Swimming - success stories?

sarahz5

I've been swimming now (off and on) for over a year. I will fully admit that I have not invested a super amount of time into training - as you all know, it is so difficult to make time for three sports plus lifting with a job and family, but I know, everyone has distractions. Anyway, I have taken a six week clinic and done 1-2 workouts, from 20 minutes to an hour, pretty consistently since January. A few months ago, I decided to research and try the Total Immersion technique, which may have done nothing other than confuse my body.

I'm just hoping to hear stories from folks who started as adult newbies and managed to conquer the swim. I have done tris and other open water swims - it just isn't pretty. Most recently I felt like I was going to choke and die on my first OWS with a wetsuit. :laugh: I'd love to hear from those of you who went from struggling with the swim to feeling confident. I know it's probably a matter of investing more time, but I feel like I can't find the motivation to set aside the time for it unless I feel more sure I will get results!

blackcloud13

Not the sort of story you're after - but hopefully I'll be able to write one in a few months! I'm currently learning to swim; started from not being able to swim at all a few months ago, and hoping to get to 1 mile in open water! Progress so far, minimal ...

TriLifter

Sorry, I'm kinda in the same boat. I just started swimming a few weeks ago. I mean, I could always swim, but I couldn't SWIM. Learning to do freestyle has taken some getting used to, but I am improving every time I get in the water, so I'm sure there's hope!

scott091501

So I'm not the best of swimmers but I've managed to go from horrible to good enough to get through an Ironman with a respectable time.

Priorities learning to swim should go as follows:

1. Learn balance. Normally people will have issues with their hips/legs dropping especially when they get tired. Total Immersion is actually really good for this.

2. Learn proper pull technique. You can google "early vertical forearm" or "high elbow pull" and you'll get a good idea

Obviously it's really over simplified, but it's a good place to start.

dmkoenig

When I started out in triathlon I was incapable of swimming more than 25 meters without hyperventilating. Classic thrasher, no balance. Fast forward a bunch of years and I am now an average swimmer, nothing special, but I can comfortably do a 1500M open water swim in 30-35 minutes. I mostly have one speed but I can hold that tempo indefinitely.

I did actually start out with the Total Immersion book and video. The best things I got out of Total Immersion was body balance and positioning, stroke/breathing timing, relaxation and general mind concepts (swimming like a fish through a narrow space), etc. I'm usually someone who overthinks things so I completely understand getting overwhelmed by information overload. TI does a good job of breaking things down to elemental moves so you may want to spend a few sessions just working on those basics to get a feel of the water and the balance and move on from there.

What I found it lacking in were more arm technique-oriented things - high elbow and the arm pull stroke. There are some nice Youtube videos showing underwater strokes as well as dry land views that were really helpful to me in that regard.

As someone more interested in the goal of preparing and my own PRs rather than competing with the field as much, for me swimming has been mostly about getting through the leg in a reasonable amount of time without wiping myself out for the other two legs (efficiency over speed). Technique is king rather than sheer effort and if you can learn to swim reasonably efficient you can pretty much take on any distance.

As far as freaking out in the open water, if you find being in the middle of a school of humans not particularly enjoyable I recommend starting out in the back at the edge of the pack. When the gun goes off, avoid the need to start hard and keep up with everyone else. Instead find your pace and breathing and stay focused on your own swim not what everyone else is doing. Once things start to thin out you can start looking for a better line to the buoys. If the water is choppy try to rotate your body more to get your mouth of the water more. In the end you may be losing the opportunity to draft off others and have to do some additional sighting but the swim will become much more comfortable.

ZenInTexas

I am sort of a success story, not because I'm a great swimmer, but I completed an Olympic distance tri with a lake swim. I am a self taught swimmer and I only started swimming with my face in the water a few months ago. I learned to bilateral breathe. I did a sprint tri about 5 weeks ago and it was a disaster, it was a pool swim and I totally panicked when I hit water and ended up swimming the whole thing with my face out because I couldn't breathe. So after that I got serious about practicing and did 4 OWS before my next race. That helped a lot with confidence and just not freaking out about being in a lake. (I live in Texas and there are all kinds of horrible creatures in the lakes). I completed my swim at the Oly in 27 minutes and I was beyond thrilled with that time since I thought it would take me at least 40 minutes. I was just steady and kept moving forward. I finished dead last in the swim for my age group but made up the time on the bike and run and finished 2nd in my AG. Practice, practice, practice. I plan to take some swim lessons later in the year to help me become actually good at swimming and not just surviving it.

