Swimming provides a full-body strength and cardiovascular workout, and it can be done throughout life by people at any level of physical fitness. The 500-meter freestyle is considered a distance swimming event in competition, but it also is a good distance for warming up or cooling down. Improving your freestyle time and ability can be done by practicing consistently.
Considerations
Although swimming is a good activity for almost anyone, never swim alone, regardless of your ability. In addition, if you are an inexperienced swimmer, you shouldn't try to swim 500 meters right away. It takes time to build up to that distance. Swimming 500 meters can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes; if your swimming stamina is low, try adding 50 meters to your maximum distance each time you swim.
Pace
The pace for a 500-meter race should start strong--you should feel confident that you can maintain the pace for an extended period. After each 100 meters, increase your pace slowly, moving from strong to hard swimming until the final 100 meters. At that point, swim as hard as you can until the end. If you are racing, you should feel as though you can't take another stroke by the time you finish the 500 meters. If you start the race too fast, you won't have the energy to finish well.
Stroke
The freestyle stroke for distance events is slightly different. For a sprinting event, move your arms through the water as fast as you can. Your stroke might be shorter, with your hands exiting the water closer to your waist instead of closer to your hips. For longer swimming events, your stroke should be longer, pulling all the way through the water. The longer swimming stroke is more efficient and slower in tempo.
Kick
Kicking for distance events is different, too. The kick should be steady and strong, not as fast as it is for sprinting events. When sprinting, you should kick about 6 times per arm stroke. During distance events, the kick should be about 4 kicks per arm stroke. This might not seem like a big difference, but the feeling is different, and more energy is saved by doing fewer kicks. Saving this energy will help you finish your race stronger.
Turns
Aim for consistently good turns for short and long events alike. Swimmers who swim fast but have bad flip turns often get beat by slower swimmers with better turns. You must be able to convert momentum from pushing off the wall into a fast swimming speed. If you don't flip fast on your turn, you will lose time and speed. If you don't push off the wall hard or in a streamlined position, you also will lose speed. The key to good turns is constantly practicing them.
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