Enjoy this well-detailed account from Matt, an Army soldier faithfully serving our country.
___________________________
I'm a soldier on Fort Bragg and I recently was given some motivation to improve my ability to swim. I found out about Total Immersion swimming, liked what I heard, and called up Brian Barndt in Raleigh, to get a couple of lessons. I convinced one of my buddies to go with me. We had two lessons from Brian last week and then this week I swam about 5 hours, 4 of them just working completely on TI drills that he taught us. I definitely made some progress and developed some competence in the first few drills but I started getting frustrated as I tried to progress to switches and other drills that lead to a full stroke. Things just weren't coming together right. So I decided to forget the drills for a while and just swim.
While I was swimming, at least tried to incorporate some of the things I had been practicing and Brian had taught us like keeping my head down, being relaxed, and swimming with my arms on a wider track. I know my form is still somewhat awful, but I was surprised to find that I did around 500m with only a 1-2 breath break in between each length. Prior to studying with Brian I would swim a lap, take a 5-10 second break on the wall and then continue. I think the furthest I had swam freestyle was about 300m. So I took a 5 min break and decided to try to swim 10 laps again. This time I placed my watch right on the edge of the pool so I could keep track of my split times. When I finished my 10 laps, the results surprised me. From the first lap to the 10th, there was not more than a 6 second difference! These were my split times: 1:26, 1:25, 1:26, 1:27, 1:27, 1:31, 1:29, 1:29, 1:27, 1:31.
So, bottom line, even though I'm only in the beginning stages of TI, my form is not yet great, and am truly a novice swimmer, I was able to swim 10 laps freestyle at a relaxed pace with only 1 to 2 breaths between each length (of course I'm breathing while I'm swimming as well) with barely a time difference between the 1st and the 10th lap. That was encouraging. Thanks, Brian!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Welcome to heart2swim
Thank you for visiting my blog! You will find the latest on the development of TI in the Triangle area, as well as well as my own personal jouney from a heart transplant to competitive swimming. TI Swimming is more than simply a business, it is my passion! I hope you enjoy the posts and pics, and freely add your comments.
I currently coordinate the Adult Swim programming at Rex Wellness Center in Wakefield, and private and group lessons are available to members and non-members. Easy Freestyle Workshops are co-sponsored by the FS series, www.fsseries.com, and are offered in Raleigh and Charlotte. You can reach me at bbarndt@gmail.com or 919-757-1230.
I currently coordinate the Adult Swim programming at Rex Wellness Center in Wakefield, and private and group lessons are available to members and non-members. Easy Freestyle Workshops are co-sponsored by the FS series, www.fsseries.com, and are offered in Raleigh and Charlotte. You can reach me at bbarndt@gmail.com or 919-757-1230.
1 comment:
Great testimonial, Brian. You're inspiring a lot of people!
Post a Comment