It's January again - the time for New Year's Resolutions. If you're one of those people who want to improve your swimming skills, there is no better time to do it. Maybe you want to try a triathlon or do an open water swim. Maybe you just want to improve your fitness. Or maybe you want to achieve that childhood dream of being a good swimmer. Whatever your motivation,take that first step and check at your local pool for squad sessions they have available. While my book Adults Guide To Better Swimming is designed for people who are either unable to join a squad or simply don't want to, I really do believe it is the single best way to really improve your swimming skills. It can be a bit intimidating when you first attend a squad session, especially if you are still developing your fitness but remember most of the other people in squad had to start somewhere too! Check the website or make that call and find out what's involved. Some pools have squads especially for beginners while others simply have different lanes for varying ability levels. Whatever the set up at your local pool make sure you talk to the coach before you start. Explain where you are with your swimming ability and talk about what you want to achieve. If there are mixed ability levels it is the coach's job to adapt the program to suit all swimmers. They will probably do a bit of an assessment of your different strokes and offer some basic advice to get you started (if there are major issues they may give you a separate workout altogether to help build up your skills). If you have never swum in a squad before it is almost certain that you will lag behind the other swimmers to start with, but please don't let that put you off. Do as much as you can and keep at it! The first few weeks will be tough, but you will eventually start to see improvement. As you learn the kind of sets your coach gives, you will get used to the different sessions and discover what you like and dislike. Perhaps one of the best aspects of squad is the social component. Swimming with others not only helps you find new friends, it will motivate you to improve and keep up with the other swimmers in your lane. Not to mention it will give you people to celebrate a great time or commiserate when you are assigned an especially tough workout!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|