Small tip: Cup your hands rather than just letting the water go between the spaces in your fingers. More distance per stroke that way. Little things add up.
Is there a secret to staying afloat/treading water in deep water that doesn't leave you gassed after 20 seconds? Ever since I was a kid, I have never been able to stay afloat in deep water much longer than a few seconds unless I'm swimming in a particular direction. People jump in and just seem to bob up and down but I really struggle to stay afloat.
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Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
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Originally Posted by Peanut
One question I have is, is it worth it to get prescription goggles? .
Just wear your glasses under a dive mask, mostly because that would look hilarious.
PS: I'm telling you this because you changed your sig from "Buster blows donkeys" or whatever it was (but definitely true) about Buster. Why, Peanut? WHYYYYYYYY???????
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I suck at swimming (well, freestyle). Started taking lessons in April of this year. I can do stuff now. Yippee.
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About 7 or 8 years ago, I stumbled on a blog where a guy described the exact same thing. He went from 2 to 40 lengths in 10 days by using a system called "total immersion". I just checked, and the original blog post is still available here, though it looks like he's becoming a bit of an internet personality.
I took just a few of the techniques, and the next time I went to a pool, I was able to swim 15 lengths right off the bat. What was more amazing was that I was tired, but not completely winded at the end. Also, when I stopped, I found I was actually sweating, like a real workout. I don't think I ever broke a sweat after going swimming before.
Thanks for this.
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I do love swimming though. One question I have is, is it worth it to get prescription goggles? I’m blind as a bat and I don’t wear contacts. The biggest thing I dislike about swimming is that I can’t really see anything. Which isn’t such a big deal once you get in the water and get going. But it’s not ideal to not really be able to see anything except blobs heading out to the pool and trying to read signs, watch the clock, etc.
I too am blind as a bat. You don't need prescription googles, just go to Swimco, they have good Speedo googles with corrective lenses. They're "good enough" - they don't fix astigmatism, but now I can see what the hell I'm doing.
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Is there a secret to staying afloat/treading water in deep water that doesn't leave you gassed after 20 seconds? Ever since I was a kid, I have never been able to stay afloat in deep water much longer than a few seconds unless I'm swimming in a particular direction. People jump in and just seem to bob up and down but I really struggle to stay afloat.
You can tread water using the egg beater method, but even that gets tiring. I can now stay afloat using only my arms, you need to scuttle your hands back and forth, go as wide as you can without going behind your back. Don't bend your elbows. When you bring your arms together your palms should face each other, and when you take them apart your palms should not face each other. You can even flutter kick at the same time.
Also you if you want to do egg beater, you have to rotate your legs the correct way otherwise you will actually pull yourself down.
If you just want to float on your back, keep your ass up, keep your head up, do not bend your back (that is, don't look down towards your chest). If you're male you really, really need to keep your butt up, way higher than what you think you need to do. Try to keep your entire chest and tummy out of the water.
Gawd I hate to give my secret swimming spot away... But Sir Winston Churchill's 25M lap pool is only 1.4 meters deep in the deep end so if you're scared of drowning while you flail around like Phoebe running this is the perfect pool for you. There is also a terrifyingly deep dive tank.
Shouldice's lap pool is only 1.7 meters deep, but that might be too deep for some people.
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I do love swimming though. One question I have is, is it worth it to get prescription goggles? I’m blind as a bat and I don’t wear contacts. The biggest thing I dislike about swimming is that I can’t really see anything. Which isn’t such a big deal once you get in the water and get going. But it’s not ideal to not really be able to see anything except blobs heading out to the pool and trying to read signs, watch the clock, etc.
Prescription goggles are always worth it!
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Small tip: Cup your hands rather than just letting the water go between the spaces in your fingers. More distance per stroke that way. Little things add up.
This is what I thought too, but this video (just a previous episode of the video I posted earlier) makes an interesting point about keeping the hand open, and concentrating on the wrist as opposed to the fingers. I've been trying it, and it really does help take pressure off the smaller forearm muscles, and more on the large shoulder/lat muscles.
Ha, I think my swim teacher told me everything I needed to know in the first 20 minutes of the first class, and the rest is me trying to figure it out for the next 12 classes.
