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Crawling Steve
Crawling Alex

Swimming is a form of transportation that allows the player to move in water.

Control[]

Enter swimming

Entering swim mode.

Exit swimming

exiting swim mode.

Swimming is activated by pressing forward while in water.

Sprint-swimming can also be activated. To do this, the player can press sprint for 1 block gap while moving, or double tap forward. The player cannot sprint-swim if the hunger bar is at 6 (🍗🍗🍗) or below, or when affected by the Blindness.

Sneaking when swimming allows the player to sink faster.

Usage[]

When swimming on the surface of still water, the player moves at 2.20 blocks per second. If the player is partially submerged in water, the player moves at 1.97 blocks per second. The player moves at 1.81 blocks per second when swimming downstream underwater, and moves at a slower 0.39 blocks per second while swimming upstream underwater.

Sprint-swimming[]

Swim

An animation showing the player swimming

Sprint-swimming allows the player to move at around 5.612 meters/second, which is 30 percent faster than the normal walking speed of around 4.317 m/s. The player can turn while sprint-swimming at a slightly reduced speed.

Sneaking while sprint-swimming allows the player to descend faster, and jumping allows the player to ascend faster. Therefore, the fastest way to descend underwater is to look directly downward, sprint-swim and sneak at the same time, and the fastest way to ascend underwater is to look directly upward, sprint-swim and jump at the same time.

With sprinting while swimming, it is possible to swim across the water horizontally.[1] This allows the player to fit through one-block gaps, in a similar method to crawling.

By maneuvering the angle of swimming, it is possible to sprint-swim at the surface of a body of water, while still being able to breathe.

Sprint-swimming reduces the player's saturation, and upon reaching zero it depletes the hunger bar at a rate of 12 every 40 meters, or 7 seconds.

When a player attacks any mob (excluding squid) while sprint-swimming, the mob suffers a larger knockback than usual.

Sprint-swimming, like normal sprinting, ends when the player collides with a solid block, sneaks, blocks or attacks a mob. Additionally, sprint-swimming also ends if the hunger bar decreases to 6 (🍗🍗🍗) or below.

History[]

Java Edition Classic
0.0.12aAdded water, allowing the ability for the player to swim.
Java Edition
1.4.212w38aChanged the sound when swimming in water.
1.1318w07aAdded the ability to sprint while in water, which causes the player to dive to the ground and swim much faster.
18w15aSprinting at the surface of water no longer makes the player swim, instead the player stays at the same altitude constantly.
Swimming through 1 block holes is now possible.[2]
18w19aAdded the Dolphin's Grace status effect, creating a new way for the player to swim faster.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0Added water and swimming.
?Changed the sound when swimming in water.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0beta 1.2.13.8Added the ability to sprint while in water, which causes the player to dive to the ground and swim much faster.
beta 1.2.14.2When swimming near a dolphin, the player is granted an instant speed boost without the status effect for several seconds.
beta 1.2.20.1Players can now swim through 1x1 gaps.
1.5.0beta 1.5.0.0Improved player swimming at the surface of water.
1.14.0?Players can no longer start swimming in 1-block deep water.
1.17.0beta 1.16.230.56Improved visibility when swimming in underwater caves.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Added water and swimming.
TU31CU19 1.22 Patch 3Most mobs can now swim in water.
TU69 1.76 Patch 38Added the ability to sprint while in water, which causes the player to dive to the ground and swim much faster.

Gallery[]

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Swimming" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

  • Sprinting and jumping while under a 1 block gap high ceiling causes a player to move at a speed almost twice as fast as regular sprinting speed, but it consumes a hunger point every second.
    • This can be sped up even more by decreasing the ceiling height using water source or by sprinting on ice.
    • A similar effect occurs if the player sprints and rapidly hits swim at the same time on a set of fish mobs.
  • When affected by Dolphin's Grace[Java Edition only], a player's speed is increased significantly while swimming.

Gallery[]

Player[]

Missing Model JE3
This section would benefit from the addition of more images. 
Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Updated Steve and Alex, new renders of Ari, Efe, Kai, Makena, Noor, Sunny, and Zuri.

Animations[]

See also[]

References[]

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