Day 4 and 5: Front Crawl Drill, Breast Stroke and Frog Kick

Resuming the interrupted lessons, Day 4 is divided into two parts.

Day 4
Part 1: Practicing on Free Style (Front Crawl)

After a week of absence from swimming lessons (period happens), going down in the pool felt much like I'm back to square one again. But I just can't let myself be fearful all the time so I just go ahead and do what's instructed. There were seven of us adult students at that time and it was a roll call. We were asked to demonstrate the front crawl or the free style with breathing. I was the first one to go at the sound of the whistle.  Jittery as usual but I made an effort of muffling my fear and going in, thinking I can't actually drown with six other girls in the pool and the instructor watching intently.  The worst that could happen is for me to make a big blooper.  I'll live with that, I suppose. 

I'm just glad I was not the only one trashing the waters hahaha!  As we did laps, the instructor would comment on what needs to be improved and she keeps telling me to relax and flutter more forcefully.  That's probably easier if my abdominal muscles were not cramping again.  Anyway, I just try to forget the pain and do what needs to be done.  Call it the adrenaline rush and with six other students, I just didn't want to be the center of attention (or public humiliation).  

I've found this great video that gives a demo of the front crawl free style (which I wrongly termed in Day 2 as Treading).  I envy how she does it so smoothly and almost effortlessly.  I, on the other hand still struggle with coordination, particularly when I try to turn my head to the side and inhale.  I don't really get to inhale significant amount of air and most times, I just turn my head.  I guess I'm still a big work in progress.   Concentrating on too many things at the same time is really distracting.  I always lose the flutter kick when I do arm movements and I still sink when I attempt to breathe.  Sometimes, it gets frustrating but I just keep doing it again and again and again.  I guess I have to put in tons of practice to do it like this girl in the video.

swimming technique front crawl

Part 2:  Breaststroke and Frog Kick

The instructor wanted to move on with the lessons already and she just told us to go back to the free style during practice days.  I guess she figured we can't perfect that one within the day so might as well teach us another style.  She demonstrated how to do the frog kick first and I was saying to myself that it's another genius idea to humiliate myself.  Must be the frustration getting to me that time but like before, I just follow orders.  As they say, you never know until you try and once I did, I just felt an overwhelming relaxing feeling doing the frog kick.  Sure it takes effort to kick the legs apart on either side and bring back the legs together but all I can think of as I was doing my turn was "Wow, I love this."  And I loved it even more when she taught us the moves for the hand which is called the breaststroke.  It's like wiping the inside of a big bowl in front of you.  Putting the two movements together, I finally found where I'm good at, or so I think (I'll tell you later why it was just a thought after all).  It's the one thing I was able to do at first try and with so much ease! At some point, my instructor even commended me and on hindsight she must be thinking she should have taught me that first so I'll gain more confidence in the water.  

Oh but whatever, I just love the gliding feeling doing this style.  It's a bit tasking on the hip joints but I'm not complaining really.  

Day 5:  Incorporating Breathing in Breaststroke

I was doing great with the breaststroke and frog kick style.  It's slower than the front crawl but slower means more relaxed and coordination with hand and leg movements is relatively easier.  At least part of the frustration is ebbing, but I realize, my small triumph is short lived. 

In breaststroke, breathing is timed as you initialize the hand movement.  I was supposed to part the water and bring my mouth just above the waterline and inhale through that.  In theory, that sounded easy.  In practice, bringing my head up causes my legs to sink and never recover the balance.  So I was just sinking and sinking until my feet touched the tiles.  Not only that but when I successfully lifted my head above water line and try to gasp in air within split second, what I take in instead was the water still dripping from my mouth. Okay, so I just kept trying, and failing and trying, and failing and at some point I actually swallowed my first mouthful of chlorinated water.  Arrrgggghhhhhhh!!!   

How I'll ever do it like this girl in the video, there are only two words for me: concentrate and practice.  I guess I don't have much choice if I really want to learn.  So whatever frustration I'm feeling, I just need to shove it aside, like I did with my fear of water.

breaststroke swimming

Also in this series:

• Learning How to Swim...Finally (or Hopefully)
• Swimming Lessons Day 1: Breathe Then Let Go
• Swimming Lessons Day 2: Treading the Waters
• Swimming Lessons Day 3: Free Styling
• Swimming Lessons Day 6: Learning to Back Float
• Final Swimming Lesson: Treading and Diving in Deep Waters