22 replies to this topic

[DontStopNow]

Hi All,

I am after some advice. I have been running and bike riding for many years now and have always wanted to get into the pool to learn how to swim so that I can compete in Triathlons. Im sure there are many people out there who have been or are in the same situation as me, you just dont or didnt know how to take the next step into the pool.

Like I can swim, Im a reasonably strong swimmer (doggy paddle/arm flapping type swim) , but dont have any technique what so ever and get tired very quickly. Hence the reason why I have not competed before. I just wish I had have come from a swimming background as I feel this is by far the hardest leg of a TRI.

Is there any advice or inspiration anyone can give me? Im turning 30 in a couple of months and feel like my time is now limited after years of putting this off. Can I do this? Am I too old? Is there anyone else in this situation? How long will it take me to become a reasonable swimmer?

[Beki]

Definitely not too old

I was in the same position as you July last year (except that I could barely even doggy paddle) and decided to take a course of adult swim classes once a week for 12 weeks. By the end of the course I was able to swim my first 50m lap (hey, I didn't do any practice other than my classes!). With three times a week practice after the course finished I was able to swim 1000m freestyle in the 50m pool within about a month

It's just the same as running. Consistency is the key, if you can practice a few times a week on a regular basis you are sure to improve. I still have heaps of improvement to go regarding technique and speed but I'm the first to admit that I don't get to the pool often enough. Having said that, after not going for a few weeks I can still jump in and manage a solid 1000m with relative ease (just slowly)

I say go for it - if you can find a good instructor it will be some of the best money you have ever spent!

[kb]

I grew up in a NSW country town where the only pool was a non heated outdoor jobbie. In summer it was cool to hang around at the pool but swimming laps was definitely uncool.

Hence, while I am not scared of the water, I became an adult who couldn't swim.

Two years ago my hubby and I decided to learn how how to swim so we could compete in triathlons. We enrolled in an adult learn to swim class.

Now I can swim up to 3km in the pool with not too many problems. My hubby is racing his first Ironman triathlon (3.8km swim) in April. We both turn 40 this year.

You are never, never too old to learn. You just need to decide to do it and then just do it!

wt

[slowmo]

DontStopNow, on Feb 28 2008, 05:01 PM, said:

Im turning 30 in a couple of months and feel like my time is now limited after years of putting this off. Can I do this? Am I too old?

I vaguely remember 30

As Beki says, finding a good instructor can work wonders. I can also recommend a book that has been really helpful for me: Master the Art of Swimming by Steven Shaw. You should be able to find it in local bookshops or at Dymocks online. After working through the exercises in this book I actually enjoy swimming after forty something years of treating it as a non-drowning exercise.

All the best with it.

slowmo

[Hamburglar]

The best advice I have is to get a few lessons (at least). I stubbornly didn't when I started to swim and I now regret it.

I did however get a great book - "Total Imersion" by Terry Laughlin, who focuses on improved technique to swim better, faster and easier. Will even got me a copy of the DVD which is great also.

It is all about technique - even more so for a runner than has a pretty good level of fitness.

I started out last Aug only being able to swim 2-3 laps without needing a rest, to doing a half ironman (1.9k swim) in apx 41min. Not fast, but not too hard. I never thought I would be able to do this. Dare I say that I even started to ENJOY the swimming (especially in a wetsuit). Cruising through the water with reduced effort was almost meditative (maybe that's going a bit far).

My only other piece of advice is to try and train at east three times a week - you will see much faster improvement than if you only twice a week.

Good luck!

Edited by Hamburglar, 28 February 2008 - 08:02 PM.

[Beki]

Hamburglar, on Feb 28 2008, 09:02 PM, said:

I did however get a great book - "Total Imersion" by Terry Laughlin, who focuses on improved technique to swim better, faster and easier. Will even got me a copy of the DVD which is great also.

I don't have the dvd but add my vote to the book. It has some great tips about correct positioning of your body in the water and even without the dvd it is really descriptive and easy to visualise what he is talking about. I found much of the tips about "pressing your buoy" and swimming "on your side" to be a huge help and has improves my swimming no end

[DontStopNow]

Hey Guys... Thanks for all of the feedback so far.. Keep it coming!

Would I be correct in saying the sooner I join a swim class the better, to learn the correct techniques?

Or would I be better of just getting in the pool a couple of times a week to slog it out before hand and then joining?

[SlowDave]

The most common advice you'll get on this is to get yourself some coaching, and for good reason. The best way to improve your swimming is to get efficiency into how you swim. Some of the people I see swimming laps at the pool make me cringe with how hard they are flogging themselves for so little effect. Of course if all you want is exercise this doesn't matter, but it does if you want to race (regardles of how slow you might be). I'd swum for years doing ocean races without any coaching, but 6 months of coaching made a huge difference to how efficiently I swam. My times dropped a bit, but more importantly for triathlons, I got onto the bike feeling fresh, not totally knackered. The other thing with swim coaching is that it tends to be done in squads, so the cost is relatively low (my local pool has s squad that costs 50cents more than the cost of entry to the pool ).

