Hi, new to the board, back in the pool about 4 months.
Worked up to doing Mo Chambers workouts, but always substituting for fly in the IM's because I just never learned it.
I've always been a lousy kicker, but I bought a pair of Zoomers and quit using the board, which has helped a bunch. I do dolphins front and side and flutter on my back. I just started to dolphin kick off the flip (without the fins), which has really helped reduce stroke count (10 catchup; 13 -- 14 normally; 15 + is a failed lap). I'm 6'2" and dropped from 200+ when I started down to 190 - 195, which feels great.
Today I tried doing the fly legs in the IM's wearing the Zoomers, and I think there's some hope. Can a 44 year old lousy kicker learn to fly? Is it OK to learn with fins? Are there bad habits to watch out for when learning with or without the fins? Or should I forget about fly and just concentrate on the other three strokes?
I'm having a lot of fun swimming again, love the workouts and chat here, and am not afraid of looking like a complete dweeb.
Thanks, Matt, I read Emmet's articles yesterday after re-reading the older fly thread and was anxious to give his techniques a try -- and then an ENTIRE MIDDLE SCHOOL showed up at MY POOL and took up almost the entire pool, turning it into a churning rapid. And a nice lady who asked to share my lane thought lane splitting meant that she swam the center line while I hugged the lane line. After I about clipped her a couple of times doing catchup free, I gave up on any fly for the day, cause I'm sure I would have tagged her then.
Just as a rhetorical question, if you are a nice middle aged lady and have 3 single swimmer lanes to choose from, why would you choose the one with the tallest guy in the pool with the longest arms? Although she was not in the same league as the woman who dropped into my lane, unannounced from the opposite end, in the middle of sprints, whom I encountered to my great surprise while I was in full cry mid-length. She was doing the sidestroke dead center down the lane, and fixed me with a steely glare for almost hitting her.
But I digress. Actually, it's great to see the kids having a good time at the pool, and my wife brought our 5 and 2 year old down. There's nothing much better in this world than the look on my learning-to-swim-but-already-thinks-he-can 5 year old's face after retrieving a diving ring off the bottom.
And I know I'm spoiled -- I usually have an entire lane, and often there's no more than one or two other people swimming over the lunch hour. If I go past 1:00, it's often just me, which is a great way to concentrate on stroke mechanics.
And today I have a schedule conflict and can't swim. But I'm hoping to try some of Emmett's stuff tomorrow, because I, too, am hoping to become "that guy," even though a couple of weeks ago I'd never done fly for more than 10 meters.
Thanks to all the posters for the comments and advice, they are greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Matt, I read Emmet's articles yesterday after re-reading the older fly thread and was anxious to give his techniques a try -- and then an ENTIRE MIDDLE SCHOOL showed up at MY POOL and took up almost the entire pool, turning it into a churning rapid. And a nice lady who asked to share my lane thought lane splitting meant that she swam the center line while I hugged the lane line. After I about clipped her a couple of times doing catchup free, I gave up on any fly for the day, cause I'm sure I would have tagged her then.
Just as a rhetorical question, if you are a nice middle aged lady and have 3 single swimmer lanes to choose from, why would you choose the one with the tallest guy in the pool with the longest arms? Although she was not in the same league as the woman who dropped into my lane, unannounced from the opposite end, in the middle of sprints, whom I encountered to my great surprise while I was in full cry mid-length. She was doing the sidestroke dead center down the lane, and fixed me with a steely glare for almost hitting her.
But I digress. Actually, it's great to see the kids having a good time at the pool, and my wife brought our 5 and 2 year old down. There's nothing much better in this world than the look on my learning-to-swim-but-already-thinks-he-can 5 year old's face after retrieving a diving ring off the bottom.
And I know I'm spoiled -- I usually have an entire lane, and often there's no more than one or two other people swimming over the lunch hour. If I go past 1:00, it's often just me, which is a great way to concentrate on stroke mechanics.
And today I have a schedule conflict and can't swim. But I'm hoping to try some of Emmett's stuff tomorrow, because I, too, am hoping to become "that guy," even though a couple of weeks ago I'd never done fly for more than 10 meters.
Thanks to all the posters for the comments and advice, they are greatly appreciated.
