6 Excuses To Hold a Potential Lap Swimmer Back

By no means do I think it is easy for any parent or adult to just jump into a pool and start swimming laps. Whenever  an adult student shows up for a swim lesson with me at the pool, I always feel extremely proud of them. And that’s just for showing up. Because I understand a lot stands in their way to get to the lesson. I’m going to take apart or break the myths behind the top six great excuses for holding yourself back from learning how to lap swim.

Great Excuse #1: Cannot find someone to watch my kids. Swim lessons sound like a time luxury for yourself. However, exercise is needed to keep the heart and body weight healthy so you can nurture that infant and keep up with your pre-schooler. Once you treat exercise as important as sleep, your schedule wraps itself around it. Everyone learns to adapt, just like one-car families.

Great Excuse #2: I don’t know what I’m doing. Which is why you signed up for lessons. Adults are so much more judgmental on themselves than kids ever are with swim lessons. Use what you have. Do what you can. Start where you are. Perfection is the enemy of the good.

Great Excuse #3: I’m out of shape. Swimming is one of those activities with an equal playing field for both the athletic and out-of-shape. Trust me: the challenge is going to be just as hard for a know-it-all sport freak and a vulnerable parent. In fact, the more humble you are, the better your lesson will go.

Great Excuse #4: I don’t want to be seen in a bathing suit. Remember this is a pool, not a busy shopping center. The uniform around you is suits and everyone is pretty much numb to this fact, along with different body shapes. The swimmers around you are there to get a work out, not to judge. Fake it until you make it.

Great Excuse #5: I might panic. If you take things slow, you can control your fears. You begin learning lap swimming one lap at a time. It takes the ability to apply patience, persistence and practice. These are just words and values we say, but swimming helps you get re-acquainted with their definition. It’s kind of exciting to feel these emotions (and they replace your fears).

Great Excuse #6: I don’t know where to do this. Yes, it does require looking into a pool. So start calling around and visit your local YMCA and community pools. Make sure you check out their hours for lessons as well as adult lap swimming time. Pools can be busy places that have to do balancing acts. If membership cost is an issue, look for trade-offs like free childcare, free showers and shampoo, and guest passes.

They don’t really sound like great excuses anymore, do they? Hey, I have great excuses when it comes to getting my butt into a yoga class. More on the art of exercise motivation later.

6 Great Swimming Inventions

I went for an 8-mile run/hike/walk/drag combo yesterday in Bear Valley with a friend (that took 4 hours to accomplish). So we had a lot of time to discuss a variety of topics. One of them was about a friend of hers inventing a Baby Bjorn made out of neoprene.

This caught my attention as neoprene is the material used to make very light wetsuits. (And beer cozies, but that is besides the point). Apparently this entrepreneur’s idea is to make a baby carrier mom can take in the shower with her.

And the pool. The Health and Fitness Director at the pool I teach have long thought moms should be bringing their Bjorns into the pool with them for my Mommies-in-Motion class, where moms work out in the shallow end with their babies. There is a whole new market for this product. Which got me thinking about how there are a lot of cutting edge swim products, simple swim products that feel cutting edge, and great swim inventions out there:

Speedo Breast Stroke Fins. NEW! Oh, man. I just found these and now I HAVE to buy them. Long have my students begged to use fins with the frog kick, and I’ve always told them no — the shape just doesn’t mix with the movements. But now they do! Super cool.

The Monofin. Yes! The Monofin. Great when teaching the dolphin kick properly. Make sure your student is advanced and can sustain themselves in a situation where their legs are basically locked together. Here’s another style.

Regular Fins. I love, love, love fins. And so do 99% of the kids I put them on. Fins are so simple, but do so much for that child learning to be more independent (ie. stop grabbing at people in order to surface and breathe). Fins deliver an extra boost. This is Petite Baleen’s secret to success. Also, don’t by cheap plastic ones — buy rubber or silicone.

Egg Dive Toys. I don’t exactly understand how these prove a child is breathing correctly (as the except states), but I do know these are great for beginners: if you blow bubbles, the toy flips over and presents a new color. You could really run with these and have a series of different pictures on the two sides, like a chicken and then an egg, or a rosebud and a blooming flower.

Flutter-Kick Straightener. Okay, this one is made up. But if someone came up with a contraption to keep a pair of kid’s legs straight (no bending at the knee) in order to learn how to use the quad muscles properly, I’d be the first in line to buy it. I’ve found only manual straightening (holding their legs) works versus verbal reminding — and it takes the body/brain bloody FOREVER to get them right, which costs a lot of lesson money.

Hand floats. I’m onto a roll now — this one is made up too, and I thought of it last summer. It’s a huge step when a child attempts to come up for air the first time without non-human assistance.  They could use some gloves that offered floating support so when they pushed down on the water to lift their head, they would be a little higher to do so. Realistically, one could create these buy buying a pair of neoprene gloves and sticking floats in the palms for lifting support.

I think a good invention is one that solves a problem, don’t you? Do you have any great swim inventions?

Kids, Our Hidden Exercise Motivators

Lately is seems as if kids are getting a bad rap where exercise is concerned. Children experience way less unstructured playtime than in the past — as little as one half-hour a week — and childhood obesity is on the rise (I wrote about how to make fitness fun in the water here).

I don’t know about you, but winter makes it hard for me to follow an exercise routine. I really love to get my physical fitness on in the great outdoors (I’m really into trekking with polls right now), so when the weather sucks, so does my motivation.

