swimming will it get easier

It will deffinitely get easier. swimming fitness does not com overnight just like running or biking fitness doesn't. In a couple of weeks you will be tearing up the water. Good Luck.

Tri40,
I have to throw in my two cents with Kevin. I got a coach and just sucked swamp water when I started. It was awful and I began to think maybe I had lost my mind wanting to do triathlons. Because I had just learned to swim, it took me a little longer than a couple of weeks...more like a couple of months, but I can swim over a mile now. Swimming does require a different set of muscles and a different aerobic capacity. Stick with it and you will find that your other sports improve! Try not to be so worried about time. I can remember my coach's three pointers ( I think he was almost as exasperated as I was at this point ;-) ): go slow, breathe, and go slower. Just relax in the pool. Enjoy the experience and you will be tearing up the pool, soon.
Vanessa

I find being in the water VERY relaxing and cathartic for me. I don't look at is as "work". I look at it as a time to be by myself and relax. I hear similar tales from cyclists and runners. What I *have* found is that when I just let it happen is when it becomes easiest. This is just my opinion, but in the beginning, one shouldn't concentrate on form, times, style, etc. Swimming will come over time and soon you will enjoy it as much as I. Just enjoy being in the pool like you did when you were a child. As my 4 & 7 year old sons always tell me when they see me sweating profusely on my exercise bike, "Daddy, relax and enjoy yourself."

Edited by GamblerZ 2004-01-11 7:27 AM

Tri40,
One thing that plagued me (and did in my swim this afternoon) was "holding my breath". You might just check yourself to make sure you aren't holding your breath between head turns...just a thought.
Vanessa :-)

swimming def. gets easier, however since it is the most technique-based discipline, it's a bit tougher. i coached swimmers for 6 years, and here are a few tips i would emphasize to new beginners:

1-blow bubbles underwater. sounds childish doesn't it? but absolutely necessary. you cannot efficiently exhale and inhale at the same time when you take your breath, therefore, exhaling underwater is neccessary and will regulate your breathing pattern.

2-high elbows to the sky. many beginners make the mistake of rounding out their arm like a windmill. bend your elbow so at the peak of your arm stroke out of water, the elbow is the "mountain" towards the sky.

3-straight legs. do not kick from the knees. although your legs will naturally bend at the knees just a tad, they should be relatively straight. also, relax when kicking, don't thrash around. kick from the hips too.

4-practice the "catch-up" drill. this is, quite possibly, the most important drill for freestyle. essentially, the arm that is leading your body should not begin its stroke until the other arm has reached the same plane. new swimmers have the tendency to increase the cadence of their stroke, in a failed effort at moving faster. swimming is a finesse sport, the more efficient your stroke, the less of them you will take per length.

5-don't stress. swim laps, and have fun most importantly.

If you were not lucky enough to be a natural swimmer or someone who was taught to swim properly at a young age and now you are to trying tackle the pool. Just be hang in there and it will get better. I just takes a little time to get everything to start feeling natural, but rest asssured it will.

Here's some advice from someone that has went from swimming 100m to 500m to 700m to 1550m (or yards as it is) in short time. I feel comfortable I could swim for 2 hours straight, and what the heck, i might try it sometime.

1. I focused for 3 months on doing nothing but drills. Trunk Rotation and catch up were the ones I spent the most time on.

2. Slow down. Swim slower and increase the distance of your stroke (15 strokes or so per 25m)

3. Decrease your kick frequency. Keeping the legs straight, nice smooth kicks.

4. Catchup drill. As trilover said. For me, this drill got me used swimming on my side, lengthening the stroke, and not cutting turnover short. It gave me confidence I could propell forward without churning my arms.

One thing I slightly disagree with trilover (although I understand why he is saying what he is saying) is about the high elbows. I did the high elbows drill for a while (fingertip drag on the water or thumb from hip to armpit) and I found that it was not a recovery part of the stroke for me, it was work to intentionally have your elbows that high. So, now I effortlessly, bring my arm out of the water, and reach it forward, inserting my hand just in front of my face and stretch my arm out as a rotate the trunk (as if I were inserting my arm into a sleeve). I kick a couple of times, and then finish the rotation to breath.

I like the blow bubbles idea. I relax my face as much as possible, and just let the air come out slowly ... which allows me to lengthen my stroke.

