decidedlyodd

This morning I got up at the very reasonable time of 7:45am to try my luck at the neighborhood pool. I ended up getting over there around 8am and there was absolutely nobody there. I had the whole, albeit small, pool to myself. The laps went by quickly since the whole pool isn’t that long. The shallow end is also very shallow (3 feet) and I can actually touch the bottom with my hands while swimming prone. I found myself breathing only twice while going across, which obviously isn’t very far. Also, since there was nobody else there and since there are no good markers, I didn’t do any backstroke to be on the safe side. Still, lots of crawl and breakstroke ensued.

After doing that for about 30 minutes, I spent about another 30 minutes just working on flip turns. They really frustrate me, although I still think I’m getting better (very slowly though). I’ve come to realize that when I do the turn I’m moving my arms around, when in fact they should really just stay still. Basically, they start at my sides when I go into the turn and afterwards they should be pointing forward in the new direction but instead they’re flailing around and ending up back at my sides. I can actually complete a flip turn and recover if I move my arms, but then again that’s not really a proper flip turn. It’s not only bad form, but obviously not as efficient for resuming swimming. The problem lies in that if I don’t move my arms, I somehow end up way too deep in the pool (sometimes even bumping against the bottom of the pool in 4 or 5 feet of water). Conceptually, I think the problem is that I’m not tumbling the full 180 degrees, although it’s hard for me isolate exactly what I’m doing wrong. Maybe it’s not curling into a ball enough or not pushing hard enough downwards when I bring my outstretched arm in. Either way, I need more practice, but really I need somebody to watch and correct me. That’s not going to be able to happen though until September when I’ll be able to take stroke clinic at the YMCA again I guess.

In the mean time, it’s open turns and more flip practice I suppose. It just annoys me to no end though to see people so effortlessly flip turn at the pool. Throughout this, I was wearing the new suit I bought the other day. It fits quite well and I like it a whole lot better than the other suit I have, which is actually a water polo suit. I was casually looking around online today at prices for the suit I bought and I actually got a good deal. I paid $20 + tax and the cheapest I’ve seen otherwise for the same suit is $18.50 + shipping. The black and yellow Tyr suit I almost got at Sport Chalet was actually a great deal. It was $33 but with a 30% off sale they’re having (= $23.10 + tax). Nowhere has that suit for that price, although I think it may be from last season since I can’t actually find that pattern online anywhere. Regardless, I think I may pick it up later today after all since it’s a good deal.