Finally, some swim help

I’ve been swimming for about a year now, and trying that entire time to find someone to help me with my swimming.  I had one lesson many months ago, and then the instructor never showed up again.  I tried to get lessons from the coach of the local swim team, and she chickened out at the last minute.  One of the lifeguards said he would help, but we never seemed to catch up with each other.  Keith at the gym said he teaches TI (Total Immersion), but seems too hung up on his experiences of 12+ years ago.

I found another swim coach, who also teaches TI, but he lives in Dallas which isn’t all that convenient to swing by for a swim lesson.  He said he would contact me when he came in town, maybe in September.

Then last weekend I went for an open water swim with the Bike Barn Tri Club.  As I was leaving the property owner mentioned that he had someone who taught swimming that came out every Friday afternoon to help people just like me.  I showed up promptly at 3, only to be informed he didn’t usually show up until 4 or later.  I waited about as long as I could before giving up and going out for a short swim of my own.  As I was toweling off to leave, here came Richard.

I only had a few minutes to work with him, but they were very productive minutes.  He showed me three things, two of which I could actually try to use in the race the next day.  The third was a drill and will have to wait for pool work (if I even try to implement it).  I figured a long open water swim was the perfect place to try out these two new techniques, as long as they didn’t get me too winded.  Nothing causes me more anxiety than the thought of getting winded in a deep open water swim, where maybe the lifeguards won’t spot me!

Either way, I have some stuff to work on that he says will fix my problem of swimming uphill, and I cannot wait to get after it!  I might even make it a habit of heading out there to swim several more times on Fridays for more help and open water practice.  It is a nice place to swim after all, even if it is 40 miles away!