How to recover from a swimming position to avoid doing the somersault?
September 7, 2013 6:48 AM Subscribe
Hello, I'm an adult learning how to swim. I've been learning how to swim by myself at a YMCA pool where there's a lifeguard around. I have been able to do the streamline kick without floatie at the 3-ft end. However, I realize that when I start adding the arm movement, I lose my balance on the water and I start to panic. At certain times, I felt like I would start doing the somersault if I wasn't near the edge of the pool to grab onto it. Can you show me an effective way to recover and get my feet down to the bottom of the pool and get my head back up? When I swim toward the deeper end, there's more buoyancy and I panic when I can't get my feet down.
Thanks so much for your advice!
Practice turning over in the water, i.e. float on your front, turn to your back, float on your back. Then progress to practicing somersaults. Stay parallel to the edge of the pool. You can use the wall of the pool to orient yourself if you have to but try not to hold on to the edge.
Then get back to swimming strokes. Don't 'add' the arm movement. Keep your legs still, extended and practice the arm movement alone. Then put it together.
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:03 AM on September 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
Then get back to swimming strokes. Don't 'add' the arm movement. Keep your legs still, extended and practice the arm movement alone. Then put it together.
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:03 AM on September 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
Are you starting with crawl/freestyle strokes? You might have better luck if you start with something mellow like a backstroke where you are keeping your face out of the water, so you get used to the motion of your arms and learn to sort of keep your body more or less planked while you're doing that. I had some luck when I was getting back in the pool of watching YouTube videos of proper swimming form so that I could get a handle on where my arms and legs were supposed to be and try to mimic that when I was in the pool. Unless you are very very thin, your body's natural impulse is to float and if you're doing something with your arms strokes that are somehow digging the top of your body downward, you probably need to adjust it a little so you're not doing that (I started getting better when I thought of my hands as slicers when I was freestyle swimming, not as scoops). It's scary when you get started but trust your body to mostly not-sink and then learn the strokes and kicks that will help you move your body around the pool. Best of luck, it will get easier, I promise.
posted by jessamyn at 7:07 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 7:07 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
Good for you, learning to swim as an adult! That has to be a challenge. I learned as a kid, and my children had swimming lessons at the Y. I would second getting a few lessons with a swim coach at your pool. The gym and pool I belong to now has a wonderful swim coach, and he works with all ages. I have seen him with little kids, young adults, and older people, and he is great with every age and level. Having someone show you the correct strokes, encourage you, and make you feel safe can cut out a lot of time and also prevent developing bad habits. It would be well worth your while to invest in some lessons now.
posted by mermayd at 7:29 AM on September 7, 2013
posted by mermayd at 7:29 AM on September 7, 2013
I think you should focus on getting totally comfortable with how your body moves in the water first, then try to actually swim second. Just forget about strokes, arms, kicks, etc, and play around. Bob up and down, float on your back, dunk your head, and yes, learn somersaults. This is how kids learn!
posted by yarly at 7:47 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by yarly at 7:47 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I have always found the crawl/freestyle to be the trickiest of the common strokes, because there are so many moving parts to coordinate.
Have you tried starting with something like a modified breaststroke, using scissor kick (as you have been doing) but a windshield-wiper type arm movement (similar to what's shown here)? You can keep your head above water the whole time, or can sort of bob to breathe - face in, face out, face in, face out? (Or, you could do something like a sidestroke - easy to keep your face out of the water, head in a single orientation.)
It's a slower stroke, but it doesn't require your head and torso to change orientation, so it might make it easier to skip the dizzy/disoriented/which way is up feeling. You could use this to practice moving in the water, and using your arms and legs at the same time, then move on to a more correct/faster breast or crawl.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:06 AM on September 7, 2013
Have you tried starting with something like a modified breaststroke, using scissor kick (as you have been doing) but a windshield-wiper type arm movement (similar to what's shown here)? You can keep your head above water the whole time, or can sort of bob to breathe - face in, face out, face in, face out? (Or, you could do something like a sidestroke - easy to keep your face out of the water, head in a single orientation.)
It's a slower stroke, but it doesn't require your head and torso to change orientation, so it might make it easier to skip the dizzy/disoriented/which way is up feeling. You could use this to practice moving in the water, and using your arms and legs at the same time, then move on to a more correct/faster breast or crawl.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:06 AM on September 7, 2013
Good for you! I was never a big swimmer, but got interested later in life and swam regularly for a few years. I found swimsmooth quite helpful, which has nice drills and a clear app. There are some good videos on youtube too.
