l MJF Blog: August 2004

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Gone twice the distance

Last Tuesday evening I went for a swim and it was much the same as usual with some additional experimentation. You see, I have a bad back and neck which makes it difficult for me to follow the recommended techniques. For the past month I've been working on different styles to find something that suits me better.

After my hour or so in the pool and went to relax in the spa. While sitting there I went over a mental assessment of what I had done during the past hour to determine if there was anything that I was happy to keep trialing. After 10-15 minutes I got an urge to go back to the pool. This never happens so I figured it must have been a message to go back. On that note, I got out of the spa and went back to the pool. Would you believe it......50m without stopping. I was so proud of myself - I had just gone twice the distance.

Thinking it might have been a "one off", I went back to the pool today for my Saturday lesson and started off with the intention of swimming 50m before doing anything else. I did it. It's not a fluke.

I still have a long way to go but these small steps are encouraging.

posted by Malcolm Smith @ 10:00 PM   0 comments

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Twice as good yet the same

Well, I've been for another swim tonight and am happy to report I can now swim 300m in about 25 minutes. This is somewhat better than the 250m in 45 minutes when I first started this self-venture. The sad news is I don't feel like I'm doing it any better. I'll just have to keep picking away at it.

posted by Malcolm Smith @ 9:30 PM   0 comments

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Back to basics

My swimming instructor was off sick this week so I took the opportunity to put on my teachers hat and try a few things on my own. I've come to realize my main problems are related to breathing and kicking. I figured I would concentrate on one thing at a time using the approach of 'small steps'. When I use to tutor mathematics it was obvious that you needed to know how to add numbers before you could multiply them. So for me, it was obvious I needed to perfect one small aspect of swimming first. After 30 minutes of self analaysis (which isn't easy when your head is in the water) I worked out my problem with breathing could be one or more of the following:

  • Not taking a deep enough breath

  • Not exhaling all air

  • Being too concerned with inhaling water


I decided to practice breathing at the edge of the pool. When I was kicking at the same time I found my breathing became as irregular as it does when actually swimming. Taking a step back I tried breathing while doing nothing else. Amazing improvement. After several minutes I decided to start kicking again - this resulted in a mass of choking after I swallowed a huge amount of water. I've discovered part of my problem.

I'll be making another trip to the pool during the week in an attempt to concentrate on my new finding. With some luck I'll have managed a small improvement before my next session.

At this point in time I am feeling as if I have a better length in my stroke and am more relaxed (there is less of a mental effort to get to the other end of the pool).

So far things are going well.

posted by Malcolm Smith @ 6:27 PM   0 comments