After I decided to pick up triathlon-training I realized that I had to learn how to swim Freestyle. An instructional book was purchased, many videos were watched online, and of course I went out and got myself a fancy Speedo swim suit, a pair of goggles, and a swim cap. After all, that was what the people in the videos were wearing. Since I always felt pretty comfortable in the water, never had any issues with diving or breast-stroking longer distances, I figured it wouldn't be so hard to learn how to do the Freestyle stroke. Before I hit the pool on my first training day I looked up three specific exercises that I was going to do that were supposed to get me used to the stroke. My plan was to start off with one part of the technique and add more and more components until I had it down before starting actually attempting to swim longer distances. I had read that a good command of the technique is key to achieving speed and distance goals later.
I felt very fancy getting into the water at the local community pool with my gear on (btw: the swim suit colors match the bike). That fancy feeling didn't last for so long. Doing the individual moves was pretty easy and came natural to me, but whenever I tried to put it all together and attempted to swim a whole lap I was totally spent. I was gasping for air and felt incredibly slow. After about one hour I left the pool and was completely demoralized. I couldn't fathom being able to be swimming any type of distance that way. Although I know that professional coaching would be a tremendous help with my biking and running, I knew that the swimming would be going nowhere without a trainer. Again, I went online but this time I didn't look up "how-to-videos" but personal trainers that would help me with my swimming. I found a coach who is a triathlete himself and he offered to meet on a Sunday morning at 8:30 for an evaluation of my capabilities. I was honest with him and told him that my Freestyle stroke at that point resembled a paddling dog in the water but he was cool about it and said that he has seen a lot and wasn't going to be shocked very easily. So we met up and he made me swim a couple of laps to see where we would be starting. Of course this guy looks insanely muscular and fit and when he moves his pinky-finger ten muscles twitch and show all over his body. Needless to say I felt pretty awkward performing my Chihuahua-Freestyle in front of him... I don't know if he was just being nice or if he was honest but he said that my swim didn't actually look so bad and he started coaching me by giving me one movement to focus on and then swim a lap with that move in mind. I have since had two lessons and will have three more consecutive meetings with him. After this initial intensive coaching phase he suggested a check-up meeting here and there until I will actually be racing next year. So far, these two tiny meetings have made a world of difference. I cannot believe what an impact it had to have him evaluate and coach me! I have since completed a 1,25 km (0.8 miles) Freestyle swim (remember: I initially was barely swimming two laps!) and I feel confident about what I am doing. Of course I am far from perfect but I know what problems to tackle and how to go about it. It's unbelievable and in my early stages of this whole endeavor gives me confidence that I can improve my performance in all disciplines. The work with a coach in this particular area also shows me that it will probably be a good investment to incorporate professionally supervised training units for all three disciplines. It's so easy to spend money on gear and gadgets while in many cases just a few hours with a coach would be 1000 times more beneficial!
