Re-learning to swim
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Glad you’re having fun! Try breathing OUT through your nose. Count to 10 during each exhale. No pool water, no snorting, no nose plugs. When you breathe correctly and deeply, it improves your endurance. Imagine that!0
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cprobertson12 wrote: »I certainly hope inhaling the pool disappears soon! It tastes bad... I also think gave me a mouth ulcer... **** knows what magical microorganisms ended up trying to invade my mouth!
My current goals are to move from 1-lap>30-40 second rest to 2-laps>rest>1-lap>rest:repeat. Worst case scenario I snort some more of the poolwater! It's a pity the swimming test doesn't allow you to use noseplugs (or goggles, for that matter).
OP, sounds like you're making good progress. Regarding breathing during the freestyle stroke, a couple thoughts come to mind:
1. Don't hold your breath. You're either breathing IN or exhaling OUT. During the exhale, try to time it so that as you turn your head to the side, your lungs are completely empty. That way, you are ready to inhale easily and don't have to quickly finish the exhale and gulp for fresh air as your head is returning to the water.
2. Having a rhythm is key. To help myself do this, I made up a phrase that I repeated in my head. This helped to calm me down and improved the timing of my breathing. For example, when starting out in the water with my left arm in the pulling position and right arm outstretched, I repeated the following words over and over in time with my arm strokes "Bubbles(left arm stroke).........Bubbles(right arm stroke)........Breathe!" (left side breath and arm stroke), then "Bubbles.....Bubbles.....Breathe!" ( This time with a Right side breath and stroke). Eventually, this became an automatic behavior and I didn't struggle nearly as much with breathing, especially as fatigue set in. And repeating the word "bubbles" in my head in time with the stroke reminded me to expel air slowly and evenly. It didn't take long for this to become a habit.
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Don’t give up! I started swimming again last summer 1 lap and rest, 1 lap, rest. Now I can do 50+ without stopping, and I taught myself to swim freestyle!
I enjoy youtube videos for learning how to swim better (I was competent at not drowning, but an ungraceful swimmer with poor technique) - I watch Skills NT Swimming channel - really good stroke and breathing advice from a competitive swimmer. That’s helped, but mostly it’s just practice makes...pretty good.
Enjoy!!!! I love the pool, it’s my happy place 
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The 0 to 1650 swim plan greatly improved my endurance. Was easily able to go a mile at the end of six weeks.1
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You have inspired me to get back in the pool. Keep us posted OP and good luck1
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Glad you’re having fun! Try breathing OUT through your nose. Count to 10 during each exhale. No pool water, no snorting, no nose plugs. When you breathe correctly and deeply, it improves your endurance. Imagine that!
This actually reminds me of a pretty important discovery I've made (just to clarify - I am not the original discoverer, I just rediscovered it and though I should share, will definitely help a few other newbies out there if they haven't discovered it themselves already!:P)
CONTINUE to exhale as your head goes out the water to breathe. My problem was (about a week ago, that is) that I was exhaling with my head underwater as normal - but by the time I was supposed to bring my head up - I had just ran out of air - in other words, as my head up, I had stopped exhaling, and there was nothing to stop the water going up my nose except ambient air pressure... so water flowed up my nose and I would **ack** **cough** **splutter** to quote!cprobertson12 wrote: »I certainly hope inhaling the pool disappears soon! It tastes bad... I also think gave me a mouth ulcer... **** knows what magical microorganisms ended up trying to invade my mouth!
My current goals are to move from 1-lap>30-40 second rest to 2-laps>rest>1-lap>rest:repeat. Worst case scenario I snort some more of the poolwater! It's a pity the swimming test doesn't allow you to use noseplugs (or goggles, for that matter).
OP, sounds like you're making good progress. Regarding breathing during the freestyle stroke, a couple thoughts come to mind:
1. Don't hold your breath. You're either breathing IN or exhaling OUT. During the exhale, try to time it so that as you turn your head to the side, your lungs are completely empty. That way, you are ready to inhale easily and don't have to quickly finish the exhale and gulp for fresh air as your head is returning to the water.
2. Having a rhythm is key. To help myself do this, I made up a phrase that I repeated in my head. This helped to calm me down and improved the timing of my breathing. For example, when starting out in the water with my left arm in the pulling position and right arm outstretched, I repeated the following words over and over in time with my arm strokes "Bubbles(left arm stroke).........Bubbles(right arm stroke)........Breathe!" (left side breath and arm stroke), then "Bubbles.....Bubbles.....Breathe!" ( This time with a Right side breath and stroke). Eventually, this became an automatic behavior and I didn't struggle nearly as much with breathing, especially as fatigue set in. And repeating the word "bubbles" in my head in time with the stroke reminded me to expel air slowly and evenly. It didn't take long for this to become a habit.
I do love memory aids like this! I've found my freestyle has improved a bit during the week (as in a noticeable, but small improvement).
