Swimming practice, I probably should call it drowning practice instead. Of course I can swim but swimming proficient, well that’s another story. Knowing that the beginners section was were I belonged, our crowd consisted of five beginners. Everyone else on the team confidently headed over to the advance group and immediatley started swimming laps.
Oh did I mention that the pool is outside and near the ocean? Oh yea, swim practice at night, 7:30 pm, with the nice tempered California air of 50˚. They call the pool heated. I call it heated enough so you don’t catch hypothermia.
Coach Sam starts out teaching us the basic, following the Total Emersion theory of swimming. For the first two weeks, Mondays and Wednesdays, all we do is float on our back and our sides endlessly in the pool. And did I mention drink and breathe in gallons of pool water while trying to float. By the third week we finally started practicing a swim stroke. Funny, you’d think after practicing for two weeks I’d take a nice graceful efficient swim stroke – nope!
Because Total Emersion starts you at the basics, and what you thought you knew how to swim was wrong, now you’re all confused. But Coach Sam assure us that once we’re done with the basic, our little beginners group will probably swim more efficient than some of the swimmers in our advance group. Hum, I look over across the pool lanes at the advance group and they look pretty darn efficient swimmers to me. But of course I’m just a beginner so what do I know.
Swimming tips I’ve learned:
1) My body as a long boat and the longer boat I make the easier my body goes through the water.
2) The power is in the trunk park of my body not my legs. Use the rotation of the trunk to power through the stroke.
3) My hands and forearms are the paddle of my boat.
If you would like more information on the swimming technique of Total Immersion, visit their website at: http://www.totalimmersion.net
