Advice for a newbie swimmer?

[choneofakind]

Hey all,

One of my buddies on the soccer team and multisport club (triathlons) is trying to convince me to get in the pool and learn to swim better. As some of you know, I enjoy duathlons (run+bike) and I'd love to have a go at a triathlon. However, my swimming talent is limited; if I fell out of a boat, I certainly wouldn't drown, but that doesn't mean I'm a strong competitive swimmer.

So basically, this leaves me with a monumental challenge (and a great way to get my workout on during the cold winter months) to learn how to swim better, starting from square one in the pool.

For anyone who's made the transition from asphalt to the pool, or someone who's been swimming competitively forever, what's the best method here? Any particular workouts to prepare myself for swimming? Or is this simply a case of going in headfirst and putting in the mileage?

Any help is appreciated. I'd love to get into some Tri's.

[Alex]

Try not to sink.

[CC Cowboy]

I swim everyday. Best advice I can give is don't breathe underwater.

And don't pee in the pool!

[subxero]

but...

Link to original page on YouTube.

[choneofakind]

So far, the advice is solid! peeing is more common in sports than you'd like to think. It's common among professional cyclists/triathletes as well. eww.

[adouglas]

Don't wear the flotation cushion like a backpack.

[allanoue]

lots or laps and reach out as far as you can with each stroke. http://www.swimsmooth.com/

[rasta]

Don't show anyone your wiener after getting out of the pool....

[Jiggles]

Don't drink the water

[tc.young]

get use to wearing tight swimming pants. and don't get a stiffy.

[MagicMike]

OR don't wear pants and get a stiffy.

Bingo, pool to yourself.

[JohnnyBravo]

Swim like your life depended on it, if you still suck try out for the college swim team and you'll get free training!!!

[AznJoJo]

wear nose plugs, water up the nose will now be one less thing to worry about.

[rasta]

Originally Posted by AznJoJo

wear nose plugs, water up the nose will now be one less thing to worry about.

Don't knock it til you try it!

[AznJoJo]

I don't like the feeling of liquid up my nose, do you? Makes me wanna gag.

Originally Posted by rasta

Don't knock it til you try it!

[rasta]

Originally Posted by AznJoJo

I don't like the feeling of liquid up my nose, do you? Makes me wanna gag.

Noo I guess not. But I do like blowing bubbles out of my nose, it makes me feel like a dolphin

[Mocha Man]

I've been swimming competitively for about 4 years and, although I'm CERTAINLY not a pro, I do teach swim lessons for my job. Pretty much, just focus on breathing and rhythm. That's what was toughest for me when I started. I got out of breath quickly because I was too worried about doing the stroke right.

This may sound cliche, but practice practice, practice. That's really the best thing you can do. Sorry, I know this probably wasn't much help but hopefully it helped a bit.

[Mocha Man]

Haha I had a larger friend on my swim team and he was wearing his jammers (the tight swim trunks.) He went over in front of this girl who was the manager for our team and was like "Hey look, a quarter!" and then proceeded to bend down in front of her with his butt in her face. At that same time an older lady walked by and mumbled "I could've gone my whole life without seeing that..."

So many memories

[JohnnyBravo]

Originally Posted by MagicMike

OR don't wear pants and get a stiffy.

Bingo, pool to yourself.

With a stunt like that you could wind up with a pool full

[choneofakind]

Lol, thanks Nolan, I figured it would be a case of putting in the miles. The breathing is what I'm worried about because I've got the aerobic endurance built up, just not accustomed to having to control/time my breathing. Just got back from a running workout, I'll be attempting the pool tomorrow. Wish me luck


And everyone else, thanks for making me laugh

[choneofakind]

Been in the pool twice this week, breathing (and not snorting water) is definitely my biggest issue. The breathing is killing my endurance because my heart races with so much less exertion than I'm used to. Maybe I'm just not used to it? idk.

It's a great workout though, definitely getting better each time with some coaching from my friends! I've been neglecting my road bike for pool time.

[allanoue]

Try doing the breaststroke to help sort out your breathing and then work in the crawl, It helped me.

[choneofakind]

I'm going to have to look up how to do that. Last time I was at a formal swimming lesson was when I was about 9 years old. I'm almost 21 now I'll look into it though, thanks Al! I remember never being able to get that one right when I was little. Too much coordination required at the time.

Watching youtube makes me realize how much of everything I'm doing wrong with form. Lower body too low, hand isn't entering the water right, etc etc etc. Ha. I'll cross that bridge once I can swim long enough to be worried about form/speed. Right now I'm just working on the breathing/endurance. Goal is to be able to finish the swim section of a triathlon so I can do my thaaannnggggg and wreck on the biking/running sections like I know how to do. I'll work on speed/form later.