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Good flip turn drills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEVTkwObVG4 The biggest tip is: you actually push off on your back and rotate on your front after the push off. Just a regular somersault
Thanks for your last post - lots of great stuff there. One thing I find when I practice just somersaults in water, the water really goes up my nose. I find it hard to somersault and not feel overwhelmed with water. I have a set of nose plugs, but I'm also blessed with the typical small asian nose so they don't stay on very well (not to mention they hurt after a while).
Do I just have to get used to that feeling, or is there something I am doing wrong?
I do love swimming though. One question I have is, is it worth it to get prescription goggles? I’m blind as a bat and I don’t wear contacts. The biggest thing I dislike about swimming is that I can’t really see anything. Which isn’t such a big deal once you get in the water and get going. But it’s not ideal to not really be able to see anything except blobs heading out to the pool and trying to read signs, watch the clock, etc.
Mrs Ironhorse has prescription goggles and loves them. Game changer for her!
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Thanks for your last post - lots of great stuff there. One thing I find when I practice just somersaults in water, the water really goes up my nose. I find it hard to somersault and not feel overwhelmed with water. I have a set of nose plugs, but I'm also blessed with the typical small asian nose so they don't stay on very well (not to mention they hurt after a while).
Do I just have to get used to that feeling, or is there something I am doing wrong?
Small tip: Cup your hands rather than just letting the water go between the spaces in your fingers. More distance per stroke that way. Little things add up.
Like psyang said... There's a sweet spot between having fingers tight and having "Salad Fingers" (remember that cartoon??) fingers. It's the hydrodynamics of it. The space between your fingers creates a vortex in the water which kind of makes your fingers like a paddle. You increase the water you are pulling, therefore more efficiency. Relaxed but with power, does that make sense?
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Do you normally take a breath just before a flip turn?
Yes. Because in a race, I will go underwater 10+ meters and I don't breathe on the breakout stroke. So I need as much oxygen as possible. For a beginner, I would suggest you can too. You don't have to blow out ALL your air when you flip. Play around with it. Everyone is different.
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Is there a secret to staying afloat/treading water in deep water that doesn't leave you gassed after 20 seconds? Ever since I was a kid, I have never been able to stay afloat in deep water much longer than a few seconds unless I'm swimming in a particular direction. People jump in and just seem to bob up and down but I really struggle to stay afloat.
Gotta relax, bro.
I feel like that's the biggest part you may be missing. Chill.
Also, egg beater with your legs, or learn sculling:
Tried to pass red four summers in a row and never could. But I learned through youtube and lifeguards and now I can go for about an hour backstroke, 30 mins freestyle. Still working out the kinks on the breaststroke.
I go once or twice a week, but it gets expensive unless you live close to a city pool. And rough on the skin, even the salt water pools.
Went for a swim last night, and my Garmin Watch (Vivoactive HR) clocked me at 1000m even. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure it was at about 800m when I got out of the pool, and I only stopped it at 1000m when I noticed it was still running in the shower. That said, I know that it didn't register numerous laps where I wasn't using my arms - leg only drills using the flutterboard (e.g. whipkick/flutter kick board drills).
Anyone else have one of these watches and encounter this? Is there a better swimming watch that records laps even when not using arms? Should I put it on my ankle?
Went for a swim last night, and my Garmin Watch (Vivoactive HR) clocked me at 1000m even. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure it was at about 800m when I got out of the pool, and I only stopped it at 1000m when I noticed it was still running in the shower. That said, I know that it didn't register numerous laps where I wasn't using my arms - leg only drills using the flutterboard (e.g. whipkick/flutter kick board drills).
Anyone else have one of these watches and encounter this? Is there a better swimming watch that records laps even when not using arms? Should I put it on my ankle?
I've got the exact same watch. It uses motion/changes in momentum to count strokes and laps.
I'm not sure how accurate the stroke counting is - I think on average it's good, but I usually have some outliers (really high or really low) each swim.
The lap count works fine for me. I do still keep a mental count as I swim, and the watch is pretty accurate overall. I know if I have to stop unexpectedly like when I catch up to a swimmer in front of me, it will usually record an extra length. Also, if you didn't stop the swim activity when you finished, it could get confused with sudden movements like getting out of the pool, washing your hair, etc.
I used to use a little device that you wear like a ring on one finger, and every time you do a length, you click a small button. It recorded length times and lap counts. It worked well, but I haven't used it since getting the watch.