Until one of my swim students, Avery M., put my sorry attitude to test.

I’ve know Avery since she could barely swim, and the girl is now onto doing stroke all by herself. We were in the indoor pool and I was practically doing nothing more than watching her swim back and forth when she asked me about the outdoor pool. “Is it open?” she asked. Yes; I answered. Can we go there? she retaliated.

My job is not to stand in the middle of my student’s progress, but the outdoor pool — although heated to 80-degrees — is still a cold proposition with winter’s ennui in full effect.

I thought about it. “Actually, that’s a good idea,” I told her. So we went for it.

Here I was with a swim buddy challenging me to work out with her — kids are our hidden motivators for a lot of things. Exercise included.

We had a great time, and I have a feeling next time I see Avery she is going to hold me to the challenge of swimming outside again. Also, even with just ten minutes to work with, you can create a swim plan.

Squidkid Answers Your Questions: I’m Failing at the Breast Stroke

Do you remember this entry where I answered a regular Squidkid reader’s question about performing the freestyle better? It was a very tailored answer. If you’re visiting for the first time because you want to learn more about doing the freestyle right, you’ll also want to visit here and here.

It has been 3 months now since I got your advice and I am happy to tell you that after consistent effort, I am able to do a complete lap now. I have followed your advice on relaxing as much as possible with a lots of practice on my back. I find myself more relaxed now and also I am able to concentrate on my arms’ movements that propels me forward.

My next attempt is breast-stroke where I am failing quite miserably. Whenever I get my head up for a breath and get my head down again, I go deep inside the water. Not sure whats going wrong.

First of all, congrats are in order if any of you are feeling a bit more comfortable from where you started with freestyle. It’s also a great idea to tackle the other strokes, as they use different muscles in your body and make your workout more interesting = more of a chance you’ll stick with it.

The breast stroke actually takes more strength to perform than the freestyle. This is because you are making deeper, bigger movements with the breast stroke and thus working the water away like a weight. So it makes sense our reader Rahul here would come down hard under the water as he is pulling to the surface very strongly with his arms. We call that velocity or momentum. But you can make the physics work for you.

• Your hands are your steering wheel. When you do the breast stroke, reach forward with your fingers parallel to the surface and just slightly under water.  If you point or pull down with your hands, you’re going to go — well — down.
• Breast stroke uses gliding a lot. Many people forget this: The patter for the breast stroke is Reach, Pull, Kick, Glide. That glide part should have you, again, hands/fingers stretched forward and parallel just slightly under the surface with elbows straighten almost squeezing your ears with your face looking down. Savor the glide. Don’t rush to the next Pull.
• Grab the kickboard and just do the frog kick. Holding the top with arms stretched on the board and chin close to the water, practice this breast stroke kick. I think of it in 3 parts: Knees up, Apart, Together. That “V” your outstretched legs create from Apart to Together is crucial — it is what traps water and propels you forward.
• Keep body at a slight angle. Too much and the legs will sink and the arms will over-compensate, which could be what is happening here. Head needs to not look up, but rather look forward both above and under water.

I hate to say this, but I have to be honest — the breast stroke either comes very natural to a person or it comes very awkward and hard. This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible — I’ve trained many a body to melt into the breast stroke — it just means you needs to work on morphing your movements into a very graceful blend. That takes time. Begin by staying loose, not tense. Shear will and direction cannot get you there — only time and practice.

Squidkid Answers Your Questions: What’s Wrong With My Freestyle Form?

I got a great question from Squidkid reader Rahul, who at 31 years age  is not only learning how to swim for the first time, but working on freestyle or side breathing.

I am practicing regulary about four times a week … when I try to turn and take a breath I form an arch at my back that causes my entire lower body portion to fall … as a result I am unable to keep kicking … I have to stop immediately. Does this arch formation imply something is wrong with my swimming technique?

First, thanks Rahul for sharing and putting yourself out there, both here and in the pool. Here is what I suggest for Rahul:

• Do body comfort checks. New swimmers, understandably, tend to be more tense in the water. The problem with being tense is your muscles lock up; and if your muscles lock up your body becomes a rock. I would practice floating on your back or doing gentle Elementary backstroke laps on your back, breathing in and breathing out, making sure every single muscle in your body is loose before you attempt freestyle. Only in this state can you achieve a body that floats when you swim.
• Don’t lift the head. By Rahul telling me his body forms an arch on the back when he tries to breathe says to me he is still straining his head and neck to reach air. When the head is up, the legs automatically sink down. The head nor neck doesn’t lift in the freestyle —  the entire body rolls so the mouth is out. Think of the water as a warm blanket that you just don’t want to lift your head/ear from when you roll over for a breath. Look to the side or almost behind when your mouth reaches air. Roll, roll, roll.
• Muscular people have to work harder to float. I’m thinking Rahul might have bigger quads or legs and not a lot of body fat. So his build could be another reason why his legs are sinking. Grab the kickboard and practice flutter kicking with loose legs — you have to learn how to work with what you’ve got below before you can successful match the arms with the legs.
• Most swim questions get answered after pushing through the problem. I have no doubt Rahul is doing his best, but you have to physically push through the problem. Exert more energy. Be willing to get out of breath. Don’t stop until you reach the end of the lane. Swimming takes exerting major patience and practice, not knowing it takes major patience and practice. The answer isn’t solved in the head through thinking — it’s discovered in the body through doing.