[SpartaJen]

DontStopNow, on Feb 29 2008, 08:39 AM, said:

Hey Guys... Thanks for all of the feedback so far.. Keep it coming!

Would I be correct in saying the sooner I join a swim class the better, to learn the correct techniques?

Or would I be better of just getting in the pool a couple of times a week to slog it out before hand and then joining?

Go straight for the lessons. Slogging it out will probably frustrate you, not to mention give rise to bad habits which are really hard to break later down the track.

[brizza]

Jen_runs, on Feb 29 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

Go straight for the lessons. Slogging it out will probably frustrate you, not to mention give rise to bad habits which are really hard to break later down the track.

i was a runner for a long time and then i fancied doing a triathlon,my plan being to swim the side stroke for the whole 1.5 k-left side for a bit then right side for a bit then back to the left again,this was 1982,the lessons are a good idea

[cakeboy]

Jen_runs, on Feb 29 2008, 12:21 PM, said:

Go straight for the lessons. Slogging it out will probably frustrate you, not to mention give rise to bad habits which are really hard to break later down the track.

If you want proof that this is good advice, go down and watch some of the junior squad members going up and down the pool effortlessly like they've got flippers on. Boy, can some of those little buggers swim fast.......it starts with proper technique.

[DontStopNow]

Thanks for that advice Slow Dave..

For the record I went for my first swim last night... It wasnt pretty. The furthest I managed to swim was about 50m without being totally knackered. (this is quite hard to take considering im a sub 40min 10k runner) I did this about 10 times. So overall I reccon I swam about 500m? Which really doesnt seem like much to me? I didnt realise how much of a different type of fitness swimming is...

Anyway - I have taken the advice and I have joined a 4 week swim school class at the local pool to learn technique and how to breathe properly. Hopefully from this my plan will be to get to the pool at the very least once per week during the winter to work on my weaknesses. Then come next summer maybe my first TRI? Geez swimming more than 200m without stopping seems along way away.

BUT.. I think im excited at the prospect?

Thanks again guys

[virtualkerri]

DontStopNow, on Mar 6 2008, 10:23 AM, said:

Thanks for that advice Slow Dave..

For the record I went for my first swim last night... It wasnt pretty. The furthest I managed to swim was about 50m without being totally knackered. (this is quite hard to take considering im a sub 40min 10k runner) I did this about 10 times. So overall I reccon I swam about 500m? Which really doesnt seem like much to me? I didnt realise how much of a different type of fitness swimming is...

Anyway - I have taken the advice and I have joined a 4 week swim school class at the local pool to learn technique and how to breathe properly. Hopefully from this my plan will be to get to the pool at the very least once per week during the winter to work on my weaknesses. Then come next summer maybe my first TRI? Geez swimming more than 200m without stopping seems along way away.

BUT.. I think im excited at the prospect?

Thanks again guys

Well done on your first swim! I usually build up the swimming over summer to do some oceanswims around Sydney - the last two years I haven't done any swimming over winter, so that first trip to the pool in November... with pleasant memories of how well I was swimming back in April at the end of the season... reality check!

Totally agree on the "get coaching" advice if you haven't had any before, (good) technique will make a HUGE difference, and you'll enjoy it more too. Also doing a bit a training with flippers might be good if you are tending to bend your legs up or kick out sideways a bit, as they'll create almost impossible drag if you try to swim like that! They also feel great to help you go a bit faster and get the upper body technique worked out with out sinking.

Cheers.

[a286rules]

Well done on getting in the pool.....Keep it up and you will soon feel (and hopefully see) the results. It was only a couple of years ago when I crawled out of the pool only making it to 550 metres with zero form....and I was a regular friday night swimming club kid. Last year something broke in my brain and I decided I wanted to look like a lifesaver. So I picked a race that scared the shit out of me and started training. The hard work has paid off and now this Sunday I will be going for my first 'marathon' swim (Sydney harbour bridge to beach 11km). Now form and fitness is no longer the problem....just hope the formula 1 boats dont have too much fuel spewing into the water on saturdays pole position races.

So keep up the swimming and you too can have a broken brain.

[SpartaJen]

DontStopNow, on Mar 6 2008, 10:23 AM, said:

Anyway - I have taken the advice and I have joined a 4 week swim school class at the local pool to learn technique and how to breathe properly. Hopefully from this my plan will be to get to the pool at the very least once per week during the winter to work on my weaknesses. Then come next summer maybe my first TRI? Geez swimming more than 200m without stopping seems along way away.

BUT.. I think im excited at the prospect?

Excellent! Good on you for taking that step - keep us posted with your progress.

[DontStopNow]

a286rules, on Mar 7 2008, 04:46 AM, said:

Well done on getting in the pool.....Keep it up and you will soon feel (and hopefully see) the results. It was only a couple of years ago when I crawled out of the pool only making it to 550 metres with zero form....and I was a regular friday night swimming club kid. Last year something broke in my brain and I decided I wanted to look like a lifesaver. So I picked a race that scared the shit out of me and started training. The hard work has paid off and now this Sunday I will be going for my first 'marathon' swim (Sydney harbour bridge to beach 11km). Now form and fitness is no longer the problem....just hope the formula 1 boats dont have too much fuel spewing into the water on saturdays pole position races.

