Swim lessons/coach thoughts....

As a completely new swimmer as of January of this year, I wanted to give some of my thoughts from this journey over the last few months of 'learning to swim' and what has seemed to work for me so far.  

My level of swim ability as of January 1 of this year was that I could swim about 25m without stopping.  I'd make it through the 25m but I was gassed.   

I was given some great advice by Karen (you'll see her here on many of the swim-related threads) that given my state of swim ability at that point, I should look for some kind of group lessons that would teach the basics of swimming freestyle.  Her advice was that I could use those group lessons to learn the vocabulary, get the basics down, etc.  Her advice was to complete a month or two of those group lessons before moving on to a one-on-one instructor.  Looking back, her advice was spot on.  

I completed 2 months of group lessons and was able to complete the swim on my first tri (275 yds) in 6:15 in early April.   Nothing to brag about, but definitely an achievement for me given where I was in January.  

I had my first one-on-one swim coach session this morning.  All I can say is WOW.  I feel like I learned more in one lesson than in 16 group lessons, but I agree with Karen's original advice that it would have been overkill (from a money standpoint) to start with one-on-one lessons.  Now I feel like I can do one lesson every week or two and really focus on my stroke.  So many lightbulbs going off this morning that I'm now on brain overload.   

As someone with a running background, I've learned one big thing.  Swimming is less like running/cycling, and more like golf.  You can go to the driving range and wack away all day long.  If you don't have someone watching your technique and telling you what to fix, you're just working hard, not getting better/faster.