[allanoue]

Try swimming under water as far as you can, and whatever stroke you come up with use that to finish the lap breathing looking forward.

[choneofakind]

I'll try it next time! I'm on a Sun/Tues/Thurs schedule because that fits into my classes well. I'll let you know how it goes.

[rasta]

Originally Posted by allanoue

Try doing the breaststroke to help sort out your breathing and then work in the crawl, It helped me.

No joke, I've thought it was called breath stroke my entire life....until this post. Mind blown

[Mocha Man]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Been in the pool twice this week, breathing (and not snorting water) is definitely my biggest issue. The breathing is killing my endurance because my heart races with so much less exertion than I'm used to. Maybe I'm just not used to it? idk.

It's a great workout though, definitely getting better each time with some coaching from my friends! I've been neglecting my road bike for pool time.

Although the hardest stroke to learn by far, becoming a fluent butterfly swimmer helped with my breathing a lot. Wow, that made me sound really lame haha. It forces you to get a perfect rhythm going because if you don't, you will end up drinking half the pool. Butterfly and freestyle are actually the two strokes I swim competitively often.

[choneofakind]

After 3 (?) weeks of swimming, I'm finally able to swim my whole workout in consistent sets of 50 yards without sucking in water and am able to swim about 800 yards before getting exhausted. Next up, sets of 100. I want to be able to swim 400-500 without stopping by winter break.

Been doing lots of combination workout days. Either running/biking fast intervals or swimming+biking same day, or just long bike rides with lots of sprinting intervals and pace lines. Today I did a running/biking interval workout followed by 400 yards swimming. Felt really good.

Even though this swimming thing is brutally hard for me, I'm really enjoying picking up a new sport and getting a more challenging workout. I'm eating like a horse again and am sleeping really well at night. It's helping my focus in class.

[JohnnyBravo]

[choneofakind]

HHaha well I have pics of our bikes in the sports facility, but none of biking or swimming haha

[JohnnyBravo]

You know the motto pics or it didn't happen

[Mocha Man]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

After 3 (?) weeks of swimming, I'm finally able to swim my whole workout in consistent sets of 50 yards without sucking in water and am able to swim about 800 yards before getting exhausted. Next up, sets of 100. I want to be able to swim 400-500 without stopping by winter break.

Been doing lots of combination workout days. Either running/biking fast intervals or swimming+biking same day, or just long bike rides with lots of sprinting intervals and pace lines. Today I did a running/biking interval workout followed by 400 yards swimming. Felt really good.

Even though this swimming thing is brutally hard for me, I'm really enjoying picking up a new sport and getting a more challenging workout. I'm eating like a horse again and am sleeping really well at night. It's helping my focus in class.

That's awesome! My coach always wanted me to swim the 500 since I was the best endurance swimmer on the team but it never really appealed to me. I was mainly just our butterfly, freestyle, and relay guy.

Congrats on everything you've accomplished so far!

[choneofakind]

Don't say that yet. I have a long way to go.

The tri I want to do in May is a short sprint. 400 swim, 16 bike, 5k run. The swim is still going to be the hard part.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by Mocha Man

That's awesome! My coach always wanted me to swim the 500 since I was the best endurance swimmer on the team but it never really appealed to me. I was mainly just our butterfly, freestyle, and relay guy.

Congrats on everything you've accomplished so far!

I apologies for nit picking but freestyle is a event not a stroke. If you swim in the freestyle event you can use any stoke you want. I have seen people use butterfly and backstroke in that event because the were faster at that stoke then the crawl stroke which 99.99% of swimmers use in the freestyle event.

ChOne what is your stroke?

[choneofakind]

Right now, just crawling. Still getting comfortable in the water. This is a learning experience for me, and the guys I swim with do the crawl or roll over on their back if they get tired.

So any other strokes would be totally on my own, no coaching at all. On the tri team, we're all cyclists or XC runners who converted. None of us started from swimming.

[Mocha Man]

Originally Posted by allanoue

I apologies for nit picking but freestyle is a event not a stroke. If you swim in the freestyle event you can use any stoke you want. I have seen people use butterfly and backstroke in that event because the were faster at that stoke then the crawl stroke which 99.99% of swimmers use in the freestyle event.

ChOne what is your stroke?

Yeah, you are correct. Thank you for clarifying this. We had one kid on our team that couldn't swim very well so he doggy paddled his first meet. It was awesome. he even took breaks by standing up, which is legal as long as you don'lt push off the bottom of the pool.

[choneofakind]

THAT'S AWESOME!!! Finish no matter what. What a champ.

[JohnnyBravo]

Gota finish what you start

[choneofakind]

I have more respect for that kid than vain people who lift just to look good.

[alex.s]

everyone knows dolphin body kick is the fastest way through the water.

chode- if you grease your body up with whale blubber first, the hypothermia will take longer to set in.