Anyway, this year, I decided to take another set of lessons with a new coach to check if my form is correct or if it needs improvement. Surprise, surprise, I learned a lot of new things and I need a lot of improvement. :)
Here are the top 5 new things I learned:
1. The basic requirement of effortless swimming is to be as relaxed as possible. The most effective technique for me on how to get myself relaxed is by swimming with closed eyes - provided that there aren't a lot of other people on the pool, otherwise, you'll be more tense in anticipation of possibly hitting someone. 😬
And being relaxed was the key to surviving a set of exercises which my coach asked me to do. What exercises?
He asked me to swim 25 meters.
Then 50 meters, no rest.
Then 100 meters, no rest.
Then 150 meters, no rest.
Then 200 meters, no rest.
Then 250 meters, no rest.
Every time I was able to do a certain distance, I had to make sure I was more relaxed in the next one in order to make it farther. 😅 But nope, I don't have any intention of becoming a competitive swimmer. I only learned how to swim for survival. 😂
2. When you're a newbie, there's still poor muscle memory so it requires conscious effort to do all the coordinated movements. However, sometimes, when you're on your own practicing or you haven't swum for a long period, there are times when you don't feel like your movements are well-coordinated. The best technique to deal with this is do the individual drills first - yes, one at a time e.g. if you're working on achieving a relaxed head, don't worry too much if your arm or leg movements aren't precise, just make sure you achieve a relaxed head. So one drill at a time until you're able to do everything at the same time and it feels like it's all in sync.
3. If you want sharper focus to assess if you are correctly doing the drills, close your eyes while you do the drills. It's amazing what you discover when you swim with closed eyes. The reason why my coach started asking me to close my eyes during drills is because every time he asked for self-assessment e.g. if my hands entered the water at the right time, my answer was I wasn't sure! Haha... Because honestly, I wasn't just thinking about my hands but my breathing, head, hips, legs...😂 But when your eyes are closed, you're able to isolate your attention to one area and zone out on the rest.
Another time, he asked us to swim as quietly as possible. I thought I was so quiet, I thought I wasn't even kicking coz all I could hear are the voices of other people in the pool. But the moment he asked us to swim with eyes closed, I could hear water splashes produced by my feet and hands and I could even hear my breathing. Big discrepancy of perception vs reality. 😂
4. Your optimal number of swim strokes depends on your height. Just refer to the tables below to find out what's yours. But this table assumes you take a 5 meter from push-off to first stroke.
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| Your optimal # of strokes for a 25-meter pool. |
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| Your optimal # of strokes for a 50-meter pool. |
My optimal number is between 17 to 22 strokes for 25 meters, and 39 to 49 strokes for 50 meters. Honestly, I can't even get myself to count my strokes while swimming - I forget to count along the way. I think my muscle memory is still so poor that I can't afford to multi-task while swimming. 😂 But one time, when my coach counted for me, he said I did 21 strokes but I don't think I do 5 meters from push -off so maybe I can work on that to cut a couple of more strokes. Haha...
5. Here's the last and most important lesson - the best way to assess yourself and rule out perception vs reality when it comes to your physical form is via video proof. In my head, I had a clear picture of what my form was while swimming but when I saw my video footage, perception vs reality was so far-off! 😱😳😂 Needs a lot more improvement. Tsk-tsk... 😂
