UKC

I would like to learn to swim property. After the new year I will get booking in a block of lessons, having had a chat with a swimming coach, seems my exhaling is causing me trouble.

Is good books or PDFs I can read on swimming until my lessons start?

In reply to goldmember:

Look at Chloe Sutton on Youtube. Swimsmooth is another fab informative website. But best is to go to the deep end, take a breath and slowly breath out so you sink to the bottom. Swim back up and repeat. If you do not breath out enough you will not sink. Not getting rid of all the air causes carbon dioxide build up when swimming. So this is a good relaxing exercise. Enjoy your lessons and let us know how you get on.

In reply to Mr Messy:



Id imagine that would be pretty difficult (and frightening) if you can't actually swim in the first place.

In reply to goldmember:

Have a look into Total Immersion. It worked for me.

In reply to arch:

Yes: as a non-swimmer the 'sink to the bottom' part sounds a bit terminal to me.

In reply to goldmember:

This thread reminds me of this

youtube.com/watch?v=MnKoQbFXemE&

Probably not that helpful but hopefully made you smile

In reply to goldmember:

Books are helpful once you have a good idea of what you're doing.

However, from personal experience of getting some coaching, there is no substitute for a good coach looking at your technique and telling you what you're doing wrong.

Be warned, though - my shoulders ached like mad to start with until I got used to the changes in stroke!

In reply to goldmember:

Good coach, at the least to give you some big picture pointers.

Swim smooth is brilliant - if nothing else reading about their swim types and how they swim will help you understand the different approaches and 'bucketed problems' people have.

Don't be afraid of swim toys - pull buoy and paddles can do wonders.

In reply to goldmember:

I'm guessing you can swim a bit already, and want to learn to swim well? Front crawl?

I used to think I wasn't breathing in enough, when my problem was I wasn't breathing out enough, leaving stale air in my lungs and not getting enough oxygen because of that.

Exercises for breathing out fully with your mouth underwater will be useful, I found I had to put a little force into it, as opposed to running where the breath seems to almost fall out.

In reply to Mr Messy:


Thanks Mr Messy, I really concentrated on breathing out fully when swimming tonight and managed to knock 90 seconds off my recent time for a mile, now under 40 minutes. Felt really good and strong all the way through.

Still about 10 minutes longer than my PB, but 30 pounds and 20 years probably explain most of this, as it does the loss of a few climbing grades

In reply to arch:
No there are steps to use

In reply to Hugh J:
Well Done!! That is a lot.