Cr@p Swimmers R Us

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  • sure Fruity - anytime Wednesday or Friday morning is good for me.

    want to combine it with a short cycle?
  • Not a bad idea - Wednesday is the likely candidate.
  • Hi guys. Time for me to 'fess up my sins.
    I'm not even good enough to be a crap swimmer.

    I can breastroke a length or two, but I need to do crawl. And with the help of the local Tri club, I've had my first lesson. (poor guy).

    Just need to practice lots and lots and work out how to breath without drowning myself. How hard could that be eh ?

    Are there any tricks I'm missing - do noseclips help, or summat ? And am I OK wearing my swim shorts, or is that a fashion no-no ?

    At least I have goggles though.
  • Really think my technique is improving but I'm going to have to try the noseclip, went for a swim last night and I'm just getting my sinuses back to normal now, mind you it didn't help when I tried to breath in thru my nose and forgot to turn my head, doh.
  • Does anyone have a pic of which way up you're supposed to wear a nose clip? I've lost the bit of paper which came with mine and am not convinced I'm wearing it right.
  • Oh jeeeeez - don't tell me that noseclips are complicated too !

  • I think it's worth trying a noseclip Cougs - personally I didn't like it because I tend to breathe out through my nose, then again if you don't it stops as much water going up it! Maybe I ought to learn to breathe out through my mouth more.

    As far as breathing goes, I'd stick to one side at first - bilateral breathing took me a bit of getting used to and I could only do it right after mastering first right only and then left only breathing. For me it was worth doing as it gives me the option to breathe when I want.
  • Having been on three Tri training courses this year I'd really recommend them to anyone else. I had really struggled with the breathing until a coch told me to whistle under the water.

    Not actually whistle clearly, but blow air out as if you are. This makes it much easier when you come up to breath. It means you are just gulping air down rather than trying to breath out and in an the same stroke.

    I agree with XFR on the bilateral thing. I've done all this season breathing out to my left only. Bilateral breathing is one of my goals for this winter.
  • dan dandan dan ✭✭✭
    I tried one once: threw it away straight away.I always tell folk to not bother, but spose its a personal thing.

    Take a kickboard. Start two handed, breathing to one side to start(you'll find one side is easier than other).This wont give perfect positioning but will get you used to the motion required.

    Then progress to one-armed holding of kickboard, probably needing to hold it at the very end to keep you afloat.Imagine you are a log, rocking from one side back flat.Breathe when breathing side of body is slightly out of water.

    Once you are confident enough, progress to bringing arms into equation.Do a length holding kickboard in one arm, only stroking with the other, combining breathing when stroking arm is out of the water. Practice breathing just before you see your hand, then watching hand enter water.

    Finally, once you can do this, incorporate this into your normal swimming.
  • find that i need a nose clip when I try the TI drills otherwise I'm just drinking water through my nose all the time. but can't use them when i swim as I breath out through my nose underwater. Not sure if this is correct but find it's the only way not to get water up my nose. Does anyone else struggle with TI drills? got my first coaching session next week who will hopefully show me how to do it properly
  • have just started into my winter training programme and did my first ever 'aerobic' swim session last night. Managed 1,060m in 30 minutes.
    OK it's not spectacular, but it's a long way from the 'swim 10m doggy paddle bloke' who entered the pool in January.
  • Only done them once, but yes - I found them hard. I ended up wearing flippers for the kicking drills otherwise I stopped dead.

    I seem to breathe out through my nose naturally - think I'll work on breathing out through the mouth instead as then maybe I'll feel I don't have to take my head as much out of the water to breathe but make sure water doesn't get up my nose.
  • dan dandan dan ✭✭✭
    Here's one thing I meant to ask y'all. Presuming you log your swims, do any of you use the kellogs/asa SwimFit scheme

    You get awards at various distances cumulatively swum, starting at 1 mile, 5 miles, 10, 15, 20 etc.When you get the 100, you get an engraved paperweight.

    Let me tell you, this is a fantastic scheme for motivating you , just when you feel that motivation flagging and it means that even those days when you feel you have had a really lousy swim, it all counts towards something.

    You get a certificate and a huge sew on badge for each of these distances and they cost about 2 quid. Fantastic value and once you start getting a few of them, they look brilliant and you feel so proud.

    It is a scheme for adults so you can feel rightly proud and not silly and it goes all the way up to 5000 miles!!

    You can do any style, noone has to check your distance, its all about the challenge between you, yourself and the water.

