Thursday, July 1, 2010

Front crawl....think I've cracked it

Now let me explain, my swimming especially front crawl is not perfect.  I really struggle with the breathing and its been just a matter of keep practising to see what works and what doesn't. 

Tonight the only intention I had was to time myself doing 8 lengths.  I was aiming to do one front crawl then one breast stroke.  Normally at the end of a length of front crawl I am gasping for breath.  I started and got it all wrong within the first length, by the time I got to the end I was out of breath but never the less tried to start a length of breast stroke.  That length ended badly too with me stopping due to swallowing half the pool.  I felt very sad and annoyed at myself.  I decided not to time myself and practise  one of the drills that the teacher said in one of the two lessons I actually had.
So I got that weird shaped floaty thing and put it in between by thighs and off I went......OH MY GOD!!!!!!! A light bulb moment.  I am not sure what that float did, correct my position, keep me up straight I don't know but you know what I did..... no tell me I hear you scream....... I only went and swam a very fast length of front crawl with perfect breathing and when I got to the end, I felt bloody fantastic, no heavy breathing at all, so I kept going.  I did about 6 lengths in total without stopping.   Now armed with this magical knowledge  tried a few lengths without it and yes I did swim a lot better and I wasn't out of breath.  That was all the help that I needed..... 40 lengths some with float and some without..  I am definitely more aware of where my body should be and I think that my problem was using my legs far too much.  I am very happy with that......now I have to work on the speed.

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