I got in the pool for the first time in 4 months today. Did 1,000 metres, and christ, my friend Jamie Chapman was right. It did feel like treacle.
I learnt how to swim properly between 2014 and now. Or, rather, in 2014 I learnt how NOT to swim, and in 2015, I learnt how to swim. And I don't want anyone to make the same mistakes I did. These are the things I have learnt. Learn from my balls ups.
1. In swimming, technique trumps fitness every time. Don't try to swim fast if you can't swim right. A swim author (who I bumped into by lucky happenstance in the pool) taught me to remember three things; First, keep your fingers pointed down at all times, except right before the pull. Second, point your toes and keep your legs straight. And third, look right down at the pool, and imagine there's a blowhole in the back of your neck. It worked wonders. I learnt more in that 15 minutes than I had in the previous 15 weeks.
2. If you're doing triathlon, remember to have a plan for when you stand up at the end of your swim leg, and there's the risk you go dizzy. You can either put hands on knees and wait till it passes, or swim very fast right before you stand up to get blood flowing. I expected it, but not how much it would hit. It very nearly put me on my ass.
3. Do swim warm ups for swimming. Biggest mistake I ever made was doing a running warm up before my triathlon. Well, after 100 metres I was in real trouble because I hadn't primed my neuro-muscular systems for swimming. It came to me and in the end I was ok, but my swim was almost 37 minutes, compared to the 33 I could do in the pool. In training, they use the acronym SPORT. Without boring you, the 'S' stands for 'Specificity'. Keep it specific to your sport, and you'll do better.
4. Learn to sight. 'Sighting' is a swim technique where you look forwards to get a bead on your destination, ensuring you don't swim in a zig zag. However, calamity can ensue when you encounter the situation I did. Ordinarily, we're taught that if you can't sight using a buoy, sight using a piece of scenery. Trouble was, I was swimming in a misty lake, towards a white buoy (why the **** did they choose white?!) that was in front of a grey dam, above which was cloudy sky. I never had a chance of swimming straight. But anyway. Ensure that you figure out a piece of scenery above the buoy so you can sight even if your line of vision to the buoy is blocked. And look up after you breathe out, but before you breathe in. This will help keep your head down and your feet up.
Swimming is a weird thing to get right. The basic goal of swim technique is to present the least possible drag to the water, and doing this involves getting about ten things right. But because we're not naturally aquatic, training this takes time. You need to get in the pool at least twice a week to see improvements.
Oooh, and remember. At a triathlon, there may be hundreds of athletes, spread across tens of metres of water at the start, ALL HEADING FOR THE SAME POINT. It gets crowded really quickly. If you want to avoid the crowds, swim fast at the start to get clear.
I'm glad I'm back in the water. Now to learn from last year's mistakes...
I learnt how to swim properly between 2014 and now. Or, rather, in 2014 I learnt how NOT to swim, and in 2015, I learnt how to swim. And I don't want anyone to make the same mistakes I did. These are the things I have learnt. Learn from my balls ups.
1. In swimming, technique trumps fitness every time. Don't try to swim fast if you can't swim right. A swim author (who I bumped into by lucky happenstance in the pool) taught me to remember three things; First, keep your fingers pointed down at all times, except right before the pull. Second, point your toes and keep your legs straight. And third, look right down at the pool, and imagine there's a blowhole in the back of your neck. It worked wonders. I learnt more in that 15 minutes than I had in the previous 15 weeks.
2. If you're doing triathlon, remember to have a plan for when you stand up at the end of your swim leg, and there's the risk you go dizzy. You can either put hands on knees and wait till it passes, or swim very fast right before you stand up to get blood flowing. I expected it, but not how much it would hit. It very nearly put me on my ass.
3. Do swim warm ups for swimming. Biggest mistake I ever made was doing a running warm up before my triathlon. Well, after 100 metres I was in real trouble because I hadn't primed my neuro-muscular systems for swimming. It came to me and in the end I was ok, but my swim was almost 37 minutes, compared to the 33 I could do in the pool. In training, they use the acronym SPORT. Without boring you, the 'S' stands for 'Specificity'. Keep it specific to your sport, and you'll do better.
4. Learn to sight. 'Sighting' is a swim technique where you look forwards to get a bead on your destination, ensuring you don't swim in a zig zag. However, calamity can ensue when you encounter the situation I did. Ordinarily, we're taught that if you can't sight using a buoy, sight using a piece of scenery. Trouble was, I was swimming in a misty lake, towards a white buoy (why the **** did they choose white?!) that was in front of a grey dam, above which was cloudy sky. I never had a chance of swimming straight. But anyway. Ensure that you figure out a piece of scenery above the buoy so you can sight even if your line of vision to the buoy is blocked. And look up after you breathe out, but before you breathe in. This will help keep your head down and your feet up.
Swimming is a weird thing to get right. The basic goal of swim technique is to present the least possible drag to the water, and doing this involves getting about ten things right. But because we're not naturally aquatic, training this takes time. You need to get in the pool at least twice a week to see improvements.
Oooh, and remember. At a triathlon, there may be hundreds of athletes, spread across tens of metres of water at the start, ALL HEADING FOR THE SAME POINT. It gets crowded really quickly. If you want to avoid the crowds, swim fast at the start to get clear.
I'm glad I'm back in the water. Now to learn from last year's mistakes...
Love the blowhole in the back of the neck idea! Aye swimming to a scenic marker is a bit like driving off the medal tees, you can have the visualisation and intentions, but often the journey is more wayward!
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