Update on swimming

My other instructor has helped me figure out a bunch of things. First, she solved my kicking problem for good: I was still kicking from the knees mostly, even though I can do a proper kick on dry land. All the advice I got here was great, but it turns out that no matter what I can reproduce on dry-land, I always go back to my old habits in the water. I realized it when I put my legs in the water and WATCHED what I was doing: the water made me FEEL like I was moving my whole leg, but really just the lower half was doing anything. Once I started doing it RIGHT, I felt new muscles engaging everywhere. The other major thing she's done for me is taught me the breaststroke (although I don't have the breathing down very well) and elementary backstroke. Compared to my regular backstroke, I can just zip across the pool with the elementary backstroke. It's quite fun. I have no idea why this isn't the first thing everyone learns in the pool, as it took me just 15 minutes to get it right (more or less) and I was zipping around in no time. She also fixed my push-offs and glides. I would push off the wall on my back and then glide, but my knees would be bent. I figured out that I was subconsciously trying to get my legs up to the surface, but the physical result was sinking legs and a knee bend. Once I just learned to straighten them out, they naturally started to come up to the top thanks to the velocity from the glide. It IS a bit frustrating to see some folks in the group lessons (before my private) picking up freestyle in like an hour. I've struggled with breathing for freestyle under my old instructor for WEEKS. The new one hasn't tried to teach it to me yet, but I'm hoping when she does, it'll become crystal clear... that's the effect she's had elsewhere. I'm getting really tired of drinking the pool. I tried the very first TI float drill... it's really frustrating because my legs sink, so I have to start sculling, and then that distracts me, and so on. I've "pressed my buoy" with limited success. Incidentally, my new instructor also taught me how to scull properly. My old one had me moving my hands in big, wide, slow circles. That did NOTHING for me in terms of lift. Well, I watched my new instructor do it: small, fast, forceful, little circles. Bam. Lift. I think I could probably tread water now if I tried... I can certainly do it in the shallow end with just my hands, but I'm a little unbalanced.