How Long Will It Take to Learn to Swim?

This would be right up there in the top five questions we are asked constantly as instructors and coaches. The other four we will save for another day.

Our go to and truthful short answer is, “each swimmer is an individual and results will be completely varied and unique to them”.

But that’s not an answer

We live in a results-oriented society and we recognise that the above statement may be a let-down to anyone wanting a black and white answer such as “it will take you exactly 10 lessons to master perfect freestyle allowing you to compete and win ribbons”.

There are numerous research papers, TED talks and multiple theories on how long it takes to acquire a skill.

A quick google search of “how long will it take to learn a new skill” will quickly bring you to the theory that it takes 10,000 hours to acquire a new skill.

In swimming lesson terms, if attending one thirty-minute lesson each week, without skipping any lessons ever, it would take approximately 384 years to master a stroke!

The good news is that the above figures are for mastering and reaching expert level. In our swimming world this may equate to becoming an Olympic gold medallist.

We also know that this level of swimming mastery is not achieved by attending one thirty-minute lesson per week.

What we do know

To be considered proficient at a skill such as swimming, the movement and coordination of our limbs needs to be performed automatically.

When learning any new skill, our short-term memory or pre-frontal cortex is what figures out how to drive the function required.

The first step to performing a skill on autopilot is repetition, repetition, repetition. Sorry, there are just no short cuts.

In swimming terms this may mean practicing kicking over an over again until a nice consistently fluid kick pattern emerges.

To a parent watching their child’s weekly swimming lesson, repetition of skill may appear ‘boring’ or ‘not challenging enough’. ‘Why can’t they do something different each week instead of the same old thing?'

The second step to performing a skill automatically requires that training becomes progressively more difficult.

This is when instructors and coaches may push their swimmers to perform the acquired skill in a new way or situation in the form of different drills and over different distances. Who doesn’t love a long kick set?

The third step in mastering a skill is performing under differing constraints. For example a time constraint.

In swimming terms, this may equate to performing a stroke within a time range such as a sprint set.

Just as an aside, don’t be the swimmer who goes all out in the first rep of a long sprint session. You have been warned!

There is no getting around the fact that swimming is a hard-won skill which will take time to master. Each swimmer will need to tread their own individual path until they can perform each stroke ‘automatically’.

Think about how we learn to stand and walk. If we had only put aside 30 minutes a week to ‘practice’ walking, there may be many of us still be crawling through our daily lives.

What can I do to speed up this process?

The short answer is – swim often.

Whilst attending a paid lesson more than once a week may not be possible, swimming as much as you can outside of your regular lesson will help. This includes playing in the pool as well.

We often see our swimmers make fantastic improvements over summer because they are in a pool or at the beach nearly every day.

Understand that instructors are performing repetitive drills and activities to shift the swimmer’s responses from the prefrontal cortex to an automatic instinct that can be performed in a variety of situations.

If you have concerns or would like more information on your own or your child’s progress, talk to us.

There is one thing instructors and coaches love talking about it is their swimmers!

During class time an in-depth discussion is not possible. Get in touch either by phone: 0413 201 534 or email: evertonpark@allaboutaquatics.com.au, geebung@allaboutaquatics.com.au or quilpie@allaboutaquatics.com.au

This gives us the opportunity to talk to instructors/coaches and give you accurate feedback.

Swimming is a skill for life. It may bring you equal parts joy, frustration, self-satisfaction and