So keep up the swimming and you too can have a broken brain.

WOW - 11km? thats rediculous. Here I am talking about trying to swim 100m. ha ha

I think for me its just going to be a matter of learning technique and just sticking too it... a bit of hard work ahead of me I think.

[Shankate]

WOW!! 11km - now that does sound ridiculous! I feel like I've put in a solid session after a decent 1800m...

Dontstopnow I'm so glad you started this thread. I am actually from a swimming background (high school days), however whilst giving me a good start, in some ways I feel that it also could have been my downfall; because I always felt that it was an area I didn't need help in. I believed that I must've had good technique.

Well, since swimming at the uni pool and being zoomed past by kids I could've sworn must've been wearing FLIPPERS (until I looked at their feet!) - I think maybe there is a lot of room for improvement in my technique.

Maybe one day I will get the guts together to go to a swim squad.. which I know are held regularly at the same pool i go to - and what's worse I run with a few others that go.... NO EXCUSES NOW!!

[PEEKIE]

11 KMS that is awesome I have often thought of entering the 1 - 1.2 kilometre ocean swims, can do it in the pool but taking the black line away and adding in some waves has always scared me, which is strange as I am fine surfing. Well done on the swimming dontstopknow, I am in need of learning correct technique also and I'm sure it would make swimming a whole lot easier for me.

[Rachel49]

Shankate, on Mar 6 2008, 07:35 AM, said:

Maybe one day I will get the guts together to go to a swim squad.. which I know are held regularly at the same pool i go to - and what's worse I run with a few others that go.... NO EXCUSES NOW!!

That was me! I've finally joined one after 4 years and I'm so glad I have. It's a great motivation to swim more than once a week and I've picked up tips on improving my swimming.
It's so motivating that a couple of weeks ago I tagged along with a group who decided to do a bit of a swim along the Murray River. I ended up swimming 6km non stop and had never swum further than 2km before that.

Just join a club!!!

[KevinCassidy]

a286rules, on Mar 6 2008, 07:16 PM, said:

Well done on getting in the pool.....Keep it up and you will soon feel (and hopefully see) the results. It was only a couple of years ago when I crawled out of the pool only making it to 550 metres with zero form....and I was a regular friday night swimming club kid. Last year something broke in my brain and I decided I wanted to look like a lifesaver. So I picked a race that scared the shit out of me and started training. The hard work has paid off and now this Sunday I will be going for my first 'marathon' swim (Sydney harbour bridge to beach 11km). Now form and fitness is no longer the problem....just hope the formula 1 boats dont have too much fuel spewing into the water on saturdays pole position races.

So keep up the swimming and you too can have a broken brain.

Hey a286rules,

Did you get to the Bridge to Manly swim? I made it in 3:31 and met Brizza for the first time. he finished in 3:10. Not sure about kirko but he was planning to be there. A "bluebottle free" event this year, thank goodness.

First individual was 2:39!!!

I was still in Manly enjoying drinks at about 4pm.

Whoops...sorry for the hi jack

PEEKIE......nothing to fear about the open water. You'll actually find it less fearfull than the pool due to the extra bouyancy of salt water. There is still one more 1200 metre event on the Melbourne calendar next Sunday morning at Bonbeach. Low key, not overly crowded and a free [and very sociable] BBQ at the finish. Check it out at www.bonbeachlsc.com.au

[PEEKIE]

Will check out the link, thanks Kevin

[a286rules]

KevinCassidy, on Mar 10 2008, 07:06 PM, said:

Hey a286rules,

Did you get to the Bridge to Manly swim? I made it in 3:31 and met Brizza for the first time. he finished in 3:10. Not sure about kirko but he was planning to be there. A "bluebottle free" event this year, thank goodness.

First individual was 2:39!!!

I made it in 4:00:09 (I thought I'd already busted the 4 hour mark so I strolled up to the timing mats - had I known they started 5 minutes late I would have ran/staggered faster). I couldn't believe how clean the water was over the majority of the course - top weather. All of the small jelly fish were a weird feeling on the hands.

Kirko powered through getting 3:30 (with no wettie) and another mate of ours managed to finish (with bugger all training) in 4:31, second last. We were wondering if he would make it but pulled out some mental determination.

Well done on your time!

[brizza]

hi a286rules,well done finishing the b2b,i found it very hard but in itself, it was an absolute epic experience tho', the last big headland had a great big rip pushing us backwards,as i approached i could see that i was catching the four swimmers in front then as i went into it they shot forward and i came to a full stop, and some swimmers behind started to catch up,then i had a slingshot experience and zoomed off,i thought this would be a bit like running a marathon,not quite.this week i've got yarra bay on saturday and the shark island swim on sunday-briz