General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Swimming advice Rss Feed  
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2017-01-06 10:21 AM


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Subject: Swimming advice
My wife, two kids and I started mtb biking a couple of years ago. It's pretty low intensity and only a couple of times per week when the weather is nice, but I hadn't exercised since high school so it's better than nothing. My daughter joined the cross country team this past year so I started running with the intentions of keeping her running through the off-season. At this point I can run approximately 5 miles in about an hour or a 5k in about 28-29 minutes.

I made the decision to train for a sprint triathlon a few weeks ago, but there's a slight problem. I can't swim. I've not been in a pool since I was a kid(I'm 35 now) but it looked so easy in the youtube videos that I thought I could wing it. I got in the pool at the YMCA, couldn't float, my legs kept sinking as I attempted to swim, and I wore myself out in just a few half laps.

The Y gives lessons periodically but they are, of coarse, targeted at children. I've talked to my daughters swim coach. This is his first year of coaching elementary age and he's doing ok with them. But swimming is as natural to him as walking and he doesn't seem to have a good idea of where to start with me.

Do you all have any suggestions? Do I need to find somewhere to take lessons? Are there videos that could get me started? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by jbofky 2017-01-06 10:23 AM


2017-01-06 10:32 AM
in reply to: jbofky

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice

If you h ave a Y close by then they can help you.  You may have to pay for some private instruction, but it will only take a few lessons to give you plenty to work on. I know you said that their lessons are targeted mostly toward children, and that is correct, but just find the aquatics director and tell him/her what you need.....they'll find you some help.

2017-01-06 10:44 AM
in reply to: jbofky

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice

Originally posted by jbofky

. . . I made the decision to train for a sprint triathlon a few weeks ago, but there's a slight problem. I can't swim. I've not been in a pool since I was a kid(I'm 35 now) but it looked so easy in the youtube videos that I thought I could wing it. I got in the pool at the YMCA, couldn't float, my legs kept sinking as I attempted to swim, and I wore myself out in just a few half laps.

The Y gives lessons periodically but they are, of coarse, targeted at children. I've talked to my daughters swim coach. This is his first year of coaching elementary age and he's doing ok with them. But swimming is as natural to him as walking and he doesn't seem to have a good idea of where to start with me. Do you all have any suggestions?

Do I need to find somewhere to take lessons? Are there videos that could get me started? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,

You are what we call an "Adult Onset Swimmer."  As ridiculous as this is going to sound, the best thing you can do is sign up for that beginner swim class.  Yes, it would turn some heads; yes, people would point and laugh.  You would however, have the last laugh as you become a front of pack swimmer.  A beginner swimming class will teach you the fundamentals.  The VAST majority of adult onset swimmers don't learn the fundamentals and they pay for that oversight throughout their triathlon swimming career.  You will learn to blow bubbles (goes to breathing), learn to put your face in the water (goes to comfort in the water), learn to float (goes to proper position and balance in the water), learn body rotation (goes to proper technique), and lay the foundation for proper stroke mechanics.  We humans are land animals.  Above all, a beginner class will get you comfortable in an aquatic environment.  

You might talk to someone at the 'Y' and see if you can get private lessons in lieu of joining the kids class - the important thing is get with a qualified instructor/coach that can impart upon you the fundamentals and lay the groundwork for proper technique.  Then, continue with regular "coaching" sessions until you have gained some competency.  If you can't find a coach or are uncomfortable with the kids, you can take a look at this page which will at least guide you through the fundamentals.

The problem with videos is that while you may see what you are suppose to do, rarely are you doing it that way.  There is no replacement for a qualified coach/instructor on deck guiding you. 

Hope that helps.

2017-01-06 11:32 AM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
US Masters Swimming offers classes specifically for Adult wanting to learn how to swim. I don't know if they have any active clubs in your area, but it is worth checking out on their website (http://www.usms.org/alts/). The bonus is it is often free, 'cause they have this whole thing about people not drowning.

Good luck!

