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Swimming advice?
- Thread starter Llust
- Start date
im fine with the swimming part, its just side breathing im struggling with. strokes included, but im not too concerned about that right now
I do agree it's kind of hard to give swimming advice (I've been on a competitive team for around 6 years and in varsity for my high school swim team; I've been a swimmer my whole life basically lol), but they usually seperate those who can't swim into a more basic group of people and they teach you basic stuff (at my school they made it the "beginners group" and put them in the shallow end). I'm sure that the teachers have some sense that there are students who don't know how to swim, so I wouldn't worry about it too much
unfortunately, it isnt like that for us--instead we're all forced to participate in whatever activity or whatever warm up is planned no matter what level we're all at
I know this might seem a bit daunting for you but, the best thing to do is talk to the teacher. Like seriously... It's just going to save a lot of embarrassment and hassle for you. I know that you're all expected to do the same thing but maybe the teachers AREN'T aware that you don't know how to swim, or that you are not confident in swimming. That's okay. I'm sure they have dealt with other students similar to you. If you talk to them and at least communicate with them that you'd like a bit more help, I am sure there would be no issue? If you can, ask if you can hold onto a float at first. If you have a small float you can hold onto, you can stay on that for buoyancy, but practicing putting your face underwater and practice how many counts you need to breathe on, and etc. It's how I was taught actually too. Once you've strengthened up a bit more, you can maybe hold onto the float with one hand and just start doing a front crawl stroke using one arm, but you still have the float to rely on. Remember to change the float over to your other arm in the other length. It's all about strengthening yourself up and getting used to the patterns. Your body will get used to it eventually. It's just like learning how to ride a bike. you just have to keep practicing over and over until it feels comfortable and natural for you. And don't be afraid. Chances are there are probably weaker swimmers like yourself in the class - fair enough they may be stronger than you but, we all are different.
If people make fun of you for not being able to swim strongly, then they're really shallow (hah, water puns!). Don't take notice of them. Easier said than done but, to be honest, people will respect you a lot more if you go in and try your best and try to stay positive. If people make fun of you despite not being very athletic than they are just *******s - plain and simple. This is coming from someone who used to be made fun of in PE, too. of course, in our school swimming galas I usually won my races, but they never made fun of me then...It was always when someone would throw a ball at my head, or when I had to do running or play a ball game or something that people would laugh at me. But actually I was one of the people who was always positive and friendly and tried to have fun despite hating PE. x3 And because of that I remember I got a day off school to go on some special sports day thing where we got to go trampolining and swimming and stuff, and basically just did tons of fun sports activities that I enjoyed. ^^ The teachers picked like the best pupils in the class to go on it. of course I was never good at PE but, I was always positive and (sometimes) tried my best. So really if your teachers see that then they will praise you for that. ;v;
ahh - thank you .u.; your advice was very helpful
yeah i get that a lot, but we're typically given at least five or ten minutes at the end of class to do whatever we want, so thats an option..but its rare for me to be able to stay in the pool and do whatever i want--im a part of one of the leadership groups so im expected to gather the body boards and just clean around the pool
As someone with terrible anxiety but is on the swim team, I hope my advice can help you out.
Work on your breathing first. You'll be a lot more comfortable with swimming once you are at ease that you won't drown in 5 feet of water.
Focus on kicking too. Hold onto the edge and kick, get used to the soreness - it's a part of swimming.
With your arms, cup them and push the water back. You'll go much faster. Keeping them at the side will not help, because when you breathe, you still need to move your arms.
When you go to breathe, turn your head to the side, so your chin is touching your shoulder. That's honestly the best advice I can give you for that. When you put your head down, breathe out slowly in bubbles through your mouth. It hurts less. People do it with their nose but I can't. Try and look at the ground when doing this, but if you can't looking forward is fine!
If you need any more help, I can try my best to answer your questions! Good luck!
Work on your breathing first. You'll be a lot more comfortable with swimming once you are at ease that you won't drown in 5 feet of water.
Focus on kicking too. Hold onto the edge and kick, get used to the soreness - it's a part of swimming.
With your arms, cup them and push the water back. You'll go much faster. Keeping them at the side will not help, because when you breathe, you still need to move your arms.
When you go to breathe, turn your head to the side, so your chin is touching your shoulder. That's honestly the best advice I can give you for that. When you put your head down, breathe out slowly in bubbles through your mouth. It hurts less. People do it with their nose but I can't. Try and look at the ground when doing this, but if you can't looking forward is fine!
If you need any more help, I can try my best to answer your questions! Good luck!
thank you^^ im not sure how to describe it, but the best i can do with my arms tbh is bringing them straight forward and push outwards from the middle if that makes sense--im not worried about swimming correctly bc that never mattered for warm ups, at least thats how it was for all my other gym teachers. im just wondering if its fine to just bring my head up a little while still facing forward, ive done it a few times without bringing myself down from what i remember. i get that doing that messes with the buoyancy, but yeah..its easier for me
i have side bangs that go down to my nose, so i cant tie it up. because of that, whenever i try doing side breaths, my bangs are in the way so i can never see how far out my nose is out of the water-resulting in either going too low or just straining my neck
Because you're not doing it competitively, it should be fine. If you were in an official meet, you'd get disqualified for doing that. Or at least I'm sure you would.
You should really get a swim cap. Or maybe bobbly pin it to the side? I don't know. Swimming without a cap is already a bad idea.
unfortunately, my school doesnt allow us to bring in any of our personal swimming gear for some reason--excluding goggles. the most i can do is tie whatever i can into a bun
agreed haha
from what i remember, we had some sort of serious accident involving equipment aroung roughly two years ago, so they're just being overly protective over us now
