[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by throttleAddict

I’m starting swimming again after many years, for context I have learnt it before Covid, but I think I’m not a proper smooth swimmer, so I rejoined a pool again now. I’m struggling to breathe in freestyle , getting exhausted halfway in a pool. Any advice or tips that some experts can recommend here

There are techniques, in freestyle, post few strokes tilt your head like a Popeye Eye and take a breath from your mouth. Difficult to put in words but easier said than done. Even I am learning the right technique, it takes a lot of practice to perfect it. Lot many moving parts to be synchronised haha

[supermax]

Originally Posted by alphamike_1612

My parents put me in swimming classes when I was a child, all I learnt from there was that I feared water a lot. (I still judder from when I remember an instructor pushing me from a diving board into the 12 feet end of the pool.

When I read Alphamike's post about his experiences with swimming, I found myself nodding and agreeing with many things he says. As a child, I happened to have the misfortune of finding a coach at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Center whose idea of helping me conquer my fears was to just push me forcibly into the water. It was a twenty five day course or something, with a weekly holiday and everything, and for most of the course, I learned nothing. Towards the end of the course, I was traumatized by the experience, but was also feeling cheated, and I didn't want to finish the course without learning anything, so I tried extra, extra hard to try and catch up, and that helped me learn a wee bit, but it was still too little and too late. I only learned to thrash like a madman and get to the other side of pool, whipping up the water like the proverbial churning of the seas by the Devas and the Asuras, something that would leave me totally finished by the time I'd completed a length. I tried on my own, many times, to try and get better, but it never worked out. In Sweden, a good friend of mine who is also from India offered to help me and a bunch of others, including my wife, to help get better at swimming, and he tried his best to show us the ropes, and we'd even started making some small gains, but at that point, he moved away to another city, and that was pretty much that. Late last year, I realized that I had some credits paid for by my employer, that I could redeem by paying for sporting and fitness related activities (activities, not equipment or gear!), so instead of letting it lapse, I decided to buy a swimming course for adults, and also a bunch of hourly passes, that would allow me to practice on my own, in the pool.

I started my lessons in January this year, and they were 8 lessons of roughly 40 minutes each. What's taught here is breaststroke and backstroke, using the same frog-kick from breaststroke. I went through my 8 lessons and realized that I was the only one who'd barely made any progress. The other participants had all made varying degrees of noticeable progress, and two of them even elected to sign up for the level 2 course. I however signed up for a repeat of the same course, but decided that in order to prevent going through another 8 lessons with no progress again, I had to practice on my own, and regularly, as the one class a week would just not cut it for me. My biggest problems were that I was (and am) too stiff in the water. The tip that I get the most is that I should 'just relax', but short of taking illegal drugs to do so, I have no idea what I need to do, to 'just relax', as water and relaxation have never belonged together for me. Love the water, was the tip I got from somebody. For me, water feels like the bully from primary school, who'd thunk me on the head, just because he could. Can I learn to love it? No, at least not while I'm learning to swim. Maybe it's a bully that I'd like to conquer and overcome.

Why is swimming important to me that I continue to try to learn it, despite experiencing terrible lows while doing so? My wife both admires me and pities me for my pursuit; admires me for my stubbornness, and pities me for the struggle that it is, and the fact that I have so little to show for my efforts, and I can still not give up on it and walk away. Swimming has become like the conquest of the white whale for Captain Ahab. Ahab did not love Moby Dick, but would give anything to conquer it, and so it is for me. I see people enjoying themselves in the beautiful lakes and waterbodies in Sweden, and hope that one day, I can enter water and actually enjoy myself in it, instead of thrashing around like a frog that's being electrocuted.

I've been watching videos on youtube, practicing dry-land exercises, and trying to also practice in the pool, between my lessons, and I find that I'm finally beginning to exhibit small signs of progress. Earlier, when I tried to swim, my brain seemed to hang up on me, being unable to process the steps involved in performing a breaststroke kick. My brain would leave me hanging, unable to figure out if the legs had to go outwards from in or inwards from out, no matter how many times I saw the instructor do it for me. Even when the instructor helped me by moving my legs, since I couldn't see my own legs, I seemed to have no way to replicate what she did with my legs, when I had to do it on my own. Now finally, after several hours of what seemed like self-inflicted torture, I'm finally able to at least move my legs in the right direction, but they still are not providing anywhere near the same level of propulsion that others are casually able to produce. My instructor tells me that I don't need to push my feet outwards with force, and that the real propulsion needs to come when the feet come together, but for me, I'm only able to get some forward movement when I try to violently and clumsily push outwards with my feet (which is also extremely tiring). The actual bringing together of the feet seems to do very, very little for me. Another problem that I'm currently facing is that I can't at all do the backstroke without using a kickboard, and practicing the kickboard causes my back to arch hard, and this causes a lot of back pain and discomfort. The solution, I'm told again, is to relax, and no matter what I do, relaxing is the one thing I'm unable to do. I'm the guy in the torture-chamber, and the guy doing the 'interrogation' tells me to relax, while holding a live wire in his hands and waves it close to my stomach. That's how it feels for me!