Edited by drfoodlove 2017-01-06 11:33 AM
2017-01-06 12:18 PM
in reply to: drfoodlove

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
I would echo everything said about the lessons. I started at the YMCA in Cumberland, MD with lessons about 7 years ago as an adult onset swimmer. The gains you make after those first lessons are like no other, both in confidence and in time on the watch.
2017-01-06 2:11 PM
in reply to: #5209291


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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
You can look for a Master's class to join. I started swimming at 34 and thought "master's" meant former collegiate swimmers etc, but then I found that a lot of us were adult onset swimmers! Better to learn proper technique now then try to undo bad habits later!


2017-01-09 7:09 AM
in reply to: Nolabuckeye


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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
drfoodlove-I searched all over the usms website for the "adult learn-to-swim" program, certified instructors, masters clubs and couldn't find anything within 100 miles. I did find a local club that claimed to affiliated with usms on their website, emailed all three instructors last week and haven't gotten a response yet.

k9car363-I got in the pool yesterday and worked on exhaling for over an hour. I got much more comfortable in the water during that time. I'll try to get in a few times this week and work on the next step. So in the mean time, I'll keep looking for a qualified instructor because I don't want to form bad habits that are going to be difficult to break later.

I want to thank everyone for the help!
2017-01-09 8:54 PM
in reply to: jbofky

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice

If you are into podcast, look up 'Tower26, Be Race Ready'. I think it is the first 8 episodes that will talk in depth about proper swim techniques.

I found this to be very helpful, even though I felt like I was already a decent swimmer. I also purchased a book and swim workout cards called 'Swim Speed Secrets' I think the book will be very helpful, the workout cards I have been using and really enjoying the structured workout series, although that might come a little later. I found the book itself to very informative and helpful in my swimming technique.

Best Swimming to ya  

2017-01-09 9:12 PM
in reply to: jbofky

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice

Originally posted by jbofky drfoodlove-I searched all over the usms website for the "adult learn-to-swim" program, certified instructors, masters clubs and couldn't find anything within 100 miles. I did find a local club that claimed to affiliated with usms on their website, emailed all three instructors last week and haven't gotten a response yet. k9car363-I got in the pool yesterday and worked on exhaling for over an hour. I got much more comfortable in the water during that time. I'll try to get in a few times this week and work on the next step. So in the mean time, I'll keep looking for a qualified instructor because I don't want to form bad habits that are going to be difficult to break later. I want to thank everyone for the help!

Bro -

1. Walk into your local YMCA. 

2. Swallow your pride. 

3. Ask to speak to the aquatic director. 

4. Tell him/her you can't swim (because you can't) and you want to learn. 

5. Tell him/her you need help. 

6. Learn to swim.

The hardest part will be #2.....the rest is a breeze.

 

2017-01-09 9:35 PM
in reply to: Left Brain

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
Left Brain is right in what he is suggesting you do.

any book or video or youtube thing you find will be far less helpful. you really need to learn the basics, like floating, before you can start with anything else.
2017-01-10 11:12 AM
in reply to: Left Brain

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
Originally posted by Left Brain

Originally posted by jbofky drfoodlove-I searched all over the usms website for the "adult learn-to-swim" program, certified instructors, masters clubs and couldn't find anything within 100 miles. I did find a local club that claimed to affiliated with usms on their website, emailed all three instructors last week and haven't gotten a response yet. k9car363-I got in the pool yesterday and worked on exhaling for over an hour. I got much more comfortable in the water during that time. I'll try to get in a few times this week and work on the next step. So in the mean time, I'll keep looking for a qualified instructor because I don't want to form bad habits that are going to be difficult to break later. I want to thank everyone for the help!

Bro -

1. Walk into your local YMCA. 

2. Swallow your pride. 

3. Ask to speak to the aquatic director. 

4. Tell him/her you can't swim (because you can't) and you want to learn. 

5. Tell him/her you need help. 

6. Learn to swim.

The hardest part will be #2.....the rest is a breeze.

 




That's about it. My wife had been wanting lessons and during our kids' group lessons at our local Lifetime Fitness I went and spoke to the aquatics director, then went back to my wife and told her, "they said for you to jump in lane two." and pointed as the instructor waved her over. Her face turned red, and she didn't talk to me for the rest of the day, but she went in with a sea of kids and started lessons. After she was done she couldn't wait to go back for week two. Our kids got a huge kick out of it and a couple months later my wife is able to swim pretty decently. Just jump in.


