Ride approx 90 days a year on the road and MTB but I have always wanted to learn how to swim correctly .
I can swim but not very well ( 25 metres is probably my limit )
Any advice on how I should approach this as I recently retired and I have a lot of time on my hands .
My goal is to be comfortable swimming 300 — 500 metres .
Ride approx 90 days a year on the road and MTB but I have always wanted to learn how to swim correctly .
I can swim but not very well ( 25 metres is probably my limit )
Any advice on how I should approach this as I recently retired and I have a lot of time on my hands .
My goal is to be comfortable swimming 300 — 500 metres .
Never too old! I used to teach an adult swim class and loved it, as they listen better than kids! I will tell you that first few lengths are always the hardest, even for advanced swimmers. There are a lot of good swim teachers out there and my mom taught until her 90’s. Where are you located?
Absolutely, given the context of your question. There are plenty of pools and swim coaches willing to work with us older folks.
However, I must say that swimming correctly means different things to swimmers and triathletes than to a non swimmer. I have been racing triathlons for 38 years and still do not swim “correctlyâ€. 😜
Find a pool that has masters meets and find a coach that can watch you from the deck.
If I’m lucky I’ll be able to swim “correctly†by age 64, I’m 33 now!
There’s a guy in my AG who learnt to swim after the age of 65.
Dammit
Yes and it’s too old to try to live correctly too. Just call it a life and be happy you lived that long!!!
Milton Ontario Canada
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Milton Ontario Canada
I’m sure we have some here up that way who can chime in.
I remember taking with this wonderful man a number of years ago in Kona, and he didn’t start the sport until later.
You’ll have no issues getting into and being quite proficient in swimming. Hopefully someone will help you here…
Never too old to learn to swim better.
Get an instructor who understands where your strength and flexibility are at and can adjust their approach accordingly.
Learning to swim 1000m non stop is very doable.
I am self taught, but relied on books. Understand the physics, stay horizontal, reduce drag, high elbows, and press chest and head a bit into water. The older swimmers I see tend to lose upper body strength from all biking and running. Check out Swim Smooth website and others. Inch by inch , it will be a cinch. Good luck.
Nope, never too old! I started swimming at 29 and could barely swim 100 yards without a ton of rest. I remember back then that my goal too was to be able to swim a comfortable 500Y. It took a while, but eventually I stuck with it. Now swim with Master’s and am by no means the slowest.
Once you start to learn, keep learning. I see a lot of people around me who swim “okay”, because they learned and then stopped learning. If you enjoy swimming and/or tri, continue learning, and you’ll find it much more enjoyable.
If you like learning by video, I found https://www.goswim.tv/ to be a great resource early on.
never too late! At age 97, Mo is awesome.
What is “swim correctly?”
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With correct form , efficiently, confidently …
I never learned as a child and although I can ride 100km and have ran a 2.39 marathon , it is something I would like to do.
Never too old! See if your local Y has adult swim lessons; they can teach proper technique so that you can swim laps comfortably, and then after that it is all about repetition like anything else. Just getting to the pool and building up endurance.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Dad wanted to do a triathlon last September at the age of 63 after 15 ish years on the couch. Couldn’t complete the 400m swim (breast stroke) and was picked up by a rescue boat. He refused to accept that reality and decided to get in shape. Learning how to swim was always going to be the challenge as he was quite the run/biker In his 30s.
So we went to the pool. He was completely gassed after 25m every time in the pool and after a few weeks without improvements I realized that his dream of one day doing an ironman wouldn’t fly the way we were doing things.
How we adjusted: started with both fins and a snorkel. Implemented a lot of core/strength work outside of the pool. Reached the point where he was able to swim unlimited with snorkel + fins → alternated between snorkel and no fins and fins and no snorkel. In March/April he had 5 weeks off from work and swam 5-6 days a week. This is definitely where the biggest improvements happened (since you mentioned that you will have a lot of time this is relevant).
Did Marbella 70.3 with a 54min swim at the end of April (he completed the race and was super happy about it).
Continued to work over the summer and did IM Copenhagen in August with a swim time of 1.47. He will start to work with a swim coach now as he dreams of breaking 40min in Marbella next year.
I don’t know if this is of any help but wanted to share it with you in case it is helpful. Good luck
Just get in the pool and swim. When I start this journey a while back, I would swim the length of a 25 yard pool, stop, rest for a bit, swim back, rest, etc. You will eventually be able to swim longer with less rest. Also, take a few swim lessons from a swim coach.
Just get in the pool and swim. When I start this journey a while back, I would swim the length of a 25 yard pool, stop, rest for a bit, swim back, rest, etc. You will eventually be able to swim longer with less rest. Also, take a few swim lessons from a swim coach.
agree with this. I started out training for my first sprint and it was resting at each wall. eventually it got better. swim lessons definitely help with technique of course.
I can swim but not very well ( 25 metres is probably my limit )
That was/is me. I knew how to swim but swam a lap in the pool for the first time in my life in April. It was rough, more like mobile drowning than swimming. My daughters are all-state high school swimmers and we’ve swam at the same time and they swim two laps for every one of mine. I got a little better. Did my first triathlon and I wasn’t last in the swim. In fact, I was a bit better than the bottom quartile. Someone suggested “total immersion swimming” and I got a book on it from the library that helped quite a bit. Kinda plateaued in the past month, but I don’t swim that much. I’ll try to keep at it over the winter.
Your goal of swimming 300-500 meters is quite modest really, I bet if you put your mind to it you can far exceed that. I didn’t start swimming seriously until my late 50s, I had only a rudimentary freestyle stroke and couldn’t swim more than a couple hundred yards straight at that time. In my last Olympic triathlon a couple of weeks ago I placed in the top 7% of the field in the swim leg at age 65. I did have in my favor that I was always very comfortable in the water, and had a decent breaststroke. And I’ve worked really hard consistently over the ensuing years, have taken clinics and spent several years with a master’s swim program.
I’d strongly recommend getting some instruction to help you on your journey because swimming is such a technical sport. While you may not be able to match my progress given your starting point, if you stick with it and persevere you won’t be swimming just a few hundred meters, you’ll be swimming a couple thousand. Good luck!