With that said, I've always found freestyle breathing and technique difficult and breaststroke much easier. I agree that playing around in the water and getting comfortable would be good.
posted by idb at 8:16 AM on September 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
With that said, I've always found freestyle breathing and technique difficult and breaststroke much easier. I agree that playing around in the water and getting comfortable would be good.
posted by idb at 8:16 AM on September 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
It's hard to say what will help without seeing you swim in person. I know that you had trouble with your last instructor, and that it's hard to learn to swim as an adult with a fear of the water, but this is just to say that a good instructor could really be useful here. If you were in my area, I'd be happy to give you a lesson. I'll do my best to explain some strategies that you can try, but it's hard to describe them without showing you in person.
My guess is that, if you feel like your head is pulling you down, it's because your head is too low in the water (maybe you're looking at the bottom of the pool or have your chin tucked somehow). People who are learning to swim tend to have a hard time figuring out where to put their head, and either lift it too high (which pulls their bottom half down) or dip it too low (which pulls their top half down).
So instead, I think that you should practice transitioning from front floats for as long as you can hold your breath to a standing position. Most people use their arms underwater to orient themselves back up. Just do maybe 10 repetitions of this. Try both a "dead man's float" (arms dangling like a jellyfish) and a float where you try to rest your arms and legs at the surface. Get really comfortable with how your body feels in different floating positions, and get used to transitioning back to standing.
Then, try doing a modified front crawl with a kickboard: hold it with one hand (corresponding arm straight in front of you), and your other arm at your side, and kick while breathing out. Your head should be angled so that your face is fully in the water, but you can see the kickboard without moving your head. Then, switch arms, and roll your head to the side to breathe in, so one half of your face is still in the water (your ear should more or less rest against your arm that's holding the kickboard). If you're left-handed, breathe in on your right side, and if you're right handed, breathe in on your left side. You could also try with a snorkel mask if you want to get your balance right without adding breathing for now.
I definitely agree that you should practice somersaulting eventually. But this is probably really scary right now and you shouldn't do it if you're not comfortable with it. A good instructor could help you somersault so that you don't panic in the middle. You could also try doing handstands underwater, which could approximate some of the head-upside-down feeling and give you practice on righting yourself.
In my experience, there's a lot that new swimmers perceive as scary about the pool, but the actually bad things are exceedingly unlikely to happen (particularly to adults in water that they can stand in) and the rest aren't scary when they happen (e.g., getting water in your nose). But you'll never believe this for yourself until you try!
Good luck! Feel free to memail me if you need more suggestions.
posted by quiet coyote at 8:43 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
My guess is that, if you feel like your head is pulling you down, it's because your head is too low in the water (maybe you're looking at the bottom of the pool or have your chin tucked somehow). People who are learning to swim tend to have a hard time figuring out where to put their head, and either lift it too high (which pulls their bottom half down) or dip it too low (which pulls their top half down).
So instead, I think that you should practice transitioning from front floats for as long as you can hold your breath to a standing position. Most people use their arms underwater to orient themselves back up. Just do maybe 10 repetitions of this. Try both a "dead man's float" (arms dangling like a jellyfish) and a float where you try to rest your arms and legs at the surface. Get really comfortable with how your body feels in different floating positions, and get used to transitioning back to standing.
Then, try doing a modified front crawl with a kickboard: hold it with one hand (corresponding arm straight in front of you), and your other arm at your side, and kick while breathing out. Your head should be angled so that your face is fully in the water, but you can see the kickboard without moving your head. Then, switch arms, and roll your head to the side to breathe in, so one half of your face is still in the water (your ear should more or less rest against your arm that's holding the kickboard). If you're left-handed, breathe in on your right side, and if you're right handed, breathe in on your left side. You could also try with a snorkel mask if you want to get your balance right without adding breathing for now.
I definitely agree that you should practice somersaulting eventually. But this is probably really scary right now and you shouldn't do it if you're not comfortable with it. A good instructor could help you somersault so that you don't panic in the middle. You could also try doing handstands underwater, which could approximate some of the head-upside-down feeling and give you practice on righting yourself.
In my experience, there's a lot that new swimmers perceive as scary about the pool, but the actually bad things are exceedingly unlikely to happen (particularly to adults in water that they can stand in) and the rest aren't scary when they happen (e.g., getting water in your nose). But you'll never believe this for yourself until you try!