My breathing for freestyle is currently symmetric - in my case it's just convenient (I tend to manage three strokes by the time I'm ready for a breath - so it's just a matter of rolling over slightly and grabbing one!) - though as @Orphia suggested a few posts back, no need to focus on that - other people might not have the convenient coincidence of lung capacity and arm motion that I have!The 0 to 1650 swim plan greatly improved my endurance. Was easily able to go a mile at the end of six weeks.
Oooh, looks fun - I'll give it a go xD
Though, point of interest, the very first exercise - 4x100 yards (or meters) - resting for 12 breaths between each set - you know... if I just didn't rest and instead turned onto my back... I could pass the swimming test doing that
I think that might be better for somebody with a little more endurance than myself - that said, I could probably manage it actually! I'll give the first one a shot tonight and see how it goes :P
-EDIT: Having given it a second look, that's actually a decent looking workout - take your time! You can't sprint before you can jog, and jogging will be hard if you can't walk!
That reminds me, actually - I got a copy of "The Science of Swimming by James E. Counsilman - and it is definitely a great book - chock-full of illustrations (every few pages) and with plenty of info on pretty much every stroke you can think of - it arrived over the weekend and I'm looking forward to wringing a few of my problems out with it! For instance, when doing the backstroke, I tend to do a deep arm-pull, which is apparantly not as efficient as it could be - rather you should pull your arm into a side-sweep.
NOTE, however, that it's pretty old (1968 vintage) so there may be more up-to-date references for folks - the book that @AnnPT77 mentioned, "Total Immersion" by Terry Laughlin might be more useful for folk starting out though! I'm a mad scientist though, I prefer/love the more detailed, almost textbook-like style of "The Science of Swimming"
Both worth looking into though!
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Good morning ladies and gentlemen - just a quick update!
Turns out it was a lecture yesterday (2018-09-11) rather than the a swimming session - so I've got an extra week to practice for the assessment! It will be fine though!
I've came on by leaps and bounds recently:
The lengths-per-set has shown almost exponential growth (remember! Exponential trends in biology ALWAYS plateau (and/or fall-off; depends how far you go beyond the equilibrium point!)
Last week the swimming coach suggested I move up to the "masters" class - where they work on specific drills for specific strokes (improving technique rather than the basics)
So! The take-home from this, for anybody interested in "getting good" at swimming, is very simple.
Just swim! You may be bad at first. Heck, you may be terrible when you first start off - I was - but don't worry what anybody else thinks - they were all there once as well.
Just swim as much as you can: rest; and repeat. After a week or two you'll find your rest-time decreases until you can do two lengths back-to-back... and then three... then four... and in my case when I reached that point I found I could go much further - I managed twelve lengths the week after that, and twenty-four the week after that.
There really isn't much to it - just keep swimming - good or bad - you'll improve yourself with time as you become more efficient in moving through the water.
I have a long way to go myself - but I know I can do it now - and I know that if I hit a stumbling block like I did in the past, that all I need to do is to pick myself up, dust myself down, and get right back to it.
I'll report back once I get my test out the way - but I've managed all of it on my own - so I'll be fine on the day! Still, worth reporting back though as it gives me something to look forward to showing off a little
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cprobertson12 wrote: »Glad you’re having fun! Try breathing OUT through your nose. Count to 10 during each exhale. No pool water, no snorting, no nose plugs. When you breathe correctly and deeply, it improves your endurance. Imagine that!
This actually reminds me of a pretty important discovery I've made (just to clarify - I am not the original discoverer, I just rediscovered it and though I should share, will definitely help a few other newbies out there if they haven't discovered it themselves already!:P)
CONTINUE to exhale as your head goes out the water to breathe. My problem was (about a week ago, that is) that I was exhaling with my head underwater as normal - but by the time I was supposed to bring my head up - I had just ran out of air - in other words, as my head up, I had stopped exhaling, and there was nothing to stop the water going up my nose except ambient air pressure... so water flowed up my nose and I would **ack** **cough** **splutter** to quote!cprobertson12 wrote: »I certainly hope inhaling the pool disappears soon! It tastes bad... I also think gave me a mouth ulcer... **** knows what magical microorganisms ended up trying to invade my mouth!
My current goals are to move from 1-lap>30-40 second rest to 2-laps>rest>1-lap>rest:repeat. Worst case scenario I snort some more of the poolwater! It's a pity the swimming test doesn't allow you to use noseplugs (or goggles, for that matter).
OP, sounds like you're making good progress. Regarding breathing during the freestyle stroke, a couple thoughts come to mind:
1. Don't hold your breath. You're either breathing IN or exhaling OUT. During the exhale, try to time it so that as you turn your head to the side, your lungs are completely empty. That way, you are ready to inhale easily and don't have to quickly finish the exhale and gulp for fresh air as your head is returning to the water.
2. Having a rhythm is key. To help myself do this, I made up a phrase that I repeated in my head. This helped to calm me down and improved the timing of my breathing. For example, when starting out in the water with my left arm in the pulling position and right arm outstretched, I repeated the following words over and over in time with my arm strokes "Bubbles(left arm stroke).........Bubbles(right arm stroke)........Breathe!" (left side breath and arm stroke), then "Bubbles.....Bubbles.....Breathe!" ( This time with a Right side breath and stroke). Eventually, this became an automatic behavior and I didn't struggle nearly as much with breathing, especially as fatigue set in. And repeating the word "bubbles" in my head in time with the stroke reminded me to expel air slowly and evenly. It didn't take long for this to become a habit.
