Frustrated beginner!

willietherock

After two beginners sessions, so 12 swimming classes, I can front crawl 1/2 to 2/3 away across a swimming pool widthway on one breathe before coming up for air. See no real improvment from this scenario at all. Other thoughs are that I seem to be sinking from feet/ass v quickly in the water, getting no body rotation to set up possible breathing, huge difficulty getting arms out of water when taking stroke.
Other than getting some one on one classses any tips on what I should be concentrating on to make some progress. Ideally I'd like to be able to front crawl across a pool, able to take a breath, and then go on to get intermediate classes.

username123

Im only a swimmer myself, not an instructor or anything.

Position in the water is vital. You almost have to swim downhill. You should be able to float on top of the water, face down, without sinking. Practice this. Also practice lying on your side and not sinking. Its about your body being relaxed in the water and a sort of mental acceptance that - bodies float. Sometimes there is a bit of initial sinking, but you bob back up. Practice lying on the water face down, and then face up (like you were lying out in the sun). Put one of the small floats between your legs near the crotch to bring your ass up and you will feel the right position.

Breathing. I always have my mouth open underwater. I am breathing out constantly, then I come up for air, best way to describe it is I take a quick look over my shoulder. When I was not so good at it, I used to sacrifice the stroke just to get air, so Id turn completely on my side and float breathing for a couple of seconds and then get back to swimming. Another useful trick is to practice turning over onto your back and back onto your front again, when you can do that easily you have more control over turning in the water.

Watch some youtube videos - they can help.

AngryHippie

Swimming is taught and learned in the following order, as steps, requiring one to be learned before the next:

1. Body Position - Horizontal, Floating, Face down*, Balancing ability
2. Legs - Kicking to maintain body position, Core Stability, Propulsion, Kick Speed, Endurance
3. Arms - Basic pulling motions and sculling movements, power for propulsion, Shoulder Roll, S-shaped Pull, High Elbow, Recovering Arms over the water
4. Breathing - Turning Head to the side to breathe, Body Rotation, Synchronizing with Arms
5. Timing - Overall Timing of the whole motions, Breathing Patterns, Bi-Lateral Breathing, Increasing Stroke Rate & Power, Building endurance

* For front crawl predominantly, Backstroke, Breaststroke & Fly have slightly different skills and orders from here in.

It sounds to me like three things are happening here.

1. You are busting yourself to get to the other side in one breath
2. You are concentrating on the arms quite a bit and forgetting about the legs
3. When you do take a breath, you are raising your head

On number 1, It is best when swimming not to swim until you are gasping for a breath. By this time, your muscles have already run out of oxygen, and fatigue sets in very quickly. Breath regularly to increase the length of time you can swim for

On number 2, It takes a lot of practice and muscle memory to be able to focus on one aspect of your swimming while the rest works in the background. To practice the leg kick, Isolate them. Use a kickboard to practice kicking from one side of the pool to the other. Build up the leg speed, small fast kicks, toes pointed slight flex in the knees. Kick from the hip not the knee. Once the technique is correct, spend another 2-3 hours of practice time building up the speed and then try putting in single armstrokes, again using the kickboard.

On number 3, Think of your body as a plank floating in the water. If you reach in and lift one end up, the other end sinks, if you push one end down, the other comes up. Remember this analogy, Every time you lift your head up (facing forwards out of the water) your legs will automatically sink. Its physics, don't let it frustrate you. Instead, Lean your head chin towards your chest a little, and turn it to your side, as if to put your chin on your shoulder (without craning your neck to the side to actually touch your shoulder) then roll the shoulders a little to allow your face out of the water to get a breath. Practice this at the side of the pool, then with the kickboard, then finally as part of the full stroke.

I know this can be a frustrating process, as it can be very time consuming if you are doing something wrong and it doesn't get corrected.