Good luck! Feel free to memail me if you need more suggestions.
posted by quiet coyote at 8:43 AM on September 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
You'll find breaststroke so much easier to start with, from my memories of my nephews swimming classes that's what they all start with because you don't have to put your whole face under the water to do it at first and as your confidence builds you can go under more and more. It's also an easy stroke because you can do it in a deeper part of the pool where your head and arms are sort of naturally at the right height and just lift your legs up a little and kick even a foot or so off the bottom to start with. It takes a bit of practice to get used to lifting your legs all the way up so you are completely parallel to the bottom of the pool, and breaststroke by having yoru arms out in front of you helps stop that somersaulting problem and you can slowly work on getting your legs up once you get some forward momentum going.
They also do a lot of exercises where kids get used to going under water in a non swimming manner, so lots of bobbing down and practicing holding their breath and things like that, not so much for breath control but just to get them used to putting their heads under the water. Also they do lots of "dead man floats" which is a terrible name but I know they used to spend part of every session practicing floating on their front and backs.
Not a swimming instructor in any way so make of this what you will I just spent several summers driving nieces and nephews to swim classes and watching what they do.
posted by wwax at 8:44 AM on September 7, 2013
They also do a lot of exercises where kids get used to going under water in a non swimming manner, so lots of bobbing down and practicing holding their breath and things like that, not so much for breath control but just to get them used to putting their heads under the water. Also they do lots of "dead man floats" which is a terrible name but I know they used to spend part of every session practicing floating on their front and backs.
Not a swimming instructor in any way so make of this what you will I just spent several summers driving nieces and nephews to swim classes and watching what they do.
posted by wwax at 8:44 AM on September 7, 2013
I think it's really great your learning how to swim, but I think you may find it beneficial to take a few adult-learner classes if for no other reason than to help boost your confidence. Swimming is one of those sports where it can get tricky to describe what you should do vs having someone show you how to do it.
You're awesome for having come as far you have on your own!
posted by zizzle at 9:21 AM on September 7, 2013
You're awesome for having come as far you have on your own!
posted by zizzle at 9:21 AM on September 7, 2013
Floating into vertical recovery If I read your question correctly, this youtube should help. You will engage your tummy muscles too!
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 9:27 AM on September 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 9:27 AM on September 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
I've never taught anyone how to swim so I won't try with you...over the internet! ;) However, one thing that you might try is that when you start to panic, see if you can pause. Just try your hardest to pause and check in with yourself, with your body. There's often an instant aaak! reaction when your body does something funny in the water but water is very forgiving and your body is more buoyant than you think. So, if you start to roll and feel like you need to clutch for the wall try in that moment to just relax and see what your body is going to do. It's often tension in the water that sends us the wrong way and relaxing can right us. Best of luck! And see if you can do a private lesson with someone who works with adult beginner swimmers. Even just two or three lessons will help you get comfortable. I'm always more comfortable learning something new when I have a spotter.
posted by amanda at 9:43 AM on September 7, 2013
posted by amanda at 9:43 AM on September 7, 2013
Nthing the congratulations. I may be a touch biased (I coach swimmers for a living) but I happen to think this is pretty nifty stuff.
I do have a little advice, though it's not all as direct as I think you'd prefer.
Firstly I think you're probably doing the right thing - getting in the water, getting some practice and exploring. I would strongly suggest spending some more time doing just that. In particular spending some time in the shallow end figuring out just what you can do under water. Learning what it really takes to sit n the bottom, roll over and just how much intention is required to initiate a somersault.
I think you will find that:
1) depth is not related to buoyancy though panic and apprehension can cloud this. Once you're floating you're floating and the pool might be another inch deeper or a mile, you'll float all the same. Being comfortable with this takes some experience and exposure. I have found the fastest way for most of the adults I've worked with to accomplish this is to.... forget being an adult. It's play time. Tag and ball games and jumping and the like. Shallow enough to be comfortable, deep enough to be safe.
2)A somersault is actually reasonably difficult to do. It's not going to happen by accident. The only athletes for which this isn't true (in my experience) are those with double above the knee amputations. Otherwise the limbs are too long, the axis and center of buoyancy don't work out. It's an important skill for my kids to learn and they _all_ have to learn it. No one does it 'naturally', 'accidentally' or even on the first several attempts with assistance. Losing your balance is unsettling and off putting but I can virtually guarantee that you're not going to end up upside down without some not insignificant effort to be so.