sarahz5

Thank you all! So helpful. I know my biggest issue is arm technique - I am a windmiller. And get me in the open water and all the technique I have managed to acquire goes out the window! I'm not nervous about it at all, really, it's just that it's harder than the pool, because there is no shallow end. (Usually. :laugh: )

And of course, the Total Immersion book sort of downplays arms, acting like if you get the balance down, you don't need to worry too much about arms. I don't think the author ever saw me swim. So I bought into that because I wanted to. But I do like the concept of making it more efficient, because bike and run are definitely my strong suits. Obviously. :laugh: So I want to retain energy for them. In the big scheme of things, especially in sprints, the swim is such a small piece of the puzzle time-wise.

scott091501

If your pull technique is the issue I HIGHLY recommend the book Swim Speed Secrets by Sheila Taormina

http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Speed-Secrets-Freestyle-Technique-ebook/dp/B009NIPNYI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399405259&sr=1-1&keywords=swim+speed+secrets

scott091501

Oh and make sure you're working with small paddles. Something like the Finis agility paddle is great because if you don't get the early vertical forearm right the paddles fall off your hand

sarahz5

Thanks! I have not tried paddles. I will do that!

dickrocketjones

I also suggest a training snorkel. It will allow you to swim comfortably with your face in the water. That will allow you to concentrate on smoothing out your stroke without being distracted by your breathing. Will also make it easier to build up endurance. When I first started swimming I had a hard time building up distance because I was out of breath after a few laps. When I felt gassed I would put on the snorkel and start swimming at a nice easy pace focusing on elongating and streamilining my stroke. Before long the laps were addind up and now i only use the snorkel for warm ups. Good luck

WannabeSC

I had breathing and anxiety issues during race swims initially. Even once I got proficient in the pool, it just took time to control my nerves and breathing. Things were (are) still more of a struggle with a wet suit on. I do practice a lot in a wetsuit to get used to the constriction if I'm facing a wetsuit race. Otherwise the things I've benefited from are coaching to get my technique as good as possible, but then just doing some hard swim sets where I'm forced to keep swimming after I'm to anaerobic/panting level. If my respiratory rate is higher (from anxiety or activity) than my stroke rate, I do tarzan swim and keep going forward till I can get my face back down. I also swim a LOT, I will never be as efficient as a really good swimmer so I have to be in better shape in order to cover the same distance with what skill I have. I also believe that this fitness carries over to the other disciplines. Just stick with it, it will get better!

kchang77

I've been swimming regularly for about 18 months now. I was very lucky because my local YMCA has a class that is called "Swimming for triathletes", but really anyone can go. I was just like a lot of you out there too, couldn't swim more than 25 yards without feeling like I was going to die. Most weeks now, I'm in the pool twice a week and once I start getting ready for race season (now) I move up to 3 times a week. At the moment, I'm pacing just under 1:35 / 100 yards and will start working towards 1:30 over the next few weeks. The biggest thing other than getting in as much OWS as possible is to just control your breathing. At the start of the race, pay close attention to your breath, even if you are breathing to one side, it makes all the difference in the world. Nice and steady exhale, find your pace. I kind of use that as my mantra when swimming sometimes, it at least helps distract me from the anixiety if I have any.

polyspal

I started swimming Freshman year of high school during water polo. Before that, I couldn't even doggy paddle. My first day of practice I was bawling my eyes out because I didn't know how to swim, I couldn't tred water, I could barely keep my head above water.
My first day of practice, Coach showed up the basic formed of freestyle. After about 30 minutes we got out and walked over to watch varsity. Coach pushed us all in the pool and said "Swim to the other end. When I blow the whistle, change direction." That's how I learned to swim. "Dominate or drown" as our team sweatshirt said.
After a season of water polo, I learned to swim, with my arms. I could not kick and pull at the same time, it was one of the other.
The season ended and three months later swim started. I learned how to swim properly and do backstroke as well. At the beginning of the season my 50 Free time was 42.9. At the end of the three month season I was 34.11. My main events were the 200 Free and 100 Back along with relays.

My second season of water polo, I became goalie. I didn't do much swimming, it was mainly leg work and exploding.

My second season of swim, I got bumped up to training with varsity. I started working on my distance swimming even more and became the permanent 500 Free swimmer for Junior Varsity, my fastest time being 7:44.39. I even did the 200 IM a couple weeks ago at a meet.

I went from not being able to swim whatsoever to being able to swim any event at a meet, 3 Miles ((or 2.5 hours)) a day, 5 days a week.

I look forward to summer polo.

polyspal

Excuse my typos ( /).(\ )