Swimming instructors are not miracle workers, so don't expect 1 hr per week under instruction to automatically work for you. The time you spend practicing outside the class environment working on the skills and drills you have been shown is far more productive as this builds muscle memory, and allows you to get the most from your class time by picking up new skills on top.

Don't be afraid to ask the lifeguard at the pool you practice in for a quick check to see if you are doing anything wrong. Most of them at the very least are competent swimmers and can observe and give you feedback.

Be patient, let us know how you are going with it, and practice heaps.....

Balmed Out

2 Big Probles:
Your Kick
Your doing too much when your unable to kick.

Im not sure how big this pool is but you shouldnt be putting your effort into breathing and shoulder/hip movement while youre legs are sinking so much.
Your legs can sink for a few reasons. Easiest is if your head is too far forward but thats the least likely. Most likely is a combination of kicking from the knee and your foot being in a dorsiflex rather (toes lifting towards your knee) rather then plantarflex (toes pointing away from you) position.

It can take time to learn and thats doubly true if the kick doesnt come naturally to you.

As fo your arms if its difficult lifting them then likely hood is your not pushing your hand back far enough in the first place so that when your liting your arm out of the water its having to lift through water too or you arent lifting your arms up out of the water at all so your arm action is pushing water back and then moving your arm forward again through the water rather then the air.After pulling back the arm should be raised by the elbow but im probably going too far so anyhow...

Instructors can feel under pressure for you to feel your continually progressing but from what you have said you really should be concentrating on the basics over a short distance rather then breating or any more advanced technique over a longer distance.

Other thing is people who learn to swim through the internet can end up having peculiar strokes as they are often advancing to progressions that they are tecnically not able for. Talk to your instructor rather then internet folk who have never seen you swim and are making a range of assumptions based on what youre saying and their own experience levels and if you want change to a different class with a different instructor.

Practice makes permanent rather then perfect so do keep up with one class or another even if you do every second set. It can be far harder to unlearn an incorrect movement then learn a new one.

AngryHippie

Balmed Out wrote: »

Instructors can [Should] feel under pressure for you to feel your continually progressing

Other thing is people who learn to swim through the internet can end up having peculiar strokes as they are often advancing to progressions that they are tecnically not able for.

Practice makes permanent rather then perfect so do keep up with one class or another even if you do every second set. It can be far harder to unlearn an incorrect movement then learn a new one.

At the end of the day, the instructor can only instruct, give demonstrations, teaching points and correct mistakes. They cannot learn it for you. That is why they generally won't put you in a group you cannot keep up with.

I agree with you on the internet learning... Internet instructions cannot observe you swimming and see the mistakes being made, they can only describe and demonstrate. That is why direct work with an instructor is essential.

I disagree with your last comment there. Yes bad habits are hard to break, but if you get a skill correct in your class group, take it away and practice it in a few sessions before going to the next one.
It's far worse in my opinion as an instructor to have swimmers come in every week and spending the first 50% of the session re-learning the same skill learned the previous week. Much easier to correct it after it has been practiced.
All of the practice done will contribute towards water-skill and confidence which are still essential base skills for effective learning.
An extra aspect to this is that a slightly incorrect technique can be corrected with a single teaching point or explanation that the swimmer will remember when practicing, whereas an un-practiced technique will require multiple corrections, teaching points and explanations which indicates a lack of progress.

It would take weeks of repetition for an incorrect skill to be embedded to the point that it would be difficult to alter.
2 or 3 sessions will not cause a bad habit to be unbreakable.

1 lesson per week, 2-3 practice sessions per week has brought me excellent success levels with all except the most challenging learners.

Typically 6-8 weeks of this would have a learner able to perform a passable effort at the full stroke.

That said, everyone learns differently, at different rates, but 12 weeks at the outside should have that covered.

Sometimes it can be very trying for someone who is struggling in a group environment to keep up, especially if they don't have time for practice. This is something you should discuss with your instructor as group lessons may not represent value for money for you, and you may be better off going 1-1 until you have mastered the basic skills and then moving back into the group environment.