Now if only I could swim "right"

[cjsmith]

I have developed a weird style that has arms from, oh, the breaststroke or the butterfly or something, and a scissor-kick from the sidestroke. My head bobs on every stroke; at the high point I breathe, and even at the low point my eyes are usually still out of the water. (That last is very handy for me. I veer if I'm not looking.) I'm bothered by the asymmetry of the scissor-kick, but not enough that I spend time doing it the opposite way.

I have almost completely forgotten how to do the basic crawl. I can flutter-kick, and I am comfortable doing that when I am on a kickboard, but the flutter-kick doesn't go well with what my arms want to do. The arm and head motion of the crawl feels very wrong to me, and besides, it puts water in my ears. I am convinced this is the main purpose of the crawl. :-)

Comments

Re: Awkward

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Yes, I take my hour lunch break to swim for 20 minutes too! (I'm a very avid and enthusiastic swimmer!)

Yes, once you get your practice in, it's a great full body workout. If your cardio health is good, you'll be able to push yourself nicely once your strength catches up.

Where swimming has a bad rep (and you can click on the Fitness tag on my journal for lots of rants about it) is in the weight loss department. There are a lot of factors there that I do not think are adequately explored. But from your user pic, I doubt that's even a concern for you!

Re: Awkward

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoy it so much! You have a pool nearby where you can do lap swimming on the lunch hour? That's pretty cool.

I really do need those arms, though, huh? :-)

It's true that I'm not looking at it as a means toward weight loss. I'm mainly after cardio health, because with messed-up feet, swimming is probably my best shot at that. I'm otherwise *sooooo* prone to becoming a complete couch potato!