You can buy stuff that makes you better at something. In terms of swimming, it could be a £500 wetsuit that might have zonal bouyancy which will make you float better in different places. It might be a snazzy new pair of goggles that are designed for (and by) someone like Michael Phelps, so will be optimised to make you swim faster. It might be a new hat, a tow bag, or some such thing. All of which will have an effect on your swimming.
In the past few months I've managed to get a bit more efficient - and subsequently- a bit faster. I've spent some money on it as well- but it isn't like I've thrown money at it. So- what have I changed and where have the benefits come from?
What have I changed?
Wetsuit
First up, if you read a previous blog about my Alpkit Lotic wetsuit, you'll know I kind of destroyed it. It started off fairly ok, I had to keep repairing it with Black Witch and then it basically just started self destructing. I bought a new wetsuit made by Huub. (yes, I know Huub make wetsuits for Alpkit, but figured that going for the next rung up the tree might be a good idea). Wow. You can spend a lot of money on a wetsuit. No- £500 did NOT get dropped on a suit. Not even £200. I found their 2nds/refurb and demo models page and bought an Axiom for a reduced price. It's lovely, but I've only used it a few times- is that the thing that has made me a bit better? Maybe slightly- but I don't think that is the thing.
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| Somewhat amusingly, this is the ONLY photo I can find of my wetsuit in my gallery! |
Goggles
I wear glasses and contacts. Up until about november I was just wearing a pair of fairly standard goggles without contacts. There are all kinds of horror stories about wearing contact lenses in goggles, getting water in there and then lots of nasty things happen to your eyes. No idea how much of these stories are accurate and how much is rumour, but I quite like being able to see (after a fashion), so just stuck with not being able to see all that much in standard goggles.
In December I got fed up of not being able to see anything, so bought a pair of prescription goggles from Zoggs. They were a lot less expensive than I feared- like about £30- (so inexpensive I considered getting a pair as a pair of glasses to wander around in... no, Im kidding), and they somewhat revolutionised my pool swimming. I could see what I was doing and where I was going! Outside, there was no feeling of being in an enclosed sensory deprivation chamber. There was less to panic about, and the whole experience was a lot more pleasurable.
Excellent. Did it make my swimming better? Probably not better, but they did make it more enjoyable.
Hat
I resisted wearing a silicone hat for a while. No bones about it- it was a vanity thing. I didn't want to be the idiot walking/swimming around in a bright yellow silicone hat. What a ponce!
(yellow was the option as I had been given a yellow one).
Some time in December, maybe about the same time as I got the goggles I bit the bullet- having got tired of having water blocking up my ears. (don't even go there with earplugs). The hat keeps water out of my ears and stops all kinds of horrible discomforts. Not news to a lot of people, but news to me.
Did it make me a better swimmer? No. But again, it makes the whole thing a bit more enjoyable.
Lessons
Now we come to the crux. Initially I had heard about Total Immersion technique and went off to have a few sessions with this. I know that it works for quite a few people, but after a number of lessons, it felt like I was just trying to massively alter my stroke so that it looked nice above the water- but there was nothing useful being gained in terms of actual propulsion. This isn't the case for everyone, granted, but it was my experience- so I looked for another path.
That path was an initial 121 lesson, followed by another one 4 months later. I had 2 lessons with Dave Quartermain from Uswim last year- as I wrote about in this blog. The first one was a complete revelation- as was the fact I was going to have to join a pool and swim 3 times a week to get better. Not something I wanted to do, but something that had to be done. After a couple of months I went back for a further hour of tuition to iron out some bad habits that I might have got into in the intervening period, and then continued to swim 3 times a week in a pool for the next 2 and a half months- basically until Lockdown. The plan was to cancel my pool membership at that point anyway, so that was fine.
Has this helped?
I think it would be fair to say that the 2 hours of input from Dave has revolutionised my swimming. Just recently we've been out swimming in the local watering hole and I am keeping up with people who previously had been effortlessly leaving me in their wake. My stroke is easier, more fluid, more relaxed. I have time to look around, to sight, to enjoy myself in the water, whereas previously it was a blur of desperately expended energy trying to keep up with them.
The more I "slow down", the better my position in the water becomes, the more efficient my stroke gets and the faster I go. It's ridiculous.
Best money spent on swimming?
2 lessons with Dave Quartermain and 3 months of swimming in a pool 3x a week- without a shadow of a doubt.
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