My Front Crawl Needs a Little Help

Sometimes getting back in the water takes a lot of motivation. It took me about 4 months to mentally and physically prepare myself to take the plunge. I think my problem was/is my bathing suit. My old one which I LOVED was no good any more so I bought a new one and it has taken me a while getting use to it. The fact that it’s red doesn’t help matters when you’re trying to blend in and not stand out in the pool… I digress

I had taken up swimming last year after a very long hiatus but I stopped when the weather got cold last November. This time I thought I would do it right. I would join the Swim Fit class at the North York Y. This way, I couldn’t chicken out and think of excuses. The Swim Fit classes are for adults who are looking to improve their strokes and endurance.

Even though I was a relatively good swimmer in my youth, it’s been many years since those instructional classes. Things have changed, and I haven’t swum seriously in many years. All the years of neglect have made my strokes inefficient. So my first task is to fix my strokes so that I am not exerting so much energy just getting to the other side of the pool.

Last night, the instructor helped pick apart my strokes and showed me how to fix them. Oh god, my arms hurt from doing proper strokes (It seems like Karate does nothing to help with the muscles you use when you swim.). I could basically do the stroke for about ¾ of the pool before collapsing. It doesn’t help that I have such a short attention span. But I am very excited about being able to once again swim like a pro-star. I also like swimming with people my dad’s age. I was the youngest person in the learn-to-swim-better lane of the class! (The class is broken into two lanes: people who know how to swim like fish and those that are working on their strokes. Guess which one I’m in. heh)
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On another note, it’s always very interesting to attend instructional classes in a new environment where I am the student. It’s amazing how different people teach.

I wrote this on 26 August 09 when I was feeling .

Comment

  1. tiff says,

    if i have more time, i’d totally sign up for swim class again — I love it!

  2. dom says,

    Swimming rocks. It’s great to return to a beginner’s mind this will energize your karate and help with your water attacks!

  3. Fran says,

    I myself have been thinking about getting back into Swimming too. Trying to work it around Karate. The main thing is that you have fun.

 
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