Endless Pool Swim Lesson

Ever since last summer my goal has been to work on my swim stroke and try to be as efficient as possible. With swimming not being my strongest sport, I don't want to waste any more energy than I have to and I want to leave the water feeling ready to tackle the bike. I've been working hard and I have made some improvements which are confirmed in my swim times. I'm not talking major, life altering reductions or anything like that, but the improvement has been significant enough that I look forward to getting in the pool and seeing what I can do. Huge difference in my attitude from last summer.

Well, I recently stumbled upon a swim coach who trains out of his house using an endless pool and he came with some pretty impressive recommendations. I had no intention of meeting with another coach because I don't want to throw any crazy changes at this point into my swim routine, but I thought if I could get some tips on small changes to improve my efficiency, it'd be worth it.

I went for my first lesson on Monday and it was a really interesting experience. For one, I've never swam in an endless pool and it put my mental toughness to test. For a person who loves to run loops and loves the bike trainer, trying to swim for a minute in the endless pool felt like an eternity. But there were lots of aspects that I really liked. For one, you're never far away from the coach, he's literally right on the side of the pool watching you from the front/side/back and can see everything at all times. I also loved that when I did something right, I could immediately feel it because the current I was swimming in got easier. And my favorite part, there is a mirror directly under you on the bottom of the pool and one on a slant up near the motor so you can actually see yourself when trying to take notice of something you're doing wrong or right.

We didn't work on much the first time but we established a baseline of where I'm at and where I want to go. The best part, I was told I have a nice skill set in the water and didn't leave feeling that I have to start from scratch with my stroke. I was really worried I was going to go in there and have my swimming world turned upside down. But in fact, not much changed except for some tweaks in my hand position. Turns out I was driving stiff/closed fingered hands down 18 inches into the water when really, I'm balanced with a hand position of 7 inches below the surface. I worked on this today, focusing on keeping my hands soft and fingers slightly open, and it was not easy. I felt so sloppy but I'm glad I caught this now because it's definitely hard to change what you're so used to! I'm also for the first time taking note of my strokes per lap (SPL) and my goal is to get this down dramatically.

Here's a picture of the pool.

(that's not me swimming)