3)Learning to recover to a safe feeling position is important - you really are on to something here. For my kids with neurological complaints we spend an amazing amount of time learning to float and sit up from floating before we do _anything_ else. They will learn to perform all kinds of skill before they learn to breath on their stomach. You're not going to be in quite this position but I think the principle holds. I would suggest, in waist deep water, practicing floating on your stomach and drawing your knees under your chin to stand up. Knees first, then shoulders back and then hip extenstion to reach your feet towards the bottom. Water should pour off your back, your face will come out _after_ your hair and your feet should touch the bottom before your legs finish straightening. This accomplishes a couple of things:
a)Not reaching for the breath first will control back extension which is important to avoid so you don't get swamped before contacting something solid
b)when you do contact the bottom the action of standing should push your head up and not forward, minimizing the potential for slipping and falling back in the water.
4) This might seem rather self interested but get some lessons. Some things you really can do by yourself and somethings are just going to be safer, faster and more pleasant with help. This is one of the latter. I would strongly suggest checking with your pool and finding out what options you have for private/semi private lessons. Just like any other skill practicing on your own will help but it's a really good idea to get some instruction and guidance in there too. Plus, as previously mentioned, some skills will b acquired much easier with some scaffolding and spotting along the way.
I would like to wish you the very best of luck and hope that this is as exciting and pleasurable as i think it ought to be ;) . Welcome to swimming: jump in with both feet, the water's excellent.
posted by mce at 10:41 AM on September 7, 2013 [7 favorites]
I do have a little advice, though it's not all as direct as I think you'd prefer.
Firstly I think you're probably doing the right thing - getting in the water, getting some practice and exploring. I would strongly suggest spending some more time doing just that. In particular spending some time in the shallow end figuring out just what you can do under water. Learning what it really takes to sit n the bottom, roll over and just how much intention is required to initiate a somersault.
I think you will find that:
1) depth is not related to buoyancy though panic and apprehension can cloud this. Once you're floating you're floating and the pool might be another inch deeper or a mile, you'll float all the same. Being comfortable with this takes some experience and exposure. I have found the fastest way for most of the adults I've worked with to accomplish this is to.... forget being an adult. It's play time. Tag and ball games and jumping and the like. Shallow enough to be comfortable, deep enough to be safe.
2)A somersault is actually reasonably difficult to do. It's not going to happen by accident. The only athletes for which this isn't true (in my experience) are those with double above the knee amputations. Otherwise the limbs are too long, the axis and center of buoyancy don't work out. It's an important skill for my kids to learn and they _all_ have to learn it. No one does it 'naturally', 'accidentally' or even on the first several attempts with assistance. Losing your balance is unsettling and off putting but I can virtually guarantee that you're not going to end up upside down without some not insignificant effort to be so.
3)Learning to recover to a safe feeling position is important - you really are on to something here. For my kids with neurological complaints we spend an amazing amount of time learning to float and sit up from floating before we do _anything_ else. They will learn to perform all kinds of skill before they learn to breath on their stomach. You're not going to be in quite this position but I think the principle holds. I would suggest, in waist deep water, practicing floating on your stomach and drawing your knees under your chin to stand up. Knees first, then shoulders back and then hip extenstion to reach your feet towards the bottom. Water should pour off your back, your face will come out _after_ your hair and your feet should touch the bottom before your legs finish straightening. This accomplishes a couple of things:
a)Not reaching for the breath first will control back extension which is important to avoid so you don't get swamped before contacting something solid
b)when you do contact the bottom the action of standing should push your head up and not forward, minimizing the potential for slipping and falling back in the water.
4) This might seem rather self interested but get some lessons. Some things you really can do by yourself and somethings are just going to be safer, faster and more pleasant with help. This is one of the latter. I would strongly suggest checking with your pool and finding out what options you have for private/semi private lessons. Just like any other skill practicing on your own will help but it's a really good idea to get some instruction and guidance in there too. Plus, as previously mentioned, some skills will b acquired much easier with some scaffolding and spotting along the way.
I would like to wish you the very best of luck and hope that this is as exciting and pleasurable as i think it ought to be ;) . Welcome to swimming: jump in with both feet, the water's excellent.
posted by mce at 10:41 AM on September 7, 2013 [7 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
What is it that makes you have the panicky feeling, exactly? Is it just water on your face, or the feeling of it closing over your head? Can you start by, say, holding on to the edge of the pool while you just crouch lower and lower until you're under the water (feet still on the bottom), and then progress to lifting your feet up a little so you're floating, then letting your body lean forward so that you start the somersault - etc. until you've actually completed a whole turn.
Also, a couple of lessons from a swim coach might go a long way to making this a shorter, easier learning curve. It's totally natural for your brain to freak out that you're going into this alien environment; you have to teach your brain that yes, you can function and be competent and even awesome in this environment. Good luck and welcome to the world of water!
posted by rtha at 7:01 AM on September 7, 2013 [5 favorites]