Will my form improve by itself? It sucks ass right now, I have no idea what is right and everyone tells me something different. Will my breathing get better on its own? I can do a couple of laps, but have to take breaks due to getting oxygen starved. I can't seem to focus on both form and breathing. I remember one and forget the other.
I just want to somehow get better, but honestly I really suck.
Posted Jan 24, 2011, 8:45 PM UTC
[deleted]
I've always heard it as practice - proper, constructive feedback - practice, repeat ad nauseam.
Ahh, found a quote, although it's from a programming article by Peter Norvig and it does say expert, but still ... "..Researchers (Bloom (1985), Bryan & Harter (1899), Hayes (1989), Simmon & Chase (1973)) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, telegraph operation, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. The key is deliberative practice: not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again.. (Peter Norvig:website)"
others on here are coaches and lifetime swimmers and they are the ones you should listen to related to your initial question
Will my form improve by itself?
but I just want to comment here to encourage you. A couple years ago, I decided to learn to swim or die from chlorine ingestion trying. I not only learned to swim, but also that you can drink a frakkin ton of pool water with seemingly no ill effects. maybe the health issues will start later. :) All that the others have said about coaches and videos seems good. I watched a lot of videos that helped me nail down a couple major issues with my breathing. I found that learning to breathe was the most important thing... you can always work on form as long as you have air... but if the engine isn't getting proper oxygen, your form is gonna keep sucking. As for form vs breathing? both. but if you can't do both, you have to breathe.
Here's some things I did that made it more likely that I wouldn't give up. Maybe some would be helpful for you. Maybe not. just sharing my experience.
stopped worrying about kicking at all. It takes a lot of energy, but doesn't add much speed. All I would do is flip my feet a little for balance. after my breathing, stroke, and fitness improved, it was easy to add the kicking back in.
calm down. I came to a conclusion that part of my breathing problems were a result of some level of fear in the water. as a child I was definitely scared of the water. Actually, in a pool where I could touch the bottom, it wouldn't be fear, but I just wasn't comfortable and calm in the water. this messed with my breathing (both inhaling and exhaling). I had to be intentional about trying to calm down.
just kept swimming. when I was too tired or choking, I'd flip on my back and just elementary backstroke. this improved my fitness because I was still moving. this also helped me remain calm in the water.
learn bilateral breathing. since I was already having trouble breathing, I figured I may as well suck water from both sides instead of just one. besides the benefits of bilateral breathing on their own, I found that doing it this way made me think about my breathing with much more purpose and focus and I improved quickly.
slow is fine. just get breathing and stroke down... fundamentals first. then just start increasing the speed.
don't give up, it will all click for you very soon I think.
I not only learned to swim, but also that you can drink a frakkin ton of pool water with seemingly no ill effects.
I noticed the same... But also I noticed you can swallow a bunch of air with MANY ill effects. A while back I did a triathlon and decided to use front crawl for the first time (my previous tris were done using breaststroke). Well unbeknownst to me I was sucking down a TON of air into my stomach.
After the swim I got on the bike. I was hammering hard and at that point I noticed my stomach felt a little weird. I couldn't put my finger on the problem though. Nothing hurt.
Ten steps into the run it felt like someone had taken a knife and stabbed me into the stomach. I tried running through it, but eventually succumbed to the insurmountable pain. The pain reached levels where it felt like someone was turning the knife placed in my gut.
I still didn't know what was going on. I almost got sent to the hospital because the medics there thought something had ruptured or something. I didn't want to go to the ER so I 'pretended' the pain was gone (meanwhile I was dying inside).
On the way home I started farting up a god damn storm. No smell at all, but damn the wind just kept a coming. I STILL didn't know what was going on. All I knew is that my ass seemed to be expelling more gas than I've ever felt in my life...
I have since learned that every time I do front crawl, I do a massive farting campaign about an hour or two later. I also still can't run immediately after doing front crawl.
Anyhow, thanks for the tips. I'll print them off and re-read them a few times.
That is getting an upvote.
Short answer: yes, you will get better just by doing laps in the pool.
Long answer: get a swim coach and take some lessons NOW so you don't develop any bad habits. If you can't afford a coach, watch some videos online. Without proper form you'll still get better, but you'll be much less efficient in the water. Plus, you'll probably get an added bonus of an injury. Pace yourself. Take it slow. If it hurts (more than you're tired), DON'T DO IT! My shoulder was hurting last week and I skipped two swimming workouts to give it time to heal.
Yes... I started out like that a few years ago teaching myself how to swim front crawl and breast stroke. Just be sure to start watching training videeos online to learn some advanced tips about technique before you get too accustomed to swimming the way you naturally tend to swim. (You have plenty of time for that so don't worry). You will naturally become a better swimmer with practice but certainly research better technique also. There are things which it really helped me to know about swimming especially front crawl... but not all right when I started learning. To begin with I think learning how to pace yourself and go at a manageable speed without getting too tired is something that will happen for you soon enough. Also the muscles in your upper body may not be strong and fit enough to do their share of the swimming. Kicking really hard tires me out and kicking less can help a lot to get your breath. back.
Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
If you practice bad habits, yes you will get faster, but your overall potential will be limited by those flaws, regardless of how "hard" you think you're working.
Swimming is primarily technique. See if you can find a masters squad or failing that get someone to film you. You can then compare that against swim videos or even post it in on here for some feedback. Your best bet is to focus first on body position and breathing.
Do the drills recommended on this subreddit - especially the rotation drill. over and over and over. I got a triathalon coach to do a few lessons and it was great. Looking back, I probably could have gotten 80% from the drills on this site, but having the 1:1 to tell you to lift your butt, kick differently, rotate more, etc is good.
By the way, before the lessons I was doing 4k sessions and felt like I was making improvements, but it was hard. After the lessons when my stroke was changed I got winded after a few laps and it took a couple weeks to get back to several k. When I got there though, it was easier, I could go longer and things felt smoother, and I can still feel and see room for improvement without having to just muscle through things.
Practice makes permanent.