Swimming in a Fish Tank

Discipline: Swim
What: Lesson
Distance: About a mile?

Mad rush out to Leybourne Lake in Kent to do a swimming lesson with Christine who ran the swim camp last weekend. After some debate about wearing a wet suit (it was windy) I decided to go without one and kicked off swimming along the banks. It was odd to be doing open water swimming again, but I was impressed by how much clearer the lake was that South Water. Instead of a murky green soup, it was clear enough to see to the bottom, even when it was quite a long way below.

In fact, it was so clear, I could see the pond weed, which looked remarkably like a larger version of the stuff you get in fish tanks! There was a car wreck that had been submerged too for the benefit of the SCUBA divers, and apparently a concrete shark (glad I was warned about that first!), and I was just waiting for a plastic castle or something. Very weird.

The first thing Christine drew my attention to was the way my hand entered the water - too far away from my head - so we talked about this for a bit and then I set off again. It made such a difference to my swim! My whole stroke slowed down, and I glided more. This did rather mess up my breathing though, as my usual "once every three breaths" were now more spread out as each stroke took longer. Every two felt too often, so we settled on a 3-2-3-2-3-2 pattern whihc gave bilateral breathing but still allowing me to breathe on average every 2.5 strokes. Clever stuff (not my idea)!

Other things to work on - getting the fingers more closed, and of course the leg kick! That was one that never really got going - I must spend time drilling it like crazy and increasing feet flexibility. The closed fingers is also a habit I can slip out of very easily. There's a lot of things to think about - so lots of drilling over the next month to ingrain it into my brain.

We also did some sighting stuff - which was a useful tip - but I need to work to get it perfect - there were times when it didn't feel that smooth. It can be practised in the pool though.

Overall - a very successful session - I felt like I'd improved enormously and a lot that had been a bit 50/50 after last weekend had slotted into place, although it still needs practice. More chicken wings and zipper drills!