2017-01-10 12:47 PM
in reply to: 3mar

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice

Originally posted by 3mar
Originally posted by Left Brain

Originally posted by jbofky drfoodlove-I searched all over the usms website for the "adult learn-to-swim" program, certified instructors, masters clubs and couldn't find anything within 100 miles. I did find a local club that claimed to affiliated with usms on their website, emailed all three instructors last week and haven't gotten a response yet. k9car363-I got in the pool yesterday and worked on exhaling for over an hour. I got much more comfortable in the water during that time. I'll try to get in a few times this week and work on the next step. So in the mean time, I'll keep looking for a qualified instructor because I don't want to form bad habits that are going to be difficult to break later. I want to thank everyone for the help!

Bro -

1. Walk into your local YMCA. 

2. Swallow your pride. 

3. Ask to speak to the aquatic director. 

4. Tell him/her you can't swim (because you can't) and you want to learn. 

5. Tell him/her you need help. 

6. Learn to swim.

The hardest part will be #2.....the rest is a breeze.

 

That's about it. My wife had been wanting lessons and during our kids' group lessons at our local Lifetime Fitness I went and spoke to the aquatics director, then went back to my wife and told her, "they said for you to jump in lane two." and pointed as the instructor waved her over. Her face turned red, and she didn't talk to me for the rest of the day, but she went in with a sea of kids and started lessons. After she was done she couldn't wait to go back for week two. Our kids got a huge kick out of it and a couple months later my wife is able to swim pretty decently. Just jump in.

Ha, that's great!

My wife would kill me.  

2017-01-22 9:11 AM
in reply to: jbofky

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
I have a somewhat dissenting opinion. While any lessons will help, adults learn much differently than children. Adults are generally more difficult to teach, though they are usually much more motivated to learn.

Adults have a lifetime of bad habits, preconceptions, fears and pride that must be overcome. Adults also want to know why you are doing a particular activity and what benefit they will receive from that activity. Adults want to jump right in and start swimming. This is all contradictory to what children swim lessons are based on. Children lessons are about "fun, splashy" activities that gradually eases them into a level of comfort with the water, but involves a great deal of time usually in a group environment. This is not the ideal environment for an adult to learn. With that being said, anything is better than nothing.

Adult swim lessons are specifically structured to address the issues that the swimmer is having. The single most common issues that I see in over 20 years of teaching adult swimmers is 1) lack of comfort/confidence in the water 2) Inability to breathe rhythmically. These two issues are closely tied together and with either one in evidence it is nearly impossible to focus on any stroke mechanics. Here is why: If a person is in fear or extreme discomfort, that person has very limited mental faculties to devote to actually learning. They are spending all their mental acuity on staying alive!

So, what do we do? I like to start in a shallow pool with water waist deep, no deeper than shoulder deep. The water should be WARM! A cold student is a non-learning student. Warm water that the student can stand in helps to reassure the student that all they have to do is stand up to ease discomfort/fear. This helps to reassure the student in early stages, however it can also become a crutch later. I will then start with a series of simple exercises on streamlining. (I give a short explanation and demonstration of what streamlining is and why we want to be streamlined, Remember adults want to know why they are doing an activity.) Then we be begin by performing "Superman" glides from the side of the pool. I emphasize that the student should be blowing bubbles while their face is underwater. This sets them up for breathe control later in this drill. Focusing on head between the shoulders and gliding. This accomplishes four things, they are working on proper body positioning, streamlining and they are beginning to work on breath control and proper head position (Additionally they are placing their mouth and nose underwater = breath control. This simple exercise teaches and reinforces basic necessities under the simple guise of learning to be more efficient = less effort = better swimmer. I generally will continue this exercise through 10-15 repetitions or more if needed. Once the student(s) are showing good glides we begin to add to this. Now we combine a single arm stroke with a body roll to breathe. Again I demonstrate the desired skill first. Push off the wall with both arms straight out in front with head between shoulder in a "Superman" glide. Now as I start to slow down, I will let my dominant arm (mine is right) fall down toward the bottom of the pool and I will begin to roll my dominant shoulder up so that I am now finishing my glide on my side, where I will now take a breathe. This is the tricky one and it sometimes takes many efforts to get this. Sometimes we will have to regress and go back to the simple "Superman" glide. The point is that when they are able to get this roll and breathe portion, they really have the ability to rhythmically breathe. We will continue this drill for 20+ times. Once they are able to do it correctly most of the time we add one more piece to this drill. At this time we are going to go through the same steps: push of the wall in "superman", as they begin to slow down the dominant arm will fall towards the bottom while rolling the dominant shoulder to roll up and then take a short breathe. Next sequence to add is dominant arm recovery, where the dominant arm now comes up by the waist and over to the front of the body parallel to the other arm which is still in "superman". Now the non-dominant arm will fall towards the bottom of the pool while the non-dominant shoulder rolls up and the student can breathe. Always reinforcing that when the student's head is underwater that they should be exhaling slowly and steadily. So that when it comes time to breathe, they only have to inhale. This becomes important in the next step as their timing can be thrown off considerably if they attempt to inhale and exhale as their shoulder and mouth rotate out of the water. Once they are able to do this we will add one final step which is the recovery of the non-dominate arm back to the glide position so that the hand comes by the waist and the arm then goes over and back to parallel with the dominant arm.

