Been swimming for about 3 months (always 'swam' but never any real extended period for fitness until now). Started bilateral breathing about 2 months ago, basically natural to me now. Also began lessons about 1.5 months ago (instructor is WSI and nationally ranked member of local college team).
At beginning, 25m of crawl was killing me. Took close to 2 months to get comfortable with 50m. Can now almost do 75m comfortably (in all cases, a break of about 15-20 seconds is all I need to continue).
Based upon instructor's comments:
- definitely exhaling in water
- stroke is OK, but head position is too high out of water (not tucked down enough)
- kick is lousy-- too fast and shallow, also tend to shift to a scissor kick as I get tired
This morning during a lesson, he asked me to freestyle 6 laps and after 4 I was blown-- took a 10 second breather before starting 5th lap and all semblance of technique was gone-- same for 6th lap.
While I am making some progress, it seems that each additional (continuous) lap is taking a month-- is this normal? I am probably spending a bit too much time recovering at the wall during my workouts, but not all THAT long.
What seems to happen is I begin to have trouble breathing-- at beginning I'm nice and relaxed, nice shallow relaxed breath, slow exhale in water (was exhaling through mouth, instructor told me to switch to nose, and am doing so now). At about 50m, breathing becomes deeper and less relaxed; by 67m, am sucking in air and beginning to gasp; when I put my head back into the water, I feel like I'm holding my breath and have no air (must be what drowning feels like). At that point it's just a matter of time before I'm done-- can barely get to 100m.
Your responses will probably be to post video, and I probably will, but in the meantime, here's what's REALLY puzzling me: I've been searching the forum for similar tales of woe, and I'll often find something along the lines of: "I was unable to swim more than 50/100/?? meters; then I found out I wasn't exhaling. Once I began to exhale in the water, my continuous distance went from 100m to 1800m in one day."
Is this kind of scenario realistic? I walk 3 miles a day, and upon occasion will simply continue and do 7 or 8 miles-- there's little extra effort in going further. Is is the same here?-- should you in theory be able to just continue? I was speaking to a relative who says he swims 32 lengths per day, and could go further except for the boredom factor-- that's the way it is with walking/hiking for me, but I don't see that happening with swimming my crawl.
Thanks,
Gerald
Parents
Former Member
Easier for a beginner to develop good habits. They don't have any bad habits to break.
Actually. the bilateral was my own idea. As I had mentioned, although I had never swam competitively, I had gone through the standard Red Cross swim curriculum when I was a teenager (including a lifesaving course). My wife had signed up for a college intro swim course about 10 years ago and had learned the basics, but never really pursued it as an exercise until we decided to give it a try recently (we basically walk about 3 miles a day and lift for strength training).
I read Whitten's and Hine's books and ordered the Total Immersion text (only to find that Hines was basically a flavor of the TI approach), and as both recommended bilateral breathing, I began using it-- it took about two weeks for it to become fairly natural. I had also read about stroke counts and was abashed to find myself having a 30-count for a 25m length, when various online resources were talking about sub-20 counts being the least one should be shooting for. Most of the (what seem to me) good swimmers where we work out are in the 18-22 range, so I knew I could stand with much improvement.
At the same time my wife began taking lessons (with a WSI-certified member of the college swim team), and as she was being taught bilateral, I figured I was doing a good thing. I was simply trying to increase my yardage and endurance (no lessons). I asked her instructor to look at my form, and he basically said it was OK, but just OK.
And then, we hung around one day while the team worked out and I watched him swim. Forget about the fact that his body looked like it was being propelled, forget about the endurance-- he had a stroke length of about 12 across the 25m. At which point I went over to him and asked for lessons-- not that I expected to get anywhere near that level, but this was a whole new world-- it was like comparing my horse and buggy to a sports car.
That's been about two months, and I've made some progress, but as I said this endurance issue is a real obstacle. What's frustrating me is reading things like 'it takes six weeks for the average person to swim a mile', or looking at beginngers drills that call for warm-ups of 300m, when I can barely do 100 during my main set.
Are you practicing on your own? It sounds like you are not coordinating your breathing with your stroke. Even a little difference can have you out of breath quickly. Make sure you are exhaling completely before your head comes out for the next breath.
A good exercise for breathing is a series of slow bobs. Go down until you feel like breathing and then come up, blowing as you rise. Take a breath and go down again. Continue this for about five minutes.
Easy swims with plenty of rest will help you relax as you swim.
There's no way to get around it. Good swimming requires practice.
Bobbing is no problem-- as I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm very comfortable in the water, can tread endlessly and even when out of breath on my fourth length, I am not panicky or fearful-- simply upset that I'm once again unable to go further.
We're working out about 40 minutes 5 days a week, and I try to incorporate the previous lesson's points into the workout. I've asked him for workout suggestions-- he's told me to try to increase the continuous yardage as much as possible, and do kicking work.
Thanks,
-- Gerald
Easier for a beginner to develop good habits. They don't have any bad habits to break.
Actually. the bilateral was my own idea. As I had mentioned, although I had never swam competitively, I had gone through the standard Red Cross swim curriculum when I was a teenager (including a lifesaving course). My wife had signed up for a college intro swim course about 10 years ago and had learned the basics, but never really pursued it as an exercise until we decided to give it a try recently (we basically walk about 3 miles a day and lift for strength training).
I read Whitten's and Hine's books and ordered the Total Immersion text (only to find that Hines was basically a flavor of the TI approach), and as both recommended bilateral breathing, I began using it-- it took about two weeks for it to become fairly natural. I had also read about stroke counts and was abashed to find myself having a 30-count for a 25m length, when various online resources were talking about sub-20 counts being the least one should be shooting for. Most of the (what seem to me) good swimmers where we work out are in the 18-22 range, so I knew I could stand with much improvement.
At the same time my wife began taking lessons (with a WSI-certified member of the college swim team), and as she was being taught bilateral, I figured I was doing a good thing. I was simply trying to increase my yardage and endurance (no lessons). I asked her instructor to look at my form, and he basically said it was OK, but just OK.
And then, we hung around one day while the team worked out and I watched him swim. Forget about the fact that his body looked like it was being propelled, forget about the endurance-- he had a stroke length of about 12 across the 25m. At which point I went over to him and asked for lessons-- not that I expected to get anywhere near that level, but this was a whole new world-- it was like comparing my horse and buggy to a sports car.
That's been about two months, and I've made some progress, but as I said this endurance issue is a real obstacle. What's frustrating me is reading things like 'it takes six weeks for the average person to swim a mile', or looking at beginngers drills that call for warm-ups of 300m, when I can barely do 100 during my main set.
Are you practicing on your own? It sounds like you are not coordinating your breathing with your stroke. Even a little difference can have you out of breath quickly. Make sure you are exhaling completely before your head comes out for the next breath.
A good exercise for breathing is a series of slow bobs. Go down until you feel like breathing and then come up, blowing as you rise. Take a breath and go down again. Continue this for about five minutes.
Easy swims with plenty of rest will help you relax as you swim.
There's no way to get around it. Good swimming requires practice.
Bobbing is no problem-- as I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm very comfortable in the water, can tread endlessly and even when out of breath on my fourth length, I am not panicky or fearful-- simply upset that I'm once again unable to go further.
We're working out about 40 minutes 5 days a week, and I try to incorporate the previous lesson's points into the workout. I've asked him for workout suggestions-- he's told me to try to increase the continuous yardage as much as possible, and do kicking work.
Thanks,
-- Gerald
