Learning to Swim From Scratch
Learning basic skills as an adult can be very fun. So many everyday basic skills were learnt during childhood that it can be easy to forget what it’s like to be a beginner. Which can make it difficult to empathise with the beginners that come across your path. So, the latest thing I’ve decided to be a beginner at is… swimming, which I have almost no prior experience at.
So far I’ve had 4 sessions at the pool. In addition, I’ve done a bit of reading up on the internet (most usefully: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1025331879770 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Immersion), and these are the main points that I’m finding interesting at the moment:
- Trying to be flat (balanced) in the water (not allowing my legs to sink, placing my weight on my chest), to avoid the feeling of ‘swimming uphill’, and to move more smoothly in the water.
- Releasing the weight of my head into the water. I haven’t consciously tried this yet, but it sounds good.
- Controlling my breathing, so that I can avoid the need to keep my head out of the water for long stretches because I keep on panting…
- Getting habituated to the pressure of water on the chest. I have a feeling this is interfering with my breathing at the moment.
- Engaging my core muscles: I noticed that when I used my hips and core, kicking became much less effort and much more effective, and also more enjoyable: it feels less like forcing my way forward and more like strolling along in a kind of dance…
- Working towards not using floats for lengths. I have a strong suspicion floats encourage poor body positions…
- Playing underwater manoeuvering and breath-holding games with hoops etc. Good fun. I have a feeling the diving reflex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_diving_reflex) might have some relation to meditation techniques, so that should be interesting to explore…
- Tuning into the resistance the water is providing to my body and limbs. If I can perceive the underwater ‘atmosphere’ well, this should help me develop my skills by allowing me to understand the effect my motions are having on the water around me. (This is interesting, because on dry land, typically the only tactile reference point is the static ground, but in the water, the reference point is MOVING and all around, not just below.) Also, perceiving the water around me should help give me a ‘dancing’, meditative feel that just forcing my way through the water could not give.
So, the keywords for me at the moment are:
- Balance, core, breathing, habituation, breath holding, perception
Breathing will be the best bit, because then I can ditch the floats and start on the road to learning all the strokes, rather than just flailing around for the next breath…
