Trying to get into swimming. As a kid my parents didn't have the means so I've always struggled with it. I've had 2 weeks of pretty consistent practice. Trying to get better at the front crawl for now because that's the stroke that seems most rewarding to me.
I can usually approach exercises with some pretty intuitive attention to my form and a few simple rules-of-thumb ("move the weight on the shortest path," "use the shortest lever arm") but swimming is weird because ...
@cosmiccitizen Reach as far as you can in front of you and stick your thumb in the water with the rest of your hand following like a knife. It's really finding mu by feathering after that and techniques are prescriptive. And then do it again. Turn your mouth above the surface of the water now and again to take a breath. Don't wear baggy swim shorts.
@cosmiccitizen Also learn to turn. There's water going up your nose. Reverse the pressure because you took a breath recently.
@tootkoTootarov Thank you very much. I'm ashamed to say I'm stymied by the meaning of "finding mu by feathering." I apologize for the loss of mystique I have just incurred.
My sense is that you're talking about finding traction ("mu," as in friction) through lil' subtleties in my gesture ("feathering")
@cosmiccitizen That's it. The technique a coach teaches you gets you closer to perfect than you were, but swimming is not all about the energy you expend, and it isn't all about how you manage the energy, but it is about both of those factors and others 😀
@tootkoTootarov
I've been swimming short intervals 2-3 times a week for about three months and I feel like this last weekend I finally broke through to some second level.
I have really appreciated this advice all along, and I've just been musing to myself about "feathering for mu" as I've been watching the pool tiles glide past.
With the benefit of experience, I would add maybe one thing to your first-order prescriptions...
@tootkoTootarov
A beginner will be very sensitive about one's face-holes due to the demands of actively managing breathing.
To simplify this problem, it's best to wear earplugs and tight goggles. They are worth it because this drastically reduces the total number of face-holes to actively manage.
As a side benefit, this also simplifies the required head-movements and contributes to mu-feathering.
@cosmiccitizen
hard-agree on goggles, unsure about earplugs and I suspect pros must have ways of managing their face-holes which could include earplugs or like some kind of otherworldly breath control. I know I always felt miserable in turns but they're only momentary.
moving through water involves lots of counter-intuitive dynamics. Like at some level I figure that I'm gliding inside a buoyant zone just below the water, and my "propulsion" is made by reaching out and grabbing water in front of me and then shoving it below and behind me. But there's lots of little complications from this that I don't yet have a vocabulary to appreciate.