Jim Haselmaier said:I'm a 15-20 mile/wk runner that has recently begun swimming and am using it to augment/balance my
running. I'm surprised at how much I'm liking it and am enthused about finding another sport I
enjoy. I'll now get less stressed when a running injury causes me to take a break.
I'm not an experienced swimmer by the standards of any round here, but having gone through a similar
experience of being a runner and having a bit of difficulty in the pool, I thought I'd give my point
of view. It was slightly different, because I could already swim breaststroke easily, but had never
really done frontcrawl since school. Whenever I did it, it was always as a kind of rapid thrashing
down the pool with a bit of random breathing that I couldn't sustain for more than a length or two.
I got over this within a dozen sessions or so with a mixture of slowing down, practice, and
technique. Got the technique ideas to concentrate on via web searching; read all I could to get an
idea of what body movements, arm movements, breathing, etc seemed to be recommended. Got the
practice by telling myself I'd go do so many lengths of breaststroke, than have to do the remaining
so many lengths with frontcrawl, no matter how long it took me. To actually do those lengths, I'd
try do a lap going slowly, with as nice a stroke as I could. Then I'd pause to get my breath back
for a bit, then do another lap, and so on. After a few sessions of this, the time needed to get my
breath back dropped. For me, I found it nonetheless remained difficult for a while, then seemed to
suddenly click - I realised one time I wasn't pausing more than a leisurely turnaround, and I was
actually capable of regaining breath during the length. Walked around with a silly grin for the rest
of that day :-)
Quoted message said:I figured, with my running, that I was in pretty good shape. But OH MY GOSH! I can't believe how
hard this swimming is! I go 50 meters and I'm gasping for air.
This does sound familiar.
Quoted message said:I've talked to a friend who is a great swimmer and I've determined my technique has serious,
major, mongo problems. And I've started working on those and it has helped. But I'd be interested
in comments from others about how long it typically takes to get to a conditioning level that
allows one to swim 500m or so uninterrupted. Is it fair to conclude that bad technique is the
primary contributor to my inability to swim longer than 50m at a stretch or is conditioning also
a factor?
My conclusion - it's technique, but very basic technique. Sort of like the initial bump you need to
get over. I don't think my conditioning changed significantly, it was more drilling in the muscle
movement and breathing cycle until the body got used to it and relaxed.
I think it took me of the order of 10-20 sessions making myself do 30 lengths. Then it pretty much
clicked, and I could easily carry on for 500m or more. _But_ that was for learning frontcrawl when I
could already swim breaststroke easily.
Quoted message said:I have a clear picture in my head for the kind of work and length of calendar time required to
reach a fitness level that allows one to run 2, 3, 4, 10 or whatever number of miles. I don't have
the equivalent picture in my head for swimming.
Persist. You'll get there.
Tom
