Swimming lessons?

Yes, I would heartily recommend instruction. It's much easier to learn good strokes than it is to unlearn a bad one.

Check in your state forum, see if anyone there can recommend an instructor. If not, see if there is a local Masters club, they may have or can direct you to an instructor. You can also check with USA Swimming and see if there are any in your local area.

The Y is certainly an option as well, although it may be a bit more hit or miss as to the quality of instruction.

John

I love my swim coach!   I started swimming about 1.5months before my first HIM.  I flailed around with something that looked like freestyle for 1.2 miles.  Right after that I found a girl at the pool who coached.  I have used her on and off for two years now.   WOW, what a difference.  I actualy glide through the water now.   

In the beggining I couldn't keep everything in my head  that I was supposed to do, but after weeks of her yelling at me about my elbows, catch, rotation, head position, I could at least work on these things myself.  

I don't know about getting into swim shap before getting a coach.   If your not in a hurry, I would start with a coach.  you will start with drills anyway,  and you will be able to put in more yrds than you think.  You can always start with a coach, and learn the fundementals of a stroke and some drills, then break off on your own to build fitness, and then go back.

Take the adult swim class at the Y. Even if it is very basic, you will likely benefit from breaking down the stroke into the drills they will use to teach it. At our Y these classes tend to be under-attended, so there is a lot of personal instruction. If  you can establish a relationship with the instructor that can lead to some more individualized coaching in the future. Good luck!

The people at the Y are very inconsistent.The YMCA is great for teaching 10 year olds to swim for the first time, as that's basically what they are hired to do. Hence, be wary.  I had an awful coach there, who was used to training kids, and I knew way more than him about swimming (for instance, he would tell me to keep my shoulders square straight ahead in the water, to not rotate my body! Great way to develop shoulder problems and increase drag.). He basically treated my lesson as a time to get me to do a bunch of laps, and gave me horrible advice. I fired him right away and luckily found someone who actually was a competitive swimmer.

If possible, whomever you find make sure they have experience competing in triathlons, or at least competing in races of a similar distance to yours (of course, this is in addition to coaching experience: good swimmers aren't necessarily good coaches). Also, there are some obvious things they should know and if they don't they probably aren't knowledgable enough (e.g., they should be familiar with body roll, the importance of keeping an elbow high during the stroke, they should at least understand the arguments about bilateral breathing (though good coaches will differ on whether it is important in an actual race)). If they don't know such basics, then they are not competent. I use such bits as a coach filter. Don't feel bad about firing a coach: you are paying them to help you, not to like you. If someone can't help you then you might as well flush the money down the toilet.

Do not focus on distance at the expense of technique. A set of core drills, in my opinion, is important to do every workout (if I have to skip part of a workout, it is the main set, not the technique drills). This lets you develop good habits. It was really hard for me to break bad habits in my stroke, and if I had started by focusing on the technique more than the distance, I would be a much better swimmer today.

The book 'The Essential Swimmer' by Steve Tarpinian is my favorite. No idiosyncratic "system", just solid description of good technique with lots of drills, good focus on how to keep the shoulders injury free. I have tons of swim books and this my favorite "starting out" book by far. (The best hardcore book is Swim Fastest by Maglischo, but it is literally a textbook, a huge tome only for those who want a wonderful comprehensive treatment of results of scientific research into swimming).

Edited by neuronet 2009-08-28 9:24 AM

IMO you will get far more from 2 or 3 private lessons then you will a 3 month class.

The sooner the better.  It's easier to do things right the first time then to break old habits.  Money well worth spent.

x2

Thanks, everyone, for the advice!  I ordered the book you recommended, neuro.  And when it gets a little closer to time to get into the water, I wll look for a local coach to get me started with correct form.  I think there is a masters group at my Y, so that maay be a good place to start.

I'd also recommend the Total Immersion Freestyle Made Easy or Swim Smooth videos. I basically learned how to swim using them, and now I can do 1500 in under 28 mins in open water. Not "slowtwitch" fast, but considering I never really swam before it's decent.