(Re) Learning How to Swim

I thought I knew how to swim. Apparently, Joe don't know swimming. At least how to swim efficiently.

As a boy, I would spend endless summers at the Sunny Willow Swim Club right up the street from my house. My parents were very insistent that my sisters and I knew how to swim and were not afraid of the water. I would have to get up early, once a week, (and, early for a kid was probably 8AM) and take swimming lessons.

If you wanted to go into the deep end of the pool, you had to take a test. The test was swimming from one end of the deep end area to the other side and back. If you made it, you got a band to wear to signify you qualified. If you weren't wearing the band, you couldn't go in the deep end. So, you had to remember or you were stuck with the kiddies at the shallow end.

I would say I've been swimming since I was about 6-7 years old. I've come to find out last Monday that I was doing it wrong. Oh, I could do laps. Have been for the past few months since I really started this tri training. But, if I was going to do a triathlon, I had to learn to be more efficient in the water. What really woke me up to this fact was when I was asked to count the number of strokes I did doing one lap. I was told it should be around 18. I was in the mid-20's. In doing this, I was using up more energy than I needed, therefore, possibly tiring myself out before I hit the bike and the run portion of the race.

Now, one of the things that is great about being a newbie are these lightbulb moments. I am sure people, who have done triathlons in the past, know about this. Live this. And, it's not a big deal. But, for me, it was undoing something that I have been doing for the past 40 years.

What they were teaching me was Total Immersion swimming. It's about gliding in the pool just enough to save your energy and let your propulsion take you a little bit further. It's about making sure I'm not sticking my head fully out of the water to catch my breath. It's about rolling your torso as you take a stroke to give you a little more power. It's about sticking my chin down as I move forward. The mantra I was taught to make sure I'm doing things right is, 'Look at the fishes, listen to the fishes.' This makes you think of keeping your head down as you swim and then tilt your head just enough out of the water (and your ear pressed against the water) to catch your breath.

My coaches studied the way I was swimming. Then they gave me a thousand different tidbits on ways to improve. And, I tried them all at once. And nearly drowned in doing so as I was throwing water in my mouth as I tried this new technique. OK. I was told to concentrate on one thing at a time. Probably a good idea. The first thing I started with was breathing as, I suspect, it's the most important thing. Then we got out of the water and watched the former collegiate swimmers do laps. Wow! What an eye opener as they make it look so effortless. They can do a lap in about 13 strokes, half what I can do. And, they are moving a lot faster than I can.

When I first thought of doing a triathlon, I was confident that it was just a matter of getting in shape and I knew about the techniques of swimming, biking, and running. Oh, I have a lot to learn.

(Below is a video I found on YouTube that shows the Total Immersion technique they are teaching me. When I'm in the water, this is what I think I'm doing. From my coaches, the word is I'm better than I was when I first started. No comments about trying to teach an old dog a new trick.)