Balance

[cjsmith]

20 lengths again this morning, four with a kickboard. Still solidly "medium": I lapped one guy twice, meaning I actually had to pass him once, and I was just about exactly the speed of another guy. I was pleased to see another woman pile into the medium lane near the end of my workout (the first other woman I've seen in medium), although she turned out to be pretty slow. I was fortunate enough to be done by the time I would have had to pass her and pass the first guy again.

I have looked briefly at some swimming technique sites, and I have picked the first thing to work on: go through the water horizontally. (Pretty basic, huh? Yet it's clear I wasn't truly doing it. Who knew?) I've seen this described as balancing somewhere along your sternum. It also feels to me like trying to keep my hips high. This sinks my head down farther into the water, which is fine; on my sort-of-breaststroke I have natural opportunities to pop my face up to breathe and to look where I'm going. Balancing this way doesn't feel natural, so clearly I need to practice it.

Comments

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Having your head down and popping up to breathe and look around is EXACTLY right. Good job!

Keeping the hips high is also correct technique.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Thanks!

I didn't notice much difference in speed or arm-tiredness, but I figure one step at a time and I'll see progress eventually.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

You mean you can LEARN how to swim logically? :-)

My learning-to-swim lesson was my father arranging for a teenage son of a friend of his to toss me in the deep end of the pool when I was 10 years old.

I was not amused.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I had that type of lesson too. I'm glad I learned early, in fact; I don't have a fear of drowning like some folks seem to. Now I'm learning to swim more efficiently. Maybe some day I will be better at swimming than the cat in my icon. :-)

[zahraa]

I have been swimming regularly for over a decade and have never made it to "fast."

I did, however, take a YMCA class called "Stroke Improvement for Adults." Despite the ribald title, the class was very good and actually exciting.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm still keeping my eyes peeled for evidence that I REALLY belong in the "slow" lane. I keep hoping I haven't merely been lucky the last few times. (I hate passing. I also hate feeling like someone has to slow down for me. I am glad that, so far, I'm not being a bottleneck in the "medium" lane.)

I would be sorely tempted to put that class in the "education" section of my resume. I wonder: would I ever get another job again in my life? :-)