Hi again, i have been thinking a lot as to how i should proceed with this blog. I am quite busy with work and though i do find time to go to the pool, mostly it is with the kids, so i haven't made much progress with my swimming. Although I am now comfortable swimming in a pool, only if it is not too deep, like if the water is just up to my neck. What i can say is that there are different stages of learning to swim, not just in terms of swimming ability, but in terms of your confidence in water. They are closely related, but for someone who is swimming for fun i think focusing on the later makes more sense.
How are you in water? Can you submerge yourself without thinking that you're going to drown? Can you float on water? Can you swim in a shallow pool? Can you swim in a deep pool? Can you swim in the ocean? Can you snorkel without a life jacket? Seems more practical to look at it this way.
I for example started with a fear of drowning whenever i put my head underwater. Now i can swim comfortably (though my swimming skill is terrible still) in the pool in my condo. I have more fun snorkeling, but with a life jacket on. I dare not think how i would cope being in the deep sea water without a life jacket, even though i see so many people doing that on my holiday trips. It would be great if I could just take off my life jacket and take a plunge to get closer to the fish and corals.. or a turtle when I eventually find one!
So here's a recap first as to how I reached my current stage:
- start with getting a pair of goggles; this is essential to start learning to swim.
- learn to hold your breath underwater using the step by step method (put your goggles on). First just hold your breath for 5 seconds, count to 5, then go back up, next try counting to 10, then go back up, then go for 15. By then you will realize that holding your breath is not difficult and there's nothing to it... this means a lot to those who panic when they put their head underwater
- learn to kick in the water by holding on the pool steps or pool edge, then place yourself in a horizontal position by lowering your face into the water (since you are now comfortable holding your breath) and letting your legs go up while kicking the right way (there are many resources available on how to kick properly). Learn this to the point that you know that your kicking is effective in keeping your legs and body horizontal, and thus keeping your body afloat. A good kick is enough to push you forward without much help from your arms, but this is not necessary for beginners.
- learn to float forward face down. Walk away from the side of the pool towards the centre, but not too far, and then turn around so that you face the side of the pool. Push yourself forward on the water towards the pool's wall, head down face in the water (you're already comfortable holding your breath), arms in front like a torpedo, and legs kicking (you know how to kick by then). This for me was difficult to do as it take a lot of confidence to launch yourself forward on the water with your mind thinking that you're going to sink before you reach the pool wall and drown, or that you won't float (or should i say glide) on the water at all
- To do the above it is helpful to learn how to recover from horizontal/floating position to a standing position correctly without grabbing the pool walls. Huh? What is this guy talking about? Well it’s so simple that many swimmers don't even realize the need to teach this to people learning to swim from scratch. Okay, let’s say I float forward face down in the water, or even when I’m swimming, and I’m out of breath, and i need to stand up (remember this is shoulder level pool) to catch my breath to calm down, if i just try to bring my legs down, I will face resistance from the water. Normally if you're near the side of the pool you'll grab the wall and force your legs down. But if the wall is beyond reach, you have nothing to hold to give you the leverage to push your legs down against the water resistance, and you will panic, here you are out of breath, but you cannot stand up. The proper way is to curl your legs towards your chest, then straigthening it downwards, where there won't be much resistance. Kinda difficult to explain without showing, but once you know this, then you are more confidence cause you know you can recover into a standing position easily if you get in trouble. Wow! One long paragraph just to talk about this simple tip.
- once you've managed to float forward in the water, with your legs kicking properly, just add the arm strokes, pedalling yourself forward in the water. That's it! You're swimming! More or less..
Please remember, though this is about learning to swim by yourself, have somebody around all the time because it is dangerous to be alone in the pool when you don't know how to swim yet. But yes you can do all the above just by viewing some youtube clips and trying yourself, no trainer needed to reach this stage, at least that was what i did.
Some of the steps above have been explained in more details in my earlier post when i started learning to swim, so check out the links on the side, or check out my blog archive. I will try to improve the details and explanations in the future, probably with pics or vids.
