Second Day of Swim Class!

So last Saturday was my second day of swimming lessons, and I was able to find my way to the pool without getting lost!! Yay Woo Hoo!! High Five!!

For about the first 5 mins of class I was the only one there from my class. So my instructor had me start the drills. Up first was the Freestyle Stroke.

Freestyle

He coached me to take a breath in by turning my head to the side about every three strokes so I can get used to breathing on each side. To recap, in case you forgot, when the head is in the water ALWAYS breathe out through the nose. Then turn the head to the side and breathe in through the mouth. As I was doing my laps, I would notice I would breathe out through my nose and then at the end of my exhale, push more air out through my mouth! What? Why am I doing this? I still don't know why. Maybe it is a weird habit I have that I never really noticed. Because of this weird habit, breathing in through my mouth was a little more difficult. I was already exhaling out the mouth and to reverse that....it was weird. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe try it out and see if you have the same issues I was having. It was like I didn't have enough time to take a breath in before having to put my head back in the water. Also, I was told I kept picking my head up, rather than just turning to side for the breath in. To help correct this, my instructor showed me how to fully rotate my body to the side with my stroke when I needed a breath. He even gave me a dumbbell-floaty to hold on to practice.This helped a lot! But after a while I would get fatigued and my breathing would get messed up and then so would the rest of my form.

Very sound advice that I find useful

My classmates did show up for class after a few minutes and we had about 5 more ladies joining the class! He went through the basics with them and since I am a little more advanced, had me swimming laps in the Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke and would give me some more pointers every few laps.

Backstroke

I like the Backstroke. I get to keep my head up out of the water and I like swimming on my back. Makes me feel like a Mermaid....not sure why... Any-hoo. This stroke was a little easier for me since I didn't have to count my strokes and alternate sides while breathing. But one thing that made it difficult was the water splashing on my face and sometimes the waves would come up over my head. And of course I would get a bunch of water up nose! I kept trying to exhale, thru the nose every time this happened, but it always caught me off guard! Something I need to work or get used to. 

See? Water all over! and in 2 seconds, straight up the nose!

Breaststroke

Okay this stroke was weird for me. You have to bob your head up and down in the water as you bring your arms forward and then sweep them out and around. At the same time your legs are doing this frog kicky-thing (technical term by the way). The first two laps of this, I wasn't getting the feet right. I kept flutter kicking them rather than froggy kicking them (another technical term). He gave me some pointers and I did two more laps. Basically, I have some muscle memory habits that I need to recognize and re-teach. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time on this stroke because it was the end of class and lets be honest, I started to swim REALLY slowly by the end of this hour. 

I think I am the latter...

To sum up last week's class. IT WAS EXHAUSTING!!! I have no idea how the Olympians do this. I am pretty sure I wasn't even going an 1/8 of their speed and I was out of breath and tired and pretty sure I almost drowned a few times. But I did have a great time! There is so much to think about! Breathe, stroke, kick, head down, rotate, slice through the water, etc. I am really looking forward to my next class! I am hoping that the breathing will come easier and more natural to me. I think that is the most challenging aspect of this sport. But I am sure it will get easier as I practice! Oh and on a side note, I took the Patronus quiz on Pottermore and I mine is a Dolphin!!! YES!!! So I must have been born to swim, I just need to figure out the mechanics!! Also, I am a Gryffindor, just in case you were wondering.

Dolphin Patronus baby!! Take that Dementors!!