Swimming lessons?

Get some help. I learned front crawl from scratch about two years ago. I'd never swum it as a child (although I was a good breaststroker swimmer) so I was starting from nothing. Took me about 4 or 5 hours of lessons before I could do a non-stop 50 metre length, and another couple before I could a full kilometre. Since then I've been doing a stroke development class once a week and today I started to learn butterfly. A good coach can spot your bad habits straight away and help you to correct them - and as most triathletes are good on the bike and the running and much less good in the pool, a few tweaks for you should see a lot of improvement.

Ditto above. There's tons of triathalon classes/adult swim classes popping up now a days, I've seen them at the Y and my community center.

A good teacher can help, no matter where you're at. Plus the breathing thing is pretty crucial to any good swim, I think getting help could be all sorts of useful.

I've always considered myself a strong swimmer. I grew up at my aunts pool doing all sorts of dumb stuff kids like to do. I got talked into doing a triathlon and when I first started "swimming laps" I knew I was a terrible swimmer. My neck was killing me, I was slow, I felt awkward. Form is critical. I signed up for a clinic at my Rec. It was 8 weeks of one hour lessons every Saturday morning. I learned SO much. Both the TRI's I did were staggered starts in a pool. Even though I was still fairly overweight, I ended up starting fairly early due to my good swim times.

If you are doing an open water swim get practice out there after you are comfortable in a pool. Also whether you are doing the TRI in a pool or OW - make sure to practice in choppy water....it makes a whorl of difference when you aren't the only body swimming in a lane.

Keeping my mind focused was the key to my swim being a success.

Oh...and if your googles leak a bit a few days before your race - GET NEW ONES ASAP. I didn't....and boy did I regret it.

Good Luck!!!

most of the adults I've taught were total non swimmers, which may have colored my response a bit.

but if breathing is causing anxiety, braking it down to its simplest components while hanging onto the wall would NOT be a waste of time.

And some kick board work belongs in every swimmers training, might as well through the breathing in to work on it at the same time.

Just finished a set of 8 beginners swimming lessons and was extremely proud of myself because I finally got the hang of how to breath doing the front crawl! I swam 25 m without getting that panic feeling 3 times.
Now all I need is practice.

I also swam 400 m backstroke.

From splashing in the pool to being comfortable enough to go to the pool on my own was well worth the dollars invested in the lessons.

Take the lessons
Cheers, h.

I am in the same boat, I did a sprint triathlon a couple years back and my swimming was by far my weakest link. I have since leaned to get my head in the water, but I still can't figure out the breathing. I am hoping to take some lessons this winter in hopes of being more prepared for the swim portion of the triathlons I am planning to do this summer. I know from my first Triathlon that my poor swim played a major role in my overall time. Keeping my head above water in the swim really used up a lot of extra energy. I would definitely recommend getting the swim lessons.

I am an aspiring triathlete too (I've done duathlons & kayak triathlons) and swimming is my kryptonite. I'm doing a swim program right now with my club and it's been worth every penny as one of the main focuses is on developing an efficient stroke.

If you can, find a coach that does triathlon specific swimming (more reliance on upper body for propulsion than the kick - need to save some for the bike & run!)