I also found a few articles about breathing techniques. The article that was the most useful was Breathing While Swimming: Basic Tips and Exercises from enjoyswimming.com. It provides several drills similar to what I’ve read in other articles, but they were broken down differently and build upon each other. I plan to incorporate a few in my next swimming session. I also made a connection with the following quote from the article, “Once you have good breath control and have learned proper swimming technique, breathing often fits in seamlessly with your stroke and relaxed swimming becomes possible.” This parallels the advice that my classmates provided.
I also reviewed video of my last session. I could tell that I wasn’t breathing consistently, which probably was the reason that I exhausted once I got to the end of the pool.
07/19/15 was the date from my fourth swimming session. It was the second day of my vacation, so I had to swim in a different pool, which caused an increase in tension, because I was going to be swimming in front of strangers. Ugh! So, I studied the pool situation at the hotel and discovered the earlier the better, since there was only a few people around. I was able to access one of the smaller pools that no one was using. At first, I thought my daughter/coach was being a little harsh, by pushing me to go through our session as if we were at my friend’s house, but then I realized this was the only way to help me put my fear aside and apply what I have been researching and practicing for the past three weeks. I didn’t have my goggles nor the noodle, so I was on my own. I did practice the drills from the article mentioned above. I also swallowed a lot of water; however, after several attempts, I was able to float face up and down, flutter kick and freestyle, and the breathing improved slightly.
I was satisfied that I didn’t allow the change in my environment prevent me from moving forward. I will be here for for the beginning of week 5 of my 20Time project, so I will attempt to swim in the larger pool and maybe at the beach, but I will need to build up my confidence. We’ll see.