[am1m]

Originally Posted by supermax

Swimming has become like the conquest of the white whale for Captain Ahab. Ahab did not love Moby Dick, but would give anything to conquer it, and so it is for me. I see people enjoying themselves in the beautiful lakes and waterbodies...

See, like many kids previously, you had a shitty and traumatic introduction to the water and swimming. So it is understandable why you may not enjoy it.

But at the same time, not being able to enjoy it and relax in the water is what is making it tougher to learn. Especially in adulthood.

So, my advice is, don't treat it as a chore, don't set deadlines, don't measure progress, don't try to do it as a task. Take your sweet time. First few months, find a shallow pool, just walk around in the water, maybe play a few games, throw a ball and retrieve it, float around, use a tube to float around, float around on a body-board and have fun, throw a ball to other people, join an 'aquaerobics' class, etc. etc.

As you get more comfortable in the water, let it take as long as it takes, then find a good, patient coach. Someone who is used to training amateurs and adults. And restart lessons. Again, let it take as long as it takes.

Finally, perhaps some things are just not meant to be. So maybe swimming is one of those things for you.

[supermax]

Originally Posted by am1m

So, my advice is, don't treat it as a chore, don't set deadlines, don't measure progress, don't try to do it as a task. Take your sweet time. First few months, find a shallow pool, just walk around in the water, maybe play a few games, throw a ball and retrieve it, float around, use a tube to float around, float around on a body-board and have fun, throw a ball to other people, join an 'aquaerobics' class, etc. etc.

Finally, perhaps some things are just not meant to be. So maybe swimming is one of those things for you.

I agree with pretty much all that you say. A friend of mine said he was able to learn it at his own pace as he happened to have an apartment with a private pool. I can see how that's a great thing. I learned to unicycle when I was well into my thirties, and I see a lot of similarities. I had a strong desire to learn to unicycle, just like I now have one to learn swimming, but there are also key dissimilarities; for unicycling, I got to practice as long as I wanted, whenever I wanted, as I owned the unicycle, and the only thing was to find time for it. With swimming, I need to get to the pool and I have to find myself at least an hour and a half of free-time to make the trip to the pool worth it, as I need to factor for the time to ride/drive to the pool and back, the time for the showers, before and after the swim, and finally the actual pool time! I'm now trying to make time for it as regularly as I can, as doing it rarely means that I lose whatever little progress I've made. Hopefully, with some regular practice, I can overcome the difficulties gradually. I'm finally seeing a few signs of progress now. Up until recently, there were no signs of progress also, which was quite demoralizing and had me wondering if it would indeed be better for my own mental health to give up on the goal, but after seeing these small signs of progress, I'm now reinvigorated to go after my white whale!

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by supermax

When I read Alphamike's post about his experiences with swimming, I found myself nodding and agreeing with many things he says. As a child, I happened to have the misfortune of finding a coach at the Basavanagudi Aquatic Center whose idea of helping me conquer my fears was to just push me forcibly into the water.

When i was eight or so, my uncle took me to a mangrove and tied a rope around by shoulder and threw me inside a big well. I just freaked out. So you are not alone.

The tip that I get the most is that I should 'just relax', but short of taking illegal drugs to do so, I have no idea what I need to do, to 'just relax', as water and relaxation have never belonged together for me.

Two things must combine so that you 'float' , your body and mind. I don't know how to explain it but go to the shallow end of the pool where you can stand on your feet (4.5 to 5 ft - you are not going to drown) and lie down on water with your arms and legs spread out as would on a couch or a lawn after a tiring day. Keep doing it until you feel the natural buoyance of water.

