begginer... desperate need of advice

33yr male, was running 20-25mi/wk prior to swimming. Got tired of achy hips and knees so I turned to swimming. I couldn't swim two laps straight. For me, learning proper technique was really complicated. I like this analogy - It's like trying to learn a proper golf swing with your heart rate way up - there is a lot going mechanically. I learned to swing a golf club at a young age with instruction. I did many drills, hit many balls. It was a lot of supervised practice with solid pointers. We broke things down to where I was at and focused on each of them. It took years of that. (Thank you pap.) I understand the mechanics of the swing and have many friends that started golfing as adults. The ones that took lessons progressed much faster than those that did not. Swimming seems similar. Technique is important. To do this yourself it will takes a tremendous amount of time and dedication, improvements will be slow. I would definitely suggest finding a coach. You will get there faster and safer. There is a lot you can do wrong and you can rip your shoulders apart. I've been lucky, but at times, could see how that can definitely happen. Be careful and listen to your body, you can certainly hurt yourself in the pool. I started "swimming" in august 2014. Of course I could move in the water but my technique was nothing close to that of a trained swimmer. It took me 3wks before I was even comfortable taking a lap and getting my breathing right. I youtubed videos and started with bilateral breathing every 3rd stroke. The pull buoy helped me isolate and focus on my upper body movements while trying to learn to breath. And every time I thought I "got it", I (usually accidentally) figured out a slight improvement. Stay humble, when you think you got it, you will probably have 2 more epiphany moments before you actually have a foundation to build on. Then I worked myself up to swimming a mile in 48min. 6mos later I'm down to 35. I attribute the increase in speed to technique than endurance. I would not suggest getting hung up on time or distance until you are very comfortable in the water - after a month or so. And even then, why do you want to be able to swim 45min nonstop? I get that it feels like a milestone and a tremendous accomplishment compared to where you are now. Ok cool. I'd still suggest starting with a coach and follow his program to get you there. I guarantee it will be safer and faster than the program you create. Do it yourself, I'll speculate there is a higher risk of ripping your shoulders apart and then you might be sidelined for a month or two. Then you might give up on swimming? Then I became bored, improvements were few and far between, and I turned to here. Just had my 1st workout in a master program this morning. Awesome! It was some drills with interval training. Half way through the workout I could easily tell the few drills I did complete that my sense of the water water was much better than before. And that was just from working the drills prescribed. He doesn't want to mess with my mechanics yet, said they were ok. But that took 6mos of focus and honestly some luck. I certainly feel the learning curve would be drastically reduced if I was working on drills instead of swimming for 45min. It took a lot of 45min days to learn that, because I was set on swimming for 45min. Looking back, I don't feel I really did as well as I could if instead did drills/intervals. Can't wait to see the improvements after 3mos of this, let a lone a year. If I had to do it all over again...I would not go down the long road of being self taught (but I did not know otherwise.) Get professional training/coaching. I really hope you enjoy yourself through it all.

33yr male, was running 20-25mi/wk prior to swimming. Got tired of achy hips and knees so I turned to swimming. I couldn't swim two laps straight. For me, learning proper technique was really complicated. I like this analogy - It's like trying to learn a proper golf swing with your heart rate way up - there is a lot going mechanically. I learned to swing a golf club at a young age with instruction. I did many drills, hit many balls. It was a lot of supervised practice with solid pointers. We broke things down to where I was at and focused on each of them. It took years of that. (Thank you pap.) I understand the mechanics of the swing and have many friends that started golfing as adults. The ones that took lessons progressed much faster than those that did not. Swimming seems similar. Technique is important. To do this yourself it will takes a tremendous amount of time and dedication, improvements will be slow. I would definitely suggest finding a coach. You will get there faster and safer. There is a lot you can do wrong and you can rip your shoulders apart. I've been lucky, but at times, could see how that can definitely happen. Be careful and listen to your body, you can certainly hurt yourself in the pool. I started "swimming" in august 2014. Of course I could move in the water but my technique was nothing close to that of a trained swimmer. It took me 3wks before I was even comfortable taking a lap and getting my breathing right. I youtubed videos and started with bilateral breathing every 3rd stroke. The pull buoy helped me isolate and focus on my upper body movements while trying to learn to breath. And every time I thought I "got it", I (usually accidentally) figured out a slight improvement. Stay humble, when you think you got it, you will probably have 2 more epiphany moments before you actually have a foundation to build on. Then I worked myself up to swimming a mile in 48min. 6mos later I'm down to 35. I attribute the increase in speed to technique than endurance. I would not suggest getting hung up on time or distance until you are very comfortable in the water - after a month or so. And even then, why do you want to be able to swim 45min nonstop? I get that it feels like a milestone and a tremendous accomplishment compared to where you are now. Ok cool. I'd still suggest starting with a coach and follow his program to get you there. I guarantee it will be safer and faster than the program you create. Do it yourself, I'll speculate there is a higher risk of ripping your shoulders apart and then you might be sidelined for a month or two. Then you might give up on swimming? Then I became bored, improvements were few and far between, and I turned to here. Just had my 1st workout in a master program this morning. Awesome! It was some drills with interval training. Half way through the workout I could easily tell the few drills I did complete that my sense of the water water was much better than before. And that was just from working the drills prescribed. He doesn't want to mess with my mechanics yet, said they were ok. But that took 6mos of focus and honestly some luck. I certainly feel the learning curve would be drastically reduced if I was working on drills instead of swimming for 45min. It took a lot of 45min days to learn that, because I was set on swimming for 45min. Looking back, I don't feel I really did as well as I could if instead did drills/intervals. Can't wait to see the improvements after 3mos of this, let a lone a year. If I had to do it all over again...I would not go down the long road of being self taught (but I did not know otherwise.) Get professional training/coaching. I really hope you enjoy yourself through it all.