Swim Lessons / Technique

When I did my OW, my swimming technique left a lot to be desired. I used no recognizable stroke, even though I had no issue meeting the requirements. Quite frankly, I was not interested in spending time in the water before discovering scuba, so good technique was hardly high on my "to do" list.

Things are different now. I don't care about looking pretty, but I do care about efficiency. So last winter I took two sets of lessons. I entered last dive season still not able to do a proper crawl. This winter I registered for lessons again. I was bound and determined I was going to learn a proper crawl if it killed me.

Round about the 3rd or 4th session, the instructor clued in to what I was doing wrong. I was windmilling my arms, like you would do on a back crawl, rather than letting my arms "catch up". No wonder I was having difficulty timing my breathing. I can't believe that my instructors on the 1st two sets of lessons didn't see that. The last few weeks I went back to using a flutter board to relearn the mechanical action,and my breathing timing has largely followed. Almost done my 3rd set of lessons, it is finally starting to click. I can actually go a whole pool length with properly timed breathing! I know this doesn't sound like much to many, but it is a big deal to me. As I develop proper technique, I fully expect my energy expenditure to go way down.

If I keep this up, I may actually end up looking like I know what I'm doing!

This has done wonders for my comfort / confidence level. It is simply a matter of practice and repetition from here.

Good stuff! Congrats. Once you can do a length, the rest keeps falling in place if you swim a few times a week.

As in your case, I struggled during the swim test for OW, but I made it. I used to be decent at swimming, but it had been at least five years since I even did a stroke. On the first few laps, I was like "Hmmm, this isn't that bad," but by the end, I had tuckered myself out. My problems stemmed from not pacing myself steadily. I understood that I had problems, so the next month, I signed up for a swim class. Now I swim a few times a week, around 40-50 laps each time (slowly building up from 5-10 when I started). Because of this and scuba, I have grown very confident and comfortable in water.

Glad you have started to do the same. Swimming is great cardio, as well as a lifesaver.

Try this...

I would not feel too bad about your swimming skills

My parents enrolled me in swimming lessons as a youth and I pretty much completed the lessons, I got my bronze medallion ( life saver). But after years of complacency and smoking, I had a very hard time completing my ow surface swim of 300 M. Yeah I did it, but I was rolling over like an otter. I few front crawl strokes and then flip over to my back, my cardio sucked, I was tiring quickly.

It does make a huge difference to your confidence level in open water situations, just knowing that you can probably swim whatever distance is needed will calm you like a fully inflated bc at the surface while you wait for your ride

Being comfortable in the water is what scuba is all about. (IMO) Virtually anyone I have had a conversation with about scuba that feels they would never want to try it states they are poor swimmers or never learned how to swim. Feeling confident on top of the water should extend to your efficiency under the water. Congrats to you for continuing to work with your difficulties.

Just as with scuba, swimming gets easier, more efficient and more natural with experience and time doing it. My wife and I were below average swimmers until a few years back we added a weekly, sometimes twice weekly swimming event to our exercise schedule. We swim a mile, broken up into quarter mile segments, in a 25 meter pool. We did not start out doing that distance, but within a few months were very comfortable doing it. No fins allowed, though we will use mask and snorkel some times, especially in the week or two before a dive trip, just for "acclimation." We do not race, and have settled in at about 2 minutes per hundred meters. It is relaxing, a good cardio exercise rate ( we are near 60). With gcarter, we think it just "feels right" to be competent swimmers, even if if our technique is not perfect.
DivemasterDennis

I commend you on strengthening your swimming skills. There are some things to improve our scuba skills that are "outside" of the scuba world, like swimming classes.
Swimming isn't really featured in rec training. We prove that we can do the requirement and move on.

I have grown very confident and comfortable in water.

I couldnt swim at all when I started diving but took some lessons since. It does get easier just hang in there!

gcarter, Nice job sticking with it. And I love to read a thread like yours which points out the vast differences between a sport like swimming and doing laps with mask, fins and snorkel. The skill involved to get the technique clicking. I know there are some that think there is little difference between the two activities and that somehow one should be able to swim well if one can do well with fins on. And on and on beating my old dead horse.