Swim kicks and pool etiquette
Bert woke me at 7am this morning with the usual 'flap,flap, flap' on the letterbox which tells me that he and Ernie are still waiting for their breakfast. Normally this is a bit of a rude awakening, but with only a half bottle of wine last night, I felt surprisingly chipper, and the clear, bright blue sky made me feel good about the day. I decided to do something useful.
Sophie had helpfully reminded me yesterday that I need to work some more on my swim if I'm going to survive Windsor, and as I brewed my cup of tea I realised I only have 8 weeks before my first swim (at Blenheim), and only 9 weeks before Windsor! I had found my something useful.
Sophie had helpfully reminded me yesterday that I need to work some more on my swim if I'm going to survive Windsor, and as I brewed my cup of tea I realised I only have 8 weeks before my first swim (at Blenheim), and only 9 weeks before Windsor! I had found my something useful.
Sophie got me the Total Immersion book for Christmas, and I spent a few
weeks earlier this year working through the drills religiously.
One of
the first things the book tells you is that if you keep on swimming
using a poor technique, you will simply reinforce your poor technique.
For every length swum badly (i.e. not using the TI techniques), you're
simply making it harder to retrain your mind and body into a good
technique. It recommends starting at the beginning and working through
all of its exercises until you finally put them all together and swim lengths.
Sounds good, but unfortunately with 9 weeks to go I just don't have time to faff about doing this properly! I need results fast! So today I decided to do exactly what TI tells you not to do, and just hammer out 1500m in the pool. I haven't swum for at least 12 weeks, and haven't done 1500m in one go for about 5 months (yoiks!), so I was expecting to struggle. In the end, though, I managed 750m in 18 minutes and 1500m in about 38 minutes, so not too bad as a baseline to work from. Now I just need to get in the pool a few times each week and start building up my speed and stamina. More on that in the coming weeks.
Get to the "point"
All of that waffle is just an introduction to today's topic (which is quite brief you'll be glad to hear). The idea came to me as I was swimming, or more precisely when I was turning. It's to do with pool etiquette.
I was at the gym when it opened at 8am, so the pool was empty when I arrived and I chose in the slow lane because I know I'm not up to full speed yet. The pool quickly filled up and I soon had 4 or 5 people in my lane of various abilities. I was trying to do consistent lengths and not stop, and everyone in my lane spotted this and helpfully let me pass every couple of lengths. I got held up occasionally, and had to tread water a little, but as soon as the swimmer in front reached the end they stopped and let me pass.
Except for one bloke. He did try to let me pass but unfortunately he didn't follow pool etiquette. Rather than stopping and standing still, possibly fiddling with his goggles or turning round and staring at the side of the pool, he decided to shuffle slowly sideways along the edge of the pool. As I approached I saw him standing up and figured he was trying to let me pass, so I started to aim for the bit of the poolside that he wasn't occpying. I can't do a proper tumble turn, but I do like to bring my legs forward and kick off the wall. Unfortunately for blokey, his slow shuffling meant that he now occupied a different spot on the pool wall. Because he was standing, his nether regions occupied the space on the wall where my feet were going to kick. And kick they did. A quick apology and I was on my way. He was ok - probably a bit winded and obviously a bit more wary - next time I passed him he stayed well out of the way.
And so today's 'brief' entry was born. Just like my rant about cycling etiquette, here are my rules for pool-based harmony:
Sounds good, but unfortunately with 9 weeks to go I just don't have time to faff about doing this properly! I need results fast! So today I decided to do exactly what TI tells you not to do, and just hammer out 1500m in the pool. I haven't swum for at least 12 weeks, and haven't done 1500m in one go for about 5 months (yoiks!), so I was expecting to struggle. In the end, though, I managed 750m in 18 minutes and 1500m in about 38 minutes, so not too bad as a baseline to work from. Now I just need to get in the pool a few times each week and start building up my speed and stamina. More on that in the coming weeks.
Get to the "point"
All of that waffle is just an introduction to today's topic (which is quite brief you'll be glad to hear). The idea came to me as I was swimming, or more precisely when I was turning. It's to do with pool etiquette.
I was at the gym when it opened at 8am, so the pool was empty when I arrived and I chose in the slow lane because I know I'm not up to full speed yet. The pool quickly filled up and I soon had 4 or 5 people in my lane of various abilities. I was trying to do consistent lengths and not stop, and everyone in my lane spotted this and helpfully let me pass every couple of lengths. I got held up occasionally, and had to tread water a little, but as soon as the swimmer in front reached the end they stopped and let me pass.
Except for one bloke. He did try to let me pass but unfortunately he didn't follow pool etiquette. Rather than stopping and standing still, possibly fiddling with his goggles or turning round and staring at the side of the pool, he decided to shuffle slowly sideways along the edge of the pool. As I approached I saw him standing up and figured he was trying to let me pass, so I started to aim for the bit of the poolside that he wasn't occpying. I can't do a proper tumble turn, but I do like to bring my legs forward and kick off the wall. Unfortunately for blokey, his slow shuffling meant that he now occupied a different spot on the pool wall. Because he was standing, his nether regions occupied the space on the wall where my feet were going to kick. And kick they did. A quick apology and I was on my way. He was ok - probably a bit winded and obviously a bit more wary - next time I passed him he stayed well out of the way.
And so today's 'brief' entry was born. Just like my rant about cycling etiquette, here are my rules for pool-based harmony:
- If there are lanes laid out, spend a minute watching the swimmers in them and find the right lane for your pace. So often people jump into the fast lane without thinking and force the faster swimmers to slow down or take avoiding action
- If you're being followed by a faster swimmer, try to give way to them when you can. You don't have to leap out of the way, but when you get to the end of the pool, stop and let them pass
- If you're going faster than someone in front of you, don't sit on their legs. If you're doing front crawl, use breastroke or tread water for a few seconds to slow yourself down and give them room. If they read this blog post they'll be out of your way soon....
- If you find you're going too fast / too slow for your lane, move to a different one!
- If you are letting someone pass, try to make it clear what your intentions are: stop at the end, move to one side, fiddle with your goggles, wave them past, or somehow indicate that you're letting them go. But most of all stand still so that they can avoid you
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