I posted here when I was just beginning to swim at the ripe age of 23.
Since a lot of people helped me both publicly and through private messages, I think you deserve an update.
I'm a lot more comfortable in the water these days. I'm still trying to perfect my breathing, but it's much less of a struggle.
I realized that THINKING and SWIMMING don't go well together. Once I stopped over-analyzing everything and started just focusing on swimming, more things fell into place.
As a beginner adult swimmer, here are the things that really helped me:
-- Swim, don't think (see above)
-- The kicking you see in TI videos is not the way most people kick... and if it is, it's not a good thing to think about when you're trying to kick better
-- Looking DOWN is bad. Look forward slightly.
-- Backstroke in busy pools with poor turbulence absorption (lane ropes, gutters) is a BAD idea.
-- You are too full of hot air to sink to the bottom of the deep end... if you want to kill yourself by going down there, you'll have to try pretty damned hard.
-- Anything that is supposed to help you float is in fact the best way to drown yourself
-- Drinking lots of chlorinated water will make you sick to your stomach and you'll think you have an ulcer for a month until you take a break from swimming and feel fine
-- Jammers are tight
-- Diving is fun
-- Diving improperly hurts
Parents
Former Member
Which suggests three questions:
Which video(s) are you referring to and what kicking advice did you find troublesome?
How do "most people kick?"
What is a "good thing to think about" when you're trying to kick better?
With this input I could try to avoid making similar errors on future productions.
4 strokes made easy
There wasn't any particular kicking advice in the videos... it's just the kicking I saw visually.
This ties into the over-thinking business I talked about. I found that my kick worked best when I think about kicking fast enough to keep my feet at the surface and feeling the water "boiling" at my toes.
Whenever I think about knees locked, knees unlocked, hip-power, pointed toes, or any of that... it just doesn't work. =)
Frankly, I didn't think my legs could propel me at all until I started listening to my instructor and did some fast, powerful kicking across the pool. Now I trust my kick.
The other thing that I saw in the TI videos was very fast, powerful strokes -- and I thought they were very cool.
"BAM" -- one strokes and the swimmer moves 10 feet!
The problem is that I tried to do that as a beginner -- "have to keep my stroke count low, otherwise I suck" -- and it really slowed my progress.
I've since increased my stroke count and had a lot more success getting across the pool.
I take my time. If it takes me 20 strokes to get across the pool, then that's what it takes. I realize I'm not being hyper-efficient, but trying to go farther in fewer strokes left me breathless more often than not.
I'm sure that once I develop better breathing skills, I'll be able to move to a lower stroke count.
Which suggests three questions:
Which video(s) are you referring to and what kicking advice did you find troublesome?
How do "most people kick?"
What is a "good thing to think about" when you're trying to kick better?
With this input I could try to avoid making similar errors on future productions.
4 strokes made easy
There wasn't any particular kicking advice in the videos... it's just the kicking I saw visually.
This ties into the over-thinking business I talked about. I found that my kick worked best when I think about kicking fast enough to keep my feet at the surface and feeling the water "boiling" at my toes.
Whenever I think about knees locked, knees unlocked, hip-power, pointed toes, or any of that... it just doesn't work. =)
Frankly, I didn't think my legs could propel me at all until I started listening to my instructor and did some fast, powerful kicking across the pool. Now I trust my kick.
The other thing that I saw in the TI videos was very fast, powerful strokes -- and I thought they were very cool.
"BAM" -- one strokes and the swimmer moves 10 feet!
The problem is that I tried to do that as a beginner -- "have to keep my stroke count low, otherwise I suck" -- and it really slowed my progress.
I've since increased my stroke count and had a lot more success getting across the pool.
I take my time. If it takes me 20 strokes to get across the pool, then that's what it takes. I realize I'm not being hyper-efficient, but trying to go farther in fewer strokes left me breathless more often than not.
I'm sure that once I develop better breathing skills, I'll be able to move to a lower stroke count.
