Monday, June 28, 2010
Swimming : you just need to relax
Monday, June 28, 2010 | Original Musings by
Jen
.
Just a quick note, if you're tired of trying to remember to keep your head down, turn, breathe, kick less, kick more, etc. (all of which can be overwhelming to a new swimmer), I have a suggestion.
Don't think about it. Seriously.
I was swimming laps yesterday at our community pool while my little one was discovering her newly found love of going off the diving board (first time!). Luckily, the lap lane is next to the diving area, so I didn't miss much. After all, I did catch the first dozen or so times. But I digress...
While swimming a man I was sharing the lane with made a suggestion, relax. Enjoy. (um, ok.)
He suggested either singing songs that don't require a lot of thought (such as Mary Had a Little Lamb) or coming up with games in my head, such as running through the alphabet. For example, A is for Apple, B is for Bat, etc. He says games like that require thought, and make you "think less" about swimming.
Seemed counter-intuitive.
I tried it.
Children Songs definitely pass the time a bit, but don't distract me too much from form.
Thinking games? Maybe I need to wait until my form is a little more improved. I definitely took on some water with that experiment.
What I learned: I really do need to relax and while I'm not sure if my legs had less drag this workout, I went about 100 more yards than I normally do. Win.
Conclusion? Not sure if it worked, but I appreciated the advice and will tuck that nugget away for future use.
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2 comments:
He's right. Relaxing softens the musculature form in the water, creating less drag (as you "fight" the water that much less.) A number of things aid in this: better vision (IE: bigger goggles), repeating mantras (Exam: "Thread the needle"), drafting (when possible), etc.
Me personally, I used to count strokes when bilateral breathing in my open water swim races. I ignored the other swimmers, the clock, fatigue, etc. - and instead counted 13 strokes (or so) while breathing on one side (13 was just past one "pool length" in my training), then switched sides and repeated. That way, my swim "patterns" mimicked my own training.
Dunno. Just a thought, as it worked for me when I was starting out.
-@dsmay
odd how people come to this sport from three different directions. my friend leslie was an awesome swimmer and had to learn to bike and run.
me and the resa are good bikers ( kinda ) and cant swim or run. my friend mark is a runner first of all.
i had a lot of panic in the pool to start, then more panic in the lake. i think though that more than ANYTHING breathing is the key. you can wave your arms and feet all over, but as long as you are not out of breath its all good. so think on breathing - especially relaxed breathing. for the me the 2 huge improvements to breathing was 1 - breath out the whole time underwater. and 2 - have the return of my stroke ( the arm out of water part ) be as relaxed and lazy as possible. like just drag your hand a millimeter above the water or even at the water.
good luck! see me at my blog if you like!
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