I strongly advice swimming silently and swimming slowly. You'll be surprised (as I was) that you time for a 100y length is not that much different than when you are trying to swim fast.

I am to the point where instead of breathing every 2 strokes, I am finding that I can breath every 2nd stroke then every 3rd then every 2nd and so on. I'm hoping this will increase to every 3rd, 4th, etc.

The last thing I will say is not to baby yourself. You can see from my distance progression 100y, 500y, 700y, 1500y, I didn't take baby steps. Had I taken baby steps (i.e. adding a 25m to each workout), I'd be swimming probably 1000y less than I am right now.

Get out of your comfort zone, and you'll surprise yourself. If you decide to swim 500y and halfway through, you feel as though you're going to die, swim a length or two of backstroke (as I did), or breastroke, or side stroke, etc ... then resume with freestyle and finish it. next time eliminate the other strokes.

sometimes you have to just take a leap.

The day after I swam 1500y, I swam 1000y (ran out of time for a scheduled 2300y workout) and found myself daydreaming as I was swimming. That tells me I have hit my comfort level.

I read somewhere before that within 20 months you should be able to swim 1500y. I thought, at the time, that it was full of crap. Now I believe it. I did it within 20 workouts.

Remove the mental barriers and just swim. wearing a HRM in the water got me from thikning about how far i had to go, to just a simpler and much more manageable task of "staying under 150". Mind games work.

I want to thank eveyone for their replies. I was really down after the workout. I was thinking my working toward a tri was over and done with the swim. But I will be back in the pool tomorrow pushing alittle harder. I will keep everyone informed about the progress. Running and cycling are joys for me. With time swimming will be also. Thanks to everyone again.

With your positive attitude and determination, you already have the ingredients for success.

One of my favorite quotes is "Time and I versus any other two".

Obviously the meaning is that with time and a strong self, any obstacles can be overcome.

Don't hesitate to go slower in the water (i.e. fewer, but longer strokes ... i.e. less effort). Think of it as "jogging". Too mnay people, it seems, try to "sprint in the ater", yet they "jog" and "spin" on land.

Very good point.

good to hear that it gets easier...I'm off to the Y for a first swim tonight. I'm pretty sure I'll be wondering why I thought this was a good idea, as I click my heels together and chant 'there's no place like home'. I am going to try to think about how good it will feel when I can swim a mile without it being a near death experience.

I agree with the other posts about slowing it down. I put in my best workout in about 2 months yesterday. I slowed things down. I finished what I had planned to and it didn't kill me. I put it alot more yardage than I expected.

Mike

When I was coaching & teaching swim lessons, I found that most people wanted to run before they could walk when getting into the water. Trilover is correct on concentrating on technique before speed/distance. They will come much easier and faster if you spend more time learning how to swim properly.

A couple tips I would throw into the mix would be:

1-relax. Swimming is SO much easier when you aren’t fighting the water and tense. Swimming is fluid, not something you can muscle.

2-high elbow drills and catch-up drills are perfect to use together. The high elbow drill I always taught was to draw a line with your thumbnail from your waist to your arm pit. This is not how you will end up swimming (at least not that drastic); it’s just a simple exercise to help you get your technique down. The catch-up drills help you slow down and concentrate on one arm at a time.

3-I’m concerned about your coach telling you to look at the black line at the bottom of the pool to keep you centered. (when driving do you concentrate just beyond your hood ornament or do you look down the road?) I have found that beginners that keep their eyes and head looking down end up with a windmill type stroke (which is what #2 is trying to combat) and keeps you lower in the water. I always taught to keep your eyes pointed to the end of the pool. There are crosses of some sort in every pool that I have swam in marking the end of the pool. Concentrate on those and swim towards them.

4-Exhale in the water (again piggy-backing on trylover) This will help with a more fluid freestyle stoke. If, when you turn your head to breath, you only have to inhale, you don’t have to break your stride (stroke)

As my pappy used to say, “you don’t have to be good to start, but you have to start to be good.”

Keep at it, it will get easier!!!!

a lot easier, just completed my first 1/2 mile swim and it feels great. what ever you do keep at it. Im only a beginner and did it in only 7 pool sessons. keep at it, it will come.