I do love memory aids like this! I've found my freestyle has improved a bit during the week (as in a noticeable, but small improvement).
My breathing for freestyle is currently symmetric - in my case it's just convenient (I tend to manage three strokes by the time I'm ready for a breath - so it's just a matter of rolling over slightly and grabbing one!) - though as @Orphia suggested a few posts back, no need to focus on that - other people might not have the convenient coincidence of lung capacity and arm motion that I have!The 0 to 1650 swim plan greatly improved my endurance. Was easily able to go a mile at the end of six weeks.
Oooh, looks fun - I'll give it a go xD
Though, point of interest, the very first exercise - 4x100 yards (or meters) - resting for 12 breaths between each set - you know... if I just didn't rest and instead turned onto my back... I could pass the swimming test doing that
I think that might be better for somebody with a little more endurance than myself - that said, I could probably manage it actually! I'll give the first one a shot tonight and see how it goes :P
-EDIT: Having given it a second look, that's actually a decent looking workout - take your time! You can't sprint before you can jog, and jogging will be hard if you can't walk!
That reminds me, actually - I got a copy of "The Science of Swimming by James E. Counsilman - and it is definitely a great book - chock-full of illustrations (every few pages) and with plenty of info on pretty much every stroke you can think of - it arrived over the weekend and I'm looking forward to wringing a few of my problems out with it! For instance, when doing the backstroke, I tend to do a deep arm-pull, which is apparantly not as efficient as it could be - rather you should pull your arm into a side-sweep.
NOTE, however, that it's pretty old (1968 vintage) so there may be more up-to-date references for folks - the book that @AnnPT77 mentioned, "Total Immersion" by Terry Laughlin might be more useful for folk starting out though! I'm a mad scientist though, I prefer/love the more detailed, almost textbook-like style of "The Science of Swimming"
Both worth looking into though!
FYI, Total Immersion discusses only front crawl. Science of swimming prob has good info, I havent read it, but be aware that there have been many advancements in stroke efficiency and mechanics since 1968. It may not be the best resource for teaching yourself to swim with the most efficient technique.2 -
I was in a similar mode a while back.
But worse. Only had lesions in elementary school. I could swim, but just the basic technique. Never laps or competition.
Didn't swim other than getting wet in a pool for 20 plus years.
In my 40's decided to try to add lap swimming fur fitness. Made 6 laps and was beat.
I'm 57 now and dis a 16km swim in the pool.
So, your days of 50 laps are not over, they just ahead of you.
Regarding kick boards and pull buoys, I stood by my often. The ones at the Y are too small.
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FYI, Total Immersion discusses only front crawl. Science of swimming prob has good info, I havent read it, but be aware that there have been many advancements in stroke efficiency and mechanics since 1968. It may not be the best resource for teaching yourself to swim with the most efficient technique.
Indeed! Sorry, I should have said - I was meaning for beginners - as it is very detailed - BUT as you said, it may not be up-to-date!
First of all - quick disclaimer - I'm not a pro! Far from it! What I'm looking for are resources to take me from a complete beginner to novice or intermediate level.
For the upper-tier intermediates, professionals and the experts, efficiency starts to, and then becomes more important; and there are more modern sources - though, to be fair on the Science of Swimming, it did point out that "the technique de jour is just what the Olympians/pros are doing at that point in time" [I'm paraphrasing of course!] - so it's still a useful text to have in some regards - just as long as you are aware of its shortcomings!
Novices like myself don't care if we're losing 5 or 10 or 15 or 20% of our possible efficiency; but I've met pros who will actually stop swimming, rest up, and return to drills afterwards if their technique/efficiency drops even a little!
Obviously, efficiency is more important for somebody swimming against the clock - but for newbs like me, it's a good, cheap book with many great tips! For intermediate-swimmers and upwards, it becomes less useful as they are looking for nuance of technique rather than broad descriptions and outdated specifics - but, that said, swimming does come round in fads as well - techniques go in and out of fashion; which raises the question - does an aspiring olympiad even need a book? Is it better for them to just swim constantly and let themselves evolve the best technique for them?
Well, how long is a piece of string? The answer? "It depends"
But as I said, it's good for novices like myself - it'd be like looking at an out-of-date science textbook - it's enough to get you grounded in the subject AS LONG as you are AWARE that it is not necessarily best-practice (or even correct) anymore!
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No, efficiency is important for all swimmers. That's how you make your your swimming easier and more fun. Otherwise you can feel like your fighting against the water. What was considered state of the art back then may no longer be considered good stroke mechanics for efficiency and/or injury prevention. I'm just a recreational lap swimmer and improving my stroke has made swimming MUCH more enjoyable and I can go much farther & longer now than 6 months ago.2
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