    Once you get to about 75 miles, you get really really itchy for that 100 and the paperweight.The last 10 miles kill you.You feel so close that its never gonna happen, but when it does, its the most glorious feeling.

    Oh well, you can find more about it on the asa swim site .

    Having inspired meself, am off swimbling now too!
















  • Got a log book for it but haven't really bothered.

    Would make sense to do it - not that bothered by a paperweight (it costs £20 as I recall) but would be an idea as a motivator, just like a running log.
  • I just got my 25m certificate... will take me a while to get to 5000miles!
  • You can get it for doing granny stroke, Lindi - you can do a lot further than that!
  • dan dandan dan ✭✭✭
    Bear, 20 quid seems a lot, but once you have it sitting there on your shelf, its the ULTIMATE reward.Works out at 20p a mile, so roughly 20p a swim extra: not that much.

    Then the badges just keep you going and if you ever get into the realms of plotting all your swimming on graphs and tables and stuff, its just amazing to see where you have come form and drives you on and on in times of lacking motivation.

    If you have the cards, just do it!
  • WaboWabo ✭✭✭
    Hi all, not been here for a while cos, well I not been swimming for ages!
    Went this morning and I did about 20 lengths, breastroke, and I did it all with my head bobbing under water! Am really pleased as I didn't think I could do that.
    Thing is, I used to take about 19 strokes and this took 22. Will I improve and get that down once I am used to it?
    Mind you I do have a trapped nerve in my left shoulder so maybe that didn't help?
    All in all I am happy, went in pool in grumpy mood and not really wanting to do anything but came out totally chilled. Exercise eh!
    possunt quia posse videntur - we can because we know we can 
  • GavoGavo ✭✭✭
    I've no idea how many strokes I take per length. What I do now is my style is crap & I spend my energy trying to correct that, rather than focus on other stuff.

    Did another 400m last night in parts. Did some of them bobbing but there were a few too many people around (had to swim around kids a few times) to do that all the time.

    Not into doing drills yet. Need an empty pool for that probably. And no-one watching me.
  • The stroke counting is useful even if you're not too good on technique I think because it tends to make you stretch out each stroke and glide a bit more, which is supposed to be good technique.

    Don't think I'd bother if I was still worried about survival from one of the pool to the other, but I've actually found it very useful. It's also been a useful benchmark for how my technique has improved - early attempts took over 40 strokes for a 33.3m pool, not I'm down to around 30.

    Not sure about your pool Gavo, but a lot of them have lane sessions where you can swim with less chance of getting hit by kids etc
  • WaboWabo ✭✭✭
    I go in morning so there are lanes. XFR its a 25 metre pool I am in. Have goggles at home but not plucked up courage to wear them yet. I feel like my eyeballs will be sucked out!
    possunt quia posse videntur - we can because we know we can 
  • GavoGavo ✭✭✭
    Fruity, I seem to hit the pool at the same time that the good kids are getting coaching. They get the lanes, which is fair enough. I think there are adult-only times but I haven't got to them yet.

    When my lessons start in Jan, we'll have the lanes! I hope....
  • SmitchSmitch ✭✭✭
    Wabo - go for it, I wear my goggles and don't feel (too) stupid. Well, no more stupid than wearing them in the sauna.

    Oh...hi Gavo
  • GavoGavo ✭✭✭
    I'm here for comic relief Smitch. Must send you that balaclava one of these days.

    And no - I don't use it when robbing houses before you start.
  • Just for stealing cars then, Gavo ;o)

    Goggles in the sauna Smitch???
  • WaboWabo ✭✭✭
    wore goggles today! What a revelation! Everything seemed to work so much better!
    possunt quia posse videntur - we can because we know we can 
  • got to go from seriously crap swimmer to 2.5 miles by july. Has anyone got any websites or programmes they can advise on to build up stamina in the pool and also technique. Getting the lessons in next week too!!
  • There've been quite a few links posted on this thread - have a look back.

    Lessons should help with technique, after that I'm adopting the running approach of building up gradually.
  • AvalafAvalaf ✭✭✭
    Hi all,
    Spent an hour or so last night trying to follow the advice in this months runners world, by the end of it I do think it was making a difference, although was just doing a couple of lengths at a time concentrating on it(brains a bit week for more than 50m concentration at a time).

    Think it might make a difference if I keep at it for a couple of weeks. Certainly felt better towards the end of the session and was definately faster.

    Anyone else tried it yet.
  • SmitchSmitch ✭✭✭
    I have a problem with my shoulder at the moment, so have been advised not to swim for a bit :-(

    I will be back though...
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