Throughout this drill, if the student begins to have problems we will regress back one drill step until they regain their equanimity and then we will begin to build again. Teaching adults requires a tremendous amount of patience and encouragement. Adults want to master something quickly and can frustrated very easily. My job as the instructor is to maintain composure and patience and encourage them.

Once the student is able to do all four steps of this drill, they are demonstrating many things: They have developed a good body position that is at least somewhat streamlined, they have learned body roll, rhythmic breathing, glide position and arm recovery. Now I have them string two cycles of this four step drill together. Usually at this point the light goes on! I'm swimming!!! Once this point is reached it is important that they capitalize on this and swim as much as they can for the duration of the lesson. It is not uncommon to have to restart this drill again at the next lesson, but it usually goes much faster.

At this point, the student(s) are actually swimming and breathing rhythmically. Notice that nowhere in this did I focus on stroke mechanics or kick mechanics. Once they are able to breathe rhythmically as they swim, I can now start to identify large/gross mechanical errors and tackle them one at a time, picking the largest error first and then working down. I never try to adjust more than one error at at time. In my 20+ years of teaching swimming this formula has had 90%+ with a workable freestyle stroke by the end of the first lesson. There are always people who fall outside the bell curve. I remember one young man that 10+ sessions before he was able to "get it". It was frustrating to both of us! However, I still remember the look on his face on the day that it finally clicked, His smile went from ear to ear!

My recommendations for adults who want to learn to swim:
1) Absolutely do it!
2) Go to your local pool/aquatics center and ask about someone who does adult swim lessons
3) Watch other swimmers. I will have my students watch competitive swimmers as well as neophyte swimmers and discuss the differences they see. Competitive swimmers are smooth and efficient in their movements. Neophytes have lots of rapid movements with a lot of splash. The secret to water is slow deliberate movements.
4) Have someone video tape you as you swim from three different angles: Front, back and side. This will tell you volumes when it comes time to actually dial in your stroke mechanics. It is a great tool for teaching so that you can see what you were actually doing vs what you thought you were doing.
5) Try to avoid children's learn to swim, though any instruction is better than none
6) Be prepared to swim at least 2-3 times per week so that your body can develop its own natural rhythm

I have been teaching swim and lifeguarding since 1993. I have been an American Red Cross Instructor Trainer in both of these disciplines since 1997. I taught full time at Ball State University from 2004 - 2011 and still teach as an adjunct every summer. I have taught thousands of people to swim and it truly is a most rewarding experience.
2017-01-25 7:03 AM
in reply to: Nolabuckeye

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Subject: RE: Swimming advice
I will echo the look for a qualified instructor comments. Group classes are a good start but you can gain more from one on one instruction in a shorter amount of time. With this being said, keep in mind that swimming is about two things - technique and endurance. With the help of your coach, your technique will improve and things will become "easier". Keep this phrase in mind - smooth= fast in the pool. Building your endurance will take time but the better the technique, the "easier" it will become and the harder you can push yourself. Good luck!
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