Hello,
I recently took up swimming (October) @ age 43 and have never done much else than splash around in a pool.
I trained myself using Total Immersion (I have been looking at the forums here and I suspsect I just threw a hand grenade into this thread :) )
As with other skills I have learned, I feel one has to develop their own form and style - so I am not following TI by the book....
Anyway, this is the first time I have seen myself swimming and I see some errors:
a. rolling too far to breath or simply turning my head to breathe
b. head position
c. legs uselessly kicking around..
video of me swimming:
link.
any pointers on how to
a. work my kick into my stroke better.
b. work on body roll.
Anyway, I have to say I LOVE swimming. to me its like mediation, excercise, pilates, dance, and flying all in one.
I wish i had discovered it sooner, but better late then never.
Anyway, I welcome your feedback.
...
One thing that really intrigues me about swimming is the 'feel' for the water, - water density is great feedback!.
Sometimes it seems overwhelming then I read stuff like this:
...
though I am eager to get my stroke better, I guess if super computers haven't figured out yet, I should be a little more patient with myself :)
I remember when I was an age group swimmer one of our coaches was doing (I believe) a graduate project trying to see if there was a relationship between finger tip sensitivity and speed. I was probably around 10 or 11 at the time, so all I recall was a lot of finger tip pricks with pins. I doubt anything came of it.
There is definitely something "extra" about the "feel for water" that separates a lot of great swimmers from good swimmers. I would hazard to guess that most swimmers at the elite level have some sensitivity somehow that enables them a better feel.
I think it's also interesting that you can read many profiles of elite swimmers who make reference to their klutziness on land (Phelps being one of them). I swam with some fairly elite guys in my time and very few of them were also good "land athletes." As an example of this, in college when the men's swim & dive team played frisbee football on Fridays, a key success factor in winning was maximizing the number of DIVERS on your team ... as they actually possessed a much better "feel for the land" than the majority of swimmers.
...
One thing that really intrigues me about swimming is the 'feel' for the water, - water density is great feedback!.
Sometimes it seems overwhelming then I read stuff like this:
...
though I am eager to get my stroke better, I guess if super computers haven't figured out yet, I should be a little more patient with myself :)
I remember when I was an age group swimmer one of our coaches was doing (I believe) a graduate project trying to see if there was a relationship between finger tip sensitivity and speed. I was probably around 10 or 11 at the time, so all I recall was a lot of finger tip pricks with pins. I doubt anything came of it.
There is definitely something "extra" about the "feel for water" that separates a lot of great swimmers from good swimmers. I would hazard to guess that most swimmers at the elite level have some sensitivity somehow that enables them a better feel.
I think it's also interesting that you can read many profiles of elite swimmers who make reference to their klutziness on land (Phelps being one of them). I swam with some fairly elite guys in my time and very few of them were also good "land athletes." As an example of this, in college when the men's swim & dive team played frisbee football on Fridays, a key success factor in winning was maximizing the number of DIVERS on your team ... as they actually possessed a much better "feel for the land" than the majority of swimmers.
