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
Swimming is so different from other forms of exercise, because you have to develop a strategy for breathing.
For most people starting out, it's a little scary when you are short of breath and your face is in the water. It's a bit irrational - after swimming as much as you have, you know you aren't going to drown in the pool. But you have to teach your irrational self that everything will be OK.
That's how it was for me, at least. Maybe you are in the same boat.
First, remember that you are never really that far from oxygen - four inches max.
Second, it's easy to breathe too much when you are swimming - blowing out all the air as soon as your face goes into the water and gasping more in as your face hits air. I did that and was basically hyperventilating, and when you are swimming, that feels like you are short of breath. In reality, you have plenty of air; you just have to get used to taking in only the oxygen you need and letting go of it slowly and steadily.
Sorry I can't explain it better. Both of these are basically about being confident in the water.
Swimming is so different from other forms of exercise, because you have to develop a strategy for breathing.
For most people starting out, it's a little scary when you are short of breath and your face is in the water. It's a bit irrational - after swimming as much as you have, you know you aren't going to drown in the pool. But you have to teach your irrational self that everything will be OK.
That's how it was for me, at least. Maybe you are in the same boat.
First, remember that you are never really that far from oxygen - four inches max.
Second, it's easy to breathe too much when you are swimming - blowing out all the air as soon as your face goes into the water and gasping more in as your face hits air. I did that and was basically hyperventilating, and when you are swimming, that feels like you are short of breath. In reality, you have plenty of air; you just have to get used to taking in only the oxygen you need and letting go of it slowly and steadily.
Sorry I can't explain it better. Both of these are basically about being confident in the water.