Earlier, when I tried to swim, my brain seemed to hang up on me, being unable to process the steps involved in performing a breaststroke kick. My brain would leave me hanging, unable to figure out if the legs had to go outwards from in or inwards from out, no matter how many times I saw the instructor do it for me.

My instructor tells me that I don't need to push my feet outwards with force, and that the real propulsion needs to come when the feet come together, but for me, I'm only able to get some forward movement when I try to violently and clumsily push outwards with my feet (which is also extremely tiring). The actual bringing together of the feet seems to do very, very little for me.

I think you are overthinking about the perfect technique. Forget about it. Correct me if i am wrong, you are not aiming to compete at the Olympics. As long as you are able to propel yourself then great.

Just learn to let go and enjoy the buoyance of the human body on water. That's all there is to it.

PS: I'm no great swimmer myself. I can do some 'monkey pedal' breast stroke in the shallow end of the pool but i went through the same struggles as you are undergoing.

[supermax]

Originally Posted by srini1785

Correct me if i am wrong, you are not aiming to compete at the Olympics. As long as you are able to propel yourself then great.

You are not at all wrong! But what I'm aiming for, is to be able to swim (propel myself) in a manner that doesn't make the swimming feel like a torture-session. I don't want to thrash like a condemned person being administered a fatal dose of electricity through the brain! Uncoordinated thrashing is not fun at all. I want to be able to get across distances without wearing myself out. This was also what I intended to do with unicycling. I can now ride long distances on my unicycle, while listening to audiobooks! While the effort part is more than when I ride a bicycle, it's a nice feeling to be able to push myself a bit, but the exertion is not to the extent that it takes the fun out of the activity. My ultimate target is to come back home after an hour's swim a bit tired, but with a dopamine high.

[prasi55]

As someone who learned swimming in their early thirties and later competed triathlons and swimming-related certifications (my story must be somewhere in the above thread), I can give some tips:

- We teach children to balance -> walk -> run, in this sequence. But while swimming, people totally ignore the importance of balance. When you try to float on the water, try to get a sense for where your center of gravity is, and push down your legs or chest so that you can maintain the state of balance for longer.

- Instead of trying to cover a lot of distance right away, focus on maintaining a straight, streamlined position (arms going above head and stretched with palms placed one above the other), kicking toes slightly, and exhaling slowly through your nose/mouth/both. As you move forward due to the slow kicking, continue to see how balanced your body feels in the water. To do this, even as you kick, *focus your attention on your body balance* rather than the distance you are covering. The key is to get to feel as balanced while moving as you were when just floating.

- When your face is in the water, try to look straight down or just a bit ahead. Your neck should not be arched forward -- this will ensure your body is as balanced as possible.

- After balance -> streamline, the next step is propelling yourself forward. Some forward propulsion was already occurring due to the kicking, now you just need to add the movement of arms. The best way is to imagine your arms as a railway track (for freestyle) and to get back your palms as far forward but on the lines along your shoulders, as if reaching the track at the farthest points.

- Side breathing is the most difficult part and will take time. Initially, you could use a snorkel. This way, you can continue breathing without lifting or turning your head, while focusing on balance, legs, and arms movement. For side breathing, it's best to work with your swimming teacher to ensure you get it right.

Best wishes. We are terrestrial creatures, and swimming is one of the few activities/sports that involve a totally different medium. It's not easy, but if you persist, the pool is your oyster.

[VWAllstar]

What are your thoughts on using Swimming Snorkel? I have been reading on it and most mention that it helps perfecting your kick, arm movements and body balance as the anxiety of breathing is gone. I don't wish to compete but only swim in a relaxed yet near perfect technique, so using a Swimming Snorkel is ideal? This is for Freestyle. I searched on Amazon for them and it seems to be an expensive gear. Anyone has personal experience and recommendations?

[prasi55]

A snorkel is very useful for perfecting your body balance, kicking, and arm movements. I would recommend it for sure -- but only for the above things.

But if you ignore or avoid learning and improving your breathing technique while swimming freestyle, you'll be at a big disadvantage whenever you are without the snorkel (or say in a deep pool or open water). How will you be able to swim for more than a few strokes at a time without expending significant energy? Lifting the head up to breathe totally changes body balance, and just to get back to good body balance after an inhale, you spend a lot of movements and energy. Side breathing is the most difficult part of freestyle, yet paradoxically the most useful.

Tldr; use snorkel for improving technique, learn and practice side breathing to develop an elegant complete freestyle stroke and master this survival skill.