I know there is a discussion below about joining a Masters, but my background is different therefor there may be different responses.
To recap...I'm Tory. I'm a big loser. I've lost 100 pounds and have gone from a couch potato to fitness nut. I truly have redefined who I am and how I live my life and I love it!
Anyhow...I am a terrible swimmer. Okay, I'm not REALLY so terrible. I do not drown. That's a good thing. However my swimming lesson experience involves Forest Park Lake and 5th grade. In other words, not a big background. I tried an adult stroke class, but it was taught by a well meaning ADD teenager who mainlined sugar every night before class and spent much more time bouncing around on the pool deck and flirting with the girls, than actually teaching us anything. I spent the entire course just swimming laps.
I just found (as in last week) that there is an adult masters program in a city nearby. I was thrilled! I'm taking a triathlon training course and we've been doing the swim portion. I had my stroke evaluated and yeah, I'm a mess. However, I am working on it. I do know how to swim (or rather "not drown"), I can freestyle and *** but that's the extent. I stroke wide, kick wide, and over-rotate so those are my focii right now. It may not sound like much, but I can swim inefficiently like this for an hour (which is all the time I have), but I feel like I should be able to swim more in an hour than I do.
So...what do you think?
Join a Masters program and join the slow swimmers?
Find a GOOD adult stroke class and improve my stroke, then join a Masters program?
My goal for this year is to concentrate on my swimming. I must improve my stroke because I don't feel confident in the open water during triathlons and I refuse to submit to that fear. I also happen to really enjoy swimming. I love how relaxed I feel an hour after a good long swim and that that feeling lasts the entire day. I like the peace of swimming and being in my mind and letting go my concerns, or having time to chew them over. I actually, of the three sports, like running the best (because I am a glutton for punishment) and then swimming and both for a similar reason; they are great workouts that let me get out alone and just 'be' for awhile.
But I'd like to 'be' faster and more efficient!
Parents
Former Member
Our Masters program incorporates a lot of stroke work for the people who need it and less for the ones with good technique. If there are several Masters programs in your area, shop around.
Coaching quality also varies. We are fortunate to have a coach who has experience as an elite competitor at the NCAA and national level, was a top caliber Masters competitor, and has years of coaching all levels of swimmers.
See if you can get a local swim coach to work with you for some one-on-one or semi-private lessons. That is better than having an instructor with no competitive or coaching background.
If you have a videocamera try to get somebody to film you so you can see with your own eyes. It helps if you have reference footage of what it's supposed to look like.
I find that sometimes the most obvious stroke fault is a symptom of something else that is wrong but less obvious. Example - insufficient body roll can cause a wide arm recovery which can cause a foot to kick out or the other arm to scull out wide as counterbalance. The solution for that problem is not to focus on narrowing the kick but to roll more appropriately and fix the wide arm recovery.
Our sport is full of opportunities for you to analyze and figure out how to improve your technique and go faster, which helps keep things interesting while you're going up and down the black line.
Our Masters program incorporates a lot of stroke work for the people who need it and less for the ones with good technique. If there are several Masters programs in your area, shop around.
Coaching quality also varies. We are fortunate to have a coach who has experience as an elite competitor at the NCAA and national level, was a top caliber Masters competitor, and has years of coaching all levels of swimmers.
See if you can get a local swim coach to work with you for some one-on-one or semi-private lessons. That is better than having an instructor with no competitive or coaching background.
If you have a videocamera try to get somebody to film you so you can see with your own eyes. It helps if you have reference footage of what it's supposed to look like.
I find that sometimes the most obvious stroke fault is a symptom of something else that is wrong but less obvious. Example - insufficient body roll can cause a wide arm recovery which can cause a foot to kick out or the other arm to scull out wide as counterbalance. The solution for that problem is not to focus on narrowing the kick but to roll more appropriately and fix the wide arm recovery.
Our sport is full of opportunities for you to analyze and figure out how to improve your technique and go faster, which helps keep things interesting while you're going up and down the black line.
