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With kitten-like speed and grace
At least, I think kittens are proverbially slow and graceless swimmers.
Managed a kilometre this evening - 40 lengths of Parkside, changing stroke every six lengths to ward off some of the boredom. It took just under ninety minutes; I found that two consecutive lengths of brisk front crawl (where 'brisk' means 40 seconds for the 25 metres) raised my heart rate to 180, one minute's rest got it down to 120 and another minute got it to 100. For comparison it goes up to about 150 on the stair-climbing machine and stays there, and tended not to get even that high on the treadmill (when the treadmill was working).
What would be wonderful is to try swimming with someone who not only can swim but can tell me what I'm doing wrong; I find I can't get any speed at all from my legs, it takes over two minutes for me to do a length holding a float in both arms and getting my propulsion from swimming furiously.
Weird weather this evening; low-contrast clouds and haze enough to cloud one side of Parker's Piece as seen from the other, the sun setting as a visible disc rather than an actinic blare. Rather reminiscent of Bangkok.
Managed a kilometre this evening - 40 lengths of Parkside, changing stroke every six lengths to ward off some of the boredom. It took just under ninety minutes; I found that two consecutive lengths of brisk front crawl (where 'brisk' means 40 seconds for the 25 metres) raised my heart rate to 180, one minute's rest got it down to 120 and another minute got it to 100. For comparison it goes up to about 150 on the stair-climbing machine and stays there, and tended not to get even that high on the treadmill (when the treadmill was working).
What would be wonderful is to try swimming with someone who not only can swim but can tell me what I'm doing wrong; I find I can't get any speed at all from my legs, it takes over two minutes for me to do a length holding a float in both arms and getting my propulsion from swimming furiously.
Weird weather this evening; low-contrast clouds and haze enough to cloud one side of Parker's Piece as seen from the other, the sun setting as a visible disc rather than an actinic blare. Rather reminiscent of Bangkok.
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This may be the problem; swimming seems (to me) to reward efficiency over raw effort (and in particular, sorting the former before applying the latter).
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I cannot do the flutter kick -- practicing with a kickboard I would go, very slowly, backwards.
I had no trouble learning the kicks associated with the sidestroke and the breast stroke.
So as soon as they started trying to teach me something other than the crawl, I learned to swim. Pity it took several years before some teacher was bright enough to do so.
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I can't figure out whether the breast-stroke kick should be done in-phase or out-of-phase with sweeping the arms round from in front of nose to parallel to forehead, but this doesn't really trouble me since I can't reliably keep either phase relation for as long as a length.
The stroke I find most pleasing is a sort of back-butterfly, if only because it relaxes my neck which I otherwise strain too much to keep out of the water; but it's not very practical in crowded pools, and I'm not quite as reliable as would be ideal at stopping before swimming the back of my head with some force into the ceramic tiles at the end of the pool.
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I learned two different versions of the breast stroke -- one with the long sweeping stroke you describe, and other with shorter strokes. In any case, it still works even if you don't coordinate it smoothly. The kicks are different, too -- one the frog kick, the other somewhat different.
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Okay, I suppose there might be uses for swimming other than exercise.
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(Anonymous) 2006-07-06 09:36 am (UTC)(link)For breaststroke the drive phase with the arms is as you bring them towards you; with the legs it is as you shoot them away. Ideally you alternate power phases, which means alternating frog and needle positions. Breath out as you kick and breathe in as you pull with the hands.
HTFB
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It takes me an hour -- and 30 takes me three-quarters of an hour, so that's probably a solid 10 per quarter hour -- and that's breast-stroke with occasional rest-lengths of back-stroke, usually no more than two. Do bear in mind that I'm a triped not a quadruped (though I do try to do one length each time using my leg) so you ought to be faster than I am.
The advice given immediately above about frog/needle and breathing is how I was taught. The other thing is that you can actually do breaststroke with just your arms, and your legs trailing. Breaststroke is all about the arms. (Especially for me!) Or you can do it combined with a modified crawl flutter leg stroke -- that's hard to describe, but it works. Hmm. Think of treading water, and what your feet do for that.
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(I'm Susan from the Carlton/post-pizza btw)
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I can't find opening hours for Jesus Green anywhere; I can do most evenings next week though my weekends are rather full; how's Tuesday or Wednesday for you?
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See you Tuesday at six; many thanks for your help!
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