Im am what is known as a sinker... or to be more accurate "Swing arms and legs and get nowhere, as the baby toddler paddles away metres in front of me".

Any tips.

Any areas muscle areas that if strengthed could improve my swimming.

(I dont want to get a trainer to help me, its too embarassing lol)

Abs, glutes, core, back and shoulders for general swimming. There are many different strokes though and some will utilize diff muscles such as the chest.

It's hard to know how to help without seeing you swim, but my first guess is that you need some good technique. Good technique will make weaklings swim fast. Bad technique will frustrated the most physically fit people with just treading water. I doubt your problem is a lack of strength in certain muscles.

What to do about it? I don't know. Might get a good friend who is a good swimmer to help. I don't know.

I'll ditto what has been said above.

I am a former competitive swimmer and at the learning stage it is all about technique. For example, you can swing your arms wildly and expend tons of energy but go nowhere fast. If you don't have stroke technique swimming can be an exhausting exercise. Once you have technique down swimming a mile is as easy as walking one.

Check out your local pool or rec center and see if there are adult swimming courses. They are more common than one might expect. You might also want to go to the library and pick up some books on the subject.

:gl:

You know what, I was in the same boat and I would recommend two things...

Do it. The more you do it, the better you get.

Soak it in. Soak in any information you can get from anyone. I would go to the steam room/hot tub right after and throw questions at experienced swimmers. After a month or so of doing it, they would watch me and have pointers for me after my workout.

Hi there. I would say definitely find out about adult swimming lessons, I signed up for some in September, not being able to swim a single stroke of front crawl and found it SO helpful. Now I just go by myself a couple of mornings a week and practise, and I am doing more lengths of crawl every single week and getting less exhausted in doing them! 40 lengths today (with a bit of a rest in the middle), my most ever - woo-hoo!

Also take a look at this link, it's got really good descriptions and moving images of what each stroke should look like.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/swimming/skills/default.stm

Enjoy yourself!

Hey there,

I swam varsity all through college and also was involved in some coaching of kids teams. Currently I swim twice a week as part of my cardio routine, and at the pool i swim at there are many adults in the same boat as you. I have been helping this woman who wants to train for a triathalon but has almost no swimming ability.

I can tell you that she is in amazing shape, but her marathon level fitness is of no help once shes in the pool; its all technique. The more you stick with it, the more improvement you will see, however you may get stuck without someone watching you to see what you are doing wrong: not keeping your knees straight and not kicking with your hips, not doing proper rotary breathing, flip turns, etc.

At the pool you train don't be shy to ask a few questions or a stroke critique from somebody wearing a speedo and swimming fast, odds are they are a former competitive swimmer and for the most part we are a friendly bunch who love to promote our sport.

Hi,

thanks for the replies all :cool: :tu:

My gym has a pool which ive only used twice (i prefer to do weights as it feels more of an intense workout). Most of the staff there arent really expert swimmers AFAIK they just make sure noones turning blue.
Both occassions I went into the pool I didnt see many athletic type swimmers just the normal breast strokers.

Go more consistantly -- you'll see 'em.

They tend to flock in the mornings I've found.