Returning to the pool - Can't do > 12.5 yards freestyle

I think you should work with what you have. The 25-yard mark is arbitrary. What is important to you is the distance you can swim without your stroke falling apart. Be patient. Make your workouts about working toward that 25-yard goal. Swim hard as far as you can and then coast with your breaststroke. Do this as many times as you can take. Make this your main set. (Warm up with and cool down with slow swimming.) I suspect it will not take long before you can swim 25s. At that time, start working toward 50s. Like Apollo told Rocky, swimming uses muscles you never knew you had. Yours just need to be awakened.

Obviously I've never seen u swim but I would bet you're body position is way more vertical than it should be compounding your problem. I would guess your head is up and your butt is down. There's a drill in freestyle - the Tarzan drill where even the most seasoned freestylers have a hard time swimming in that position with their heads above water. I would invest in some equipment to help you maintain a horizontal body position - fins and a snorkel. Short fins like zoomers. These will help your propulsion to keep you flat and the snorkel will help you avoid what is probably another problem, breathing without lifting your head. Do lots of sculling drills with ur eyes on the bottom if the pool, body flat. Gradually add your arms until you can eventually drop the equipment. Also, I remember when I returned to the pool after. 20 yr absence that the initial few weeks were horrible but it rapidly got better with effort and determination.

Good advice from the posters above. I had a rough time returning to the pool after taking off a few decades. The first swim was brutal (as were the subsequent swims), but slowly over the course of months I was able to increase the distance I could swim. It does get easier as you condition your muscles and improve your technique.

I was roughly at the same point with swimming ability around 5 years ago, maybe a little better, I had trouble with a length of freestyle. When starting out swimming, don't view it as an endpoint of exercise (because it will always be excellent exercise), but view it as a skill to master, the fitness will always occur. Think of efficiency and study the mechanics of proper form from the pros.

I'm taking a workshop and my instructor immediately corrected my head position as it was up and acting sort of like a dam. As soon as I put my head down, it got better immediately. He had us do a side to side roll so that wasn't a problem for me; he actually commented that my freestyle is very strong - I'm just a weakling. I am getting some hand paddles and wish I still had my zoomers, but I can take a nice harley ride over to Finis and get some. I'll have my friend who I swim with take a look at my body position to make sure I'm not too vertical. I think I'm pretty horizontal. All of the excess insulation I have on my body makes me like a big floating barge (ugh). I'm about to hit the pool now...wish me luck... Obviously I've never seen u swim but I would bet you're body position is way more vertical than it should be compounding your problem. I would guess your head is up and your butt is down. There's a drill in freestyle - the Tarzan drill where even the most seasoned freestylers have a hard time swimming in that position with their heads above water. I would invest in some equipment to help you maintain a horizontal body position - fins and a snorkel. Short fins like zoomers. These will help your propulsion to keep you flat and the snorkel will help you avoid what is probably another problem, breathing without lifting your head. Do lots of sculling drills with ur eyes on the bottom if the pool, body flat. Gradually add your arms until you can eventually drop the equipment. Also, I remember when I returned to the pool after. 20 yr absence that the initial few weeks were horrible but it rapidly got better with effort and determination.

Great! Improvements should continue too. Sometimes it takes awhile, but motivation has its rewards I was shown those floating things .... Pull buoy At this point it would be good to learn the basic fundamentals of proper stroke. Incorrect stroke over time can injure a fresh set of swimming shoulders before realizing it (I did this to my right shoulder the first year because I didn't know), but you are ahead of the game now that you are aware;). For this reason it would be a good idea to have some sort of feedback from coaches or other credible sources. The pull buoy demonstrates a good example of how you want to keep your pitch of travel - flat as possible is the most streamlined. When balanced with proper stroke, your feet should kick in the same path of travel you swim through. Rotate each stroke from the entire torso (both shoulders and hips). When you breathe, just rotate the head until your mouth surfaces, try to keep the entire axis on the same line from head to your pointed toes (This part was the toughest for me to learn). Drills are useful at any time, later on fins can be a good tool too. Congrats!

Steve - I like your approach. That's how I'm approaching my entire lifestyle change. I can't be in a rush to drop 70 lbs, but my daily routine and changes will accomplish it in time! Today was a huge improvement. I was shown those floating things you put between your legs where you don't use your legs at all, you use your arms. I did about 3 laps like that and tried it on my own and guess what? 2 back to back 25 yard lengths were the result! I also figured out that I'd get about halfway through a 25 yard length, get tired and begin to panic, and flail. That used up all my energy. The floating things helped me establish a steady rhythm without flailing and using my energy up. The result was me swimming about 250 yards freestyle today! YAY!!!!!! I know I'll have good days and not so good days but I refuse to give up. Thanks for all of the encouragement! This big girl has a slim fit girl inside chewing her way out....

I tried using some fins this morning too - I have a post on the thread called "fins" and am afraid I felt like I was cheating. I was across the 25 yard pool in 20 seconds!!! I feel like the fins stabilized my body and made me nice and flat - but is it cheating? I was still breathing hard and working out... Its only cheating if you try entering a race with the fins. Otherwise it's definitely not cheating and a good method of improving parts of your stroke. Many other swiming tools/toys enable you to concentrate on particular parts of your stroke, and overall make you a better swimmer.

I tried using some fins this morning too - I have a post on the thread called "fins" and am afraid I felt like I was cheating. I was across the 25 yard pool in 20 seconds!!! I feel like the fins stabilized my body and made me nice and flat - but is it cheating? I was still breathing hard and working out...

Today I used agility paddles as well - they really helped correct my arm strokes (I was rushing my right stroke after breathing). I am turning things around rapidly. I did one lap of *** stroke to warm up, 10 laps of freestyle, and then one lap of *** stroke to cool down. I did the freestyle with and without fins, and with and without hand paddles. I'm using the fins and paddles to build my stamina and keep my water position correct. One swimmer remarked how good my stroke looked so I'm definitely getting there! I did one full lap of freestyle (with the fins) without a stop and almost died but I made it!