A little background. I swam competitively for over a decade starting at age eight. So, for as long as I can remember, I've known how to do all of the strokes and glide in the water. I've recently re-joined a masters team and am swimming regularly again.
My husband is 6'5" and played college basketball, so he's got a stockier build. He's recently decided that he is interested in swimming for fitness as he doesn't want to gain muscle bulk but wants to get fit. I'm trying to help him learn to do actual strokes. He is capable of not drowning, but is getting frustrated because this is not "easy" and he is not naturally "good at it". I, of course, think he would love swimming (as I do) once he gets the hang of it.
Our biggest issue right now is getting his body position parallel with the surface of the water. He tends to drop his hips and legs which makes breathing a challenge for him. I am having a hard time instructing him as to how to bring his hips up, in part, because it's been twenty+ years since someone taught me that.
So, are there good drills I can have him do or techniques that I should be advising him about? Help!
Is he a vertical floater or horizontal floater? I am guessing he is a horizontal floater (as I am) so his legs naturally tend to go down.
What is his head position? Is he swimming with his head up or does he look straight down to the bottom of the pool? If his head is up at all.........his feet and legs will be down.
The key is his head position. Also newbies tend to lift the head to breathe rather than having one eye in the water and one out and breathing in the trough made by the nose. (done correctly, the mouth is essentially below the surface of the water when breathing). This of course takes practice! I am a right side breather who has recently begun to breathe on the left side. I am not as good on the left and I know I am not breathing in the trough on the left side. So I know how difficult this can be for a newbie.
The object is to get him to swim easily and to breathe efficiently. I would suggest having him use a pull bouy to help keep his legs up, or one of those jogging belts that people use, or if he doesn't want to do that, have him use fins and or fins and a pull bouy. If his legs stay up more easily, he can practice a better head position and learn to breathe better. The fins help to give him more power so he doesn't have to use so much energy trying to stay high in the water.
Hey Anne,
I'm stil a newbie but I know what helped me with dropped hips is balance drills. I did them straight for a full month and it has definately helped me have better balance and that made me more relaxed and made breathing easier. I'm sure the experts on these forums have lots of good balance drills to share but here's one I do often.
Full circle- ez flutter kick, arms at side. Rotate entire body as one, 3-4 kicks, rotate. I go clockwise one legnth then CCW on the way back.
Hope that helps
A little background. I swam competitively for over a decade starting at age eight. So, for as long as I can remember, I've known how to do all of the strokes and glide in the water. I've recently re-joined a masters team and am swimming regularly again.
My husband is 6'5" and played college basketball, so he's got a stockier build. He's recently decided that he is interested in swimming for fitness as he doesn't want to gain muscle bulk but wants to get fit. I'm trying to help him learn to do actual strokes. He is capable of not drowning, but is getting frustrated because this is not "easy" and he is not naturally "good at it". I, of course, think he would love swimming (as I do) once he gets the hang of it.
Our biggest issue right now is getting his body position parallel with the surface of the water. He tends to drop his hips and legs which makes breathing a challenge for him. I am having a hard time instructing him as to how to bring his hips up, in part, because it's been twenty+ years since someone taught me that.
So, are there good drills I can have him do or techniques that I should be advising him about? Help!
FIRST, what kind of a suit is he wearing?
Probably Board shorts?
a Jammer would allow him to slide through the water with less resistance.
When he swims, he needs to:
+ Put his FACE in the water and look at the bottom of the pool.
turn his head to the side to breathe & not lift it UP
+ Relax, take long smooth strokes and use small efficient kicks
+ Push off the wall HARD, streamline well & glide FAR
Corrections should be: few, short and simple
It does NO good to tell swimmers what they are doing wrong,
tell them what they need to do to correct what they're doing wrong
instead of saying:
Don't lift your head up so high, it sinks your hips
or
you really suck it this there's no hope
say:
when you swim free
look at the bottom of the pool
point the top of your head at the other end
turn it to the right to breathe
He's probably trying too hard
try swimming with fins
try swimming with a pull bouy
Have him watch videos of efficient swimmers and copy them.
here's a few:
Total Immersion Swimming Freestyle Demo by Shinji Takeuchi - YouTube...
Total Immersion Freestyle Ultimate Demo - YouTube
Total Immersion Freestyle Demo by Shinji Takeuchi - YouTube
Make a video of him swimming so he can see what he's doing,
shoot:
from the side
head on swimming towards and away and
underwater if you have an underwater camera
Put his vids on youtube and
post a thread here asking for feedback
Get him one on one swim lessons from a great swimming coach or instructor
It's probably best to get yourself out of the teacher swim role
what's his goal? what does he want to accomplish?
in his own words
good luck hope this helps
Ande
This may sound like a cop out, but I would avoid trying to teach my wife something that I was good at. If she really wanted to learn, I would help her find some nice clinic or coach and would not get involved in the teaching process. Then I would sit back and be supportive.
I'd suggest doing some work graduating from a push and glide (how long can he keep that for?) to introducing kick and trying to keep the position, introducing breathing (breathing out underwater, if possible breathign to the side from kick - maybe by kicking on side with face in the water), and introducing arms once the legs are working well to keep the body in place...
Years ago I tried to help a tall basketball player improve his swimming and it was very frustrating for him. He was very lean and sank like a rock even with full lungs. He was unable to relax and swim slow while he was getting some swim-specific conditioning in his swim muscles since he would sink. Not sure what the best approach is - snorkel, fins, or pull-buoy to assist until his swim muscles got more conditioned.
FIRST, what kind of a suit is he wearing?
Probably Board shorts?
a Jammer would allow him to slide through the water with less resistance.
I suggested that my husband get a jammer, now that he's finally off the couch and joined the gym. However he insists his shorts don't drag :afraid:
Some great advice from Ande and the others, all I woud add is that he needs to learn to relax in the water, when you tense up, you tend to sink. :)
I taught a college basketball/volleyball player to swim well enough to complete the openwater (ocean) leg of an olympic tri, and what I have found works well is to have them swim at least three times a week, building up on their swim endurance. After a few weeks start to throw in one or two concepts a week, so the focus is doable.
