Introduction

Summer is here, and I plan to maintain my daily exercise routine through swimming outside of work.

Of course, this choice isn’t completely out of the blue. When I was still working in Beijing, my leader at the time applied for swimming cards and took us to the swimming pool next to the company once a week. Every time I think about it, I can still remember how we’d eat some jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe) behind the company after swimming and then go back to work.

Background

Here it’s necessary to mention my swimming experience:

• After the college entrance exam, relatives bought me some local swimming tickets. I probably went about a dozen times that summer
• Sophomore year swimming class, got a yearly card for the school’s swimming pool (later mainly used for showering)
• After working in Beijing, leader took us to the swimming pool for exercise

As you can see, I started swimming quite late, and going to the pool was basically just messing around. I’m still learning in the shallow end to this day.

My current company reimburses a certain amount of fitness expenses, so I signed up for a swimming class near my home. Next, I’ll talk about my experience in the swimming class and my practice afterwards.

Learning

I signed up for an adult breaststroke class at the swimming pool, with classes from Monday to Friday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30. My planned learning schedule was after work on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

First week, went to class with a sense of unfamiliarity. Told the coach about my level and swam a short stretch of “breaststroke” in front of the coach. The coach shook his head: You should learn freestyle instead, your leg kicks look like butterfly stroke.

So I began learning freestyle:

1. Holding the edge, kicking
2. Holding a kickboard, kicking
3. Holding kickboard, kicking + single-arm stroke
4. Holding kickboard, kicking + stroke + high elbow recovery
5. Holding kickboard, kicking + single-arm stroke + breathing
6. Holding kickboard, kicking + stroke + breathing
7. Kickboard + coordination
8. No board coordination practice 9-12. Coordination practice

Besides learning in the swimming class, I also looked for video tutorials on video sites. The one I’m currently watching is “Mengjue Teaches Swimming – ‘Freestyle Introduction Version 2’ (with subtitles)” which has been very helpful.

A few key knowledge points that were important for me:

1. Side body kicking
2. Breathing
3. Training plan

Let me explain the “training plan” knowledge point - it’s very helpful for improving swimming level: before getting in the water each time, plan out the training for this session. For example, my current routine is 200 meters kicking practice + technique drills + 1.5km - 2km coordination practice.

This kind of planned training is much more efficient than simply practicing coordination swimming or sprint swimming each time. It’s also less boring, allowing for visible improvement in skill level.

Results

Currently swimming twice a week, about 1500-2000 meters of coordination practice each time. Due to breathing still not being smooth enough (gets distracting), swimming more than 100 meters continuously is still difficult. But breathing issues like choking on water and fake breathing have improved, and swimming 50 meters continuously is no longer an obstacle :)