Is there anybody out there swimming with Meniere's Disease? I would like to hear what challenges you have had and how you cope.
I developed tinnitus and Meniere's a few years ago, during a time when I wasn't swimming regularly. After 31 years away from swimming competition, I joined Masters in February and increased my swimming intensity from just swimming for fitness to sprint training for breaststroke events in competition. I had been doing open turns in freestyle during my workouts, because I wanted to concentrate on my stroke and figured I wouldn't be needing them in competition, anyway.
Well, I decided to start doing flip turns and noticed the quality of my turns went from decent to worse to horrible, throughout my workout. It got to the point where I was so disoriented once I entered into my flip that my legs wouldn't go where I wanted them to go. My brain was sending mixed signals to my body and I couldn't do a flip turn at all. Then, I started feeling seasick; something I never had experienced IN the water before (I used to kayak and body surf!). :confused: It finally occured to me it was the Meniere's causing the problem.
After a few more attempts at practicing flip turns during workouts and ending up feeling horrible (seasick!), I've had to give it up. :bitching:
Since I plan to compete only in breaststroke events this year, then add fly and/or IM in the future, I should be ok, for the most part. But, not doing flip turns is slowing me down in workouts and not doing my shoulders any favors.
Any advice out there? Any advice for improving my open turns? I'm beginning my turns the same as my breaststroke turns, but trying to get good at my SDK off the wall.
Thanks for any advice you can offer! :)
Hi. I know you wrote this about 3 years ago now, but I am new to Meniere's and am hoping to learn what 'add'l info' you have on how to cope. Can you PM me? I am new here and cannot seem to contact you. Thanks.
Gina, I am so sorry I missed your post! I'm on the forums daily, so I can't figure out how I missed it, especially since this was a thread I started! :blush:
It sounds like renie can help you a lot more than I can. I never did learn anything new after my original post; I just figured out how to cope.
Meniere's has affected my swimming in four ways:
1. Repetitive flip turns make me worse than seasick, so I don't do them- at all. Instead, I have worked on a quick open turn for freestyle. For some reason, I am fine spinning sideways for a bucket turn, so that is what I do in backstroke.
2. I have to get up on the starting blocks slowly and not look down at the water until I am balanced, so I don't fall off.
3. I got seasick during the beginning of my first open water swim last summer, however, I eventually felt better when I increased my sighting frequency. This past summer, when I returned to compete in the 3K and 1K open water swims, I was able to handle it much better.
4. Swimming backstroke outdoors takes a lot of practice to get comfortable and swim straight. Not having anything to sight off of is very disorienting at first. But, with practice, I improved to the point where I swam 400 IM at Nationals and swam my backstroke fairly straight. The key was watching my arms on recovery and concentrating on them going back at equal distance from my head. Think of a clock and your head being at 12:00 and aim to have your arms at 10:00 and 2:00 or 11:00 and 1:00 at most. If your arms are symmetrical, you will most likely swim straight. But, you have to trust that you will and ignore the crossed signals your meniere's is giving you, so you don't overcorrect when you were going straight in the first place. You can also use your peripheral vision and keep an eye on the distance you are from one of the lane lines.
Good luck!
Hi. I know you wrote this about 3 years ago now, but I am new to Meniere's and am hoping to learn what 'add'l info' you have on how to cope. Can you PM me? I am new here and cannot seem to contact you. Thanks.
Gina, I am so sorry I missed your post! I'm on the forums daily, so I can't figure out how I missed it, especially since this was a thread I started! :blush:
It sounds like renie can help you a lot more than I can. I never did learn anything new after my original post; I just figured out how to cope.
Meniere's has affected my swimming in four ways:
1. Repetitive flip turns make me worse than seasick, so I don't do them- at all. Instead, I have worked on a quick open turn for freestyle. For some reason, I am fine spinning sideways for a bucket turn, so that is what I do in backstroke.
2. I have to get up on the starting blocks slowly and not look down at the water until I am balanced, so I don't fall off.
3. I got seasick during the beginning of my first open water swim last summer, however, I eventually felt better when I increased my sighting frequency. This past summer, when I returned to compete in the 3K and 1K open water swims, I was able to handle it much better.
4. Swimming backstroke outdoors takes a lot of practice to get comfortable and swim straight. Not having anything to sight off of is very disorienting at first. But, with practice, I improved to the point where I swam 400 IM at Nationals and swam my backstroke fairly straight. The key was watching my arms on recovery and concentrating on them going back at equal distance from my head. Think of a clock and your head being at 12:00 and aim to have your arms at 10:00 and 2:00 or 11:00 and 1:00 at most. If your arms are symmetrical, you will most likely swim straight. But, you have to trust that you will and ignore the crossed signals your meniere's is giving you, so you don't overcorrect when you were going straight in the first place. You can also use your peripheral vision and keep an eye on the distance you are from one of the lane lines.
Good luck!
