Physique Swimming: Lesson 1

I had my first swim lesson with Joseph at Physique Swimming. It was a group of four. Me and three girls. We started off by standing near the shallow end of the pool (3 feet deep) and he had us swim as far as we could. The girls all looked a little hesitant because none of them actually knew how to swim. I immediately started making my way to the other end (in ugly fashion) and they all looked at me with mouths gaping like what are you doing here dude. I told them that I'm not much more advanced than they are because my form is awful and I can't swim very far at all before I start to drop / sink like a stone.

Skills

Bubbles

You just take a normal breath and then put your head under the water and immediately starting exhaling throw your mouth. Pretend like you're just doing a normal exhalation - only this is underwater.

Streamline

This is where we put our backs to the wall with one foot bent and pressed against the wall. We raised our arms high and behind our heads with one hand over the other. Like you're hanging from a bar. Then we put our heads into the water and then kicked of the wall and exhaled for as long as we could while kicking.

This was when I first discovered that me and another girl possessed a unique kind of kick known as the bicycle kick. we were both bending our knees too much and flexed rather than pointed our feet. I stopped doing the bicycle kick immediately. The key is to initiate the kick from the hips rather than the ankles. When I resurfaced, they were all giggling because apparently I splashed water all over everyone as I went. He told me I had a very powerful kick and I needed to take it down a notch.

I did this like 4 times and my kick was still too strong. He said it was a sign that my legs were too stiff. I needed to let them bend but only slightly. I also had to make sure my feet didn't come out of the water completely - only my ankles should. There shouldn't be too much splashing.

We did a few variations of this. The next one was with a board. We held on to a board and then kicked while trying to keep the board up. I had trouble keeping it up and he said it was because I wasn't reaching with my arms.

We then did it with the board but with our heads down, almost tucking into our chin. This really helped me with my kick because when I had my head out it was too far out and I had a lot of trouble kicking from the hip. Then we did it without the board and kicked as far as possible. Finally, we went to the center and did our best to streamline towards the deep end (6 feet).

Streamline has to do with how your arms are folded.

Lessons learned:

• Exhale until you're almost out of breath but not completely out when doing bubbles. Just like normal breathing.
• Initiate the kick from your hips. Don't do it too hard - try not to kick your feet outside of the water completely only the ankles should break the surface. 
• Point your toes!
• Keep your head down, hands behind the head, and tucked behind your ears while streamlining. This helps your legs go up. 
• My girlfriend is a fantastic swimmer and advised me to keep my legs above the surface and paddle my feet like flippers.

Resources:

• How to Streamline