It may be counterintuitive, but swimming fast requires less effort than the people at your local pool will have you believe. Swimming is all about efficiency, how well can you propel your body through, not on, the water. But only people with the proper training, or the overly observant, would know that.

Some things are like that. Less overall effort takes you further. So the next time you start thrashing your arms hoping to get there quicker, do the opposite. Try less overall effort and see if that helps or at least gets you to the same place but with less effort overall.