Have you all had a day when you suddenly had a substantial breakthrough in learning to swim better? A day on which your swimming suddenly "clicked", so instead of trying hard to correct this or that detail of swimming better as you had been doing each day (how to kick, pull, breath, etc.), all of a sudden, you swam with all those details corrected, without effort, and without much thought about it. Months (and perhaps years) of thinking, practice, seem to be paying off altogether on that one day. I made some nice progress yesterday and today and feel great. My swim just suddenly became so much more relaxed and I was much more buoyant without effort. and breathing, which I had tried to improve, poses little problem now--and I wasn't even thinking about it. :D
I hope the progress will stay with me and I won't forget how to swim the way I did. :cool: I'm still a beginner. I will be really interested to hear you story. :)
Former Member
Had several moments. In 3 strokes at least. Minor things. Also had a cool experience in an OW swim where I wasn't even conscious of swimming and I didn't feel my arms going individually they just went perfectly in sync with each other and my body...
Had several moments. In 3 strokes at least. Minor things. Also had a cool experience in an OW swim where I wasn't even conscious of swimming and I didn't feel my arms going individually they just went perfectly in sync with each other and my body...
This thread is not about swimming while drunk. :bolt:
I feel like I've had some breakthroughs in the last couple workouts. Since I'm getting ready for a 5K OW swim next weekend I had gradually been increasing my yardage, and intensity, in my workouts. I did 6250 SCY on Saturday and 7200 yesterday and I'm finally start to feel my freestyle coming back to me. I had been out of the pool for 15 years until August '08. Doing a lot of distance has given the time and opportunity to really think and work on my stroke. I come from the 80's-90's so there have been some changes to the stroke since I'm trying to learn (head down). Also doing repeat 100's breathing only to the weak side has really helped me out too....not sure why, but it does.
Little things like this is what keeps you going, even when you don't feel like hitting the pool, or you are sore/tired, etc. Its a little like Christmas morning when you start getting these little breakthroughs!:applaud:
Little things like this is what keeps you going, even when you don't feel like hitting the pool, or you are sore/tired, etc. Its a little like Christmas morning when you start getting these little breakthroughs!:applaud:
In fact, it may well happen when you least expected it. I was actually a little reluctant to go to the pool on the day when I turned out to swim the best ever :D.
Seems like there can be two big breakthrough day for one person: in the early learning stage, when swimming well is the focus, the big day is when he can all of a sudden swim the correct way. In more advanced stage, when speed is the goal, it is when he makes a big drop in time, as some folks above experienced.
It sounds stupid, but I learned how to swim butterfly after watching race after race of the Olympics last year. The timing got imprinted somehow and it just clicked when I went to swim the stroke. I'm not fast but I made it past that initial block and can now do everything in the proper order.
It sounds stupid, but I learned how to swim butterfly after watching race after race of the Olympics last year. The timing got imprinted somehow and it just clicked when I went to swim the stroke. I'm not fast but I made it past that initial block and can now do everything in the proper order.
That's good but on the flip side, if you get imprinted this way, you should NEVER watch the Slow-Motion replays ............:)
Still waiting for my swimming to click!!
Sike, I struggled from 6 to 9 with swimming. I would never be able to make the Summer Championships. Swam winter but winter swimming didn't help until I came back to Suburban Seahawks(after going to a Y program the year before) on my third year of winter swimming where I got coached by Charlie Kennedy more and Bill Crawford. Then, the summer after my third year of winter swimming, I won the 25 back and 50 free(at 10, it was a distance event in summer league), and got touched out for 2nd in the 25 fly. Finally, that winter, I think that this one kid at Suburban thought that he was going to be the top 10 and under boy at Suburban but it was me who became the Top Dog. I don't think that he was too happy about it.
Of course, I was never able to get another "click" moment again. One way, I would have felt that things clicked would have been getting a Junior National Cut. Who knows, if the training keep up and the progress keep moving at the same rate as this past year, then I might get that "click" moment in the next 12 months or so.
The only time a stroke has clicked for me is in fly when my mentor made me get in to coach and I knew that I was horrible at fly. He gave me a set of fins and demonstrated the best "on-deck" fly I have ever seen...suddenly I could fly with fins. I took the fins off and ever since then have been a pro-fly swimmer and coach! Ask my assistant coaches how much fly my age groupers do in practice and they will just look at you with a smile (and probably say they couldn't count that high).
