Swimming lesson

Took a day off yesterday as I was feeling jaded after a hard few days.

Back to it this morning with a swimming lesson with the Bondi Fit guys. The lesson was with Paul at the new Ian Thorpe Pool in Ultimo.

Started off with another horror video session after which I was told that I would need to take my technique right back to basics...great.

Learnt a lot during the hour though with some useful tips on how to move forward...especially:

• Maintaining a straight arm/high elbow as I bring my arm around - even to the point of my arms slapping the water
• Breathing a lot earlier than I currently do - i.e. as soon as my front arm starts the pull I should be turning my head to breath - at the moment I am breathing far too late, which means that my body is unstable in the water as my head is out of the water much later than it should be. My legs are also all over the place as they try and balance my body due to the late head roll
• Trying to glide through the water a lot more - deliberately slowing down my stroke as a result
• Looking sideways/backwards instead of forward through the stroke
• Getting rid of my bubbles through my mouth, not through the nose, and only as I am turning my head to breath, i.e. holding my breath more under the water
• Opening my mouth before my head surfaces (hard one this without getting a mouth full of water)
• Breathing using my diaphragm rather than my chest (should be easy for the tuba player in me!)
• Using more drills as part of any session
• Practicing breathing out of both sides

A good session and some useful tips.

If only I lived closer and the squads didn't start at 6am, I would give this more of a shot....