the UK (totalimmersion, 0800 389 9913), and Steven Shaw, a sought-after instructor who applies the Alexander technique to his teaching, offers one-to-one and group sessions, workshops on specific strokes and swimming holidays (artofswimming, 020-8446 9442) . Shaw has also published a book, Master The Art Of Swimming (Collins & Brown, £12.99).

Learn online
The Amateur Swimming Association runs a web-based personalised swimming programme called Swimfit, which gives you access to more than 30 training programmes, performance analysis and a variety of goals to aim for, such as swimming the Nile (£9.99 a year, swimfit). Zoggs offers a similar service, the free Swim4Fitness (swim4fitness), with 130 downloadable sessions, a triathlon swimming programme and an online swimming log.

The gear

Your choice of swimwear comes down to personal preference, but if you want your togs to last, a chlorine-resistant fabric, such as Speedo's Endurance or Zoggs' CR25 , is a worthwhile investment (zoggs, 01276 486500; speedo, 0115-910 5267). Adidas, Zoggs and Maru do some nice trunks, if you aren't built for skimpy Speedos (though Speedo obviously does less revealing styles, too), while for women TYR and Diana are also worth checking out. Try online swimwear specialist mailsports or wiggle.

A swim hat will help you to be more streamlined, retain some heat and keep hair off your face, but it won't keep hair dry.

Different shaped goggles suit different shaped faces, so do try before you buy. The Aqua Sphere Seal (£16.90, apeks, 01254 278873) works for me. Zoggs and Speedo also have wide ranges.

Pullbuoys, kickboards and hand paddles or mitts are available from Speedo, Aqua Sphere and Zoggs. If you don't have space for both a kickboard and a pullbuoy in your sports bag, Zoggs' combo Kick-buoy (£9.99) does both jobs. Fins can improve your legwork - try the outlandish Zura Alpha Fin (£28 , artofswimming, 020-8446 9442) .

On the downside

You smell
It's hard to escape that pungent whiff of chlorine if you spend a lot of time in the pool.

Swimming is non-weight bearing
It therefore off ers no boneboosting benefits.

Swimmer's shoulder and breaststroker's knee
Occupational hazards made more likely by poor technique and overtraining.