MIT Swim Lessons

I had my first of four swim lessons at MIT today, and it was so good! Way better than the expensive private swim lessons that I took. The instructor just talked about front crawl, and she walked us through the form as if we knew nothing. Which, in my case, wasn't that far from the truth.

First, you want to be as long as possible to go through the water. So you want your arms in front of you, or at least one arm in front of you at all times. Second, you want to be compact, so your arms are basically coming together at the top, so they are more compact. Next, we worked on kicking, which was really hard. We pushed off the wall and practiced using a kickboard and just moving by kicking (turns out that I was using a kickboard all wrong! You grab it at the top, not the bottom. Who knew?). It was really slow going and hard. It make me realize that I need to practice kicking more to build up my kick muscles. The thing about kicking, of course, is that you aren't really propelling yourself through kicking, you are just keeping your body flat on the water. So, you want to do small kicks from the hips, with your knees straight and your feet pointed and then flexing.

Next, we worked on body position, and keeping your body straight and on top of the water instead of with your feet going down. There are four things to focus on to keep you flat on top of the water:

#1 - Kicking, which we already discussed and know is hard

#2 - Looking straight down to the bottom of the pool or lake. A little easier in a pool where you can see the markings on the bottom, but I do know which way is down, and can try to look there.

#3 - Engage your core - it always comes back to the core, doesn't it?

#4 - Push your shoulders and chest down a little so your feet come up a bit. I found this to be the hardest and most abstract while swimming.

Anyhow, it's all about swimming efficiently, and being flat on the water helps you to do that. I'm going to try to practice two times this week. I also ordered swim fins, because she said that they help your kicking form. Also, they are fun and help you swim faster.

Speaking of swimming faster, they have a clock running at the pool, so I was able to time myself. The pool is 50 meters long and it took me a minute and 16 seconds. I only have 4 lessons, but might try to take another session. We will see if I can get that time down.

I broke down and bought ear buds, but only because they were 30% off for prime day. Looking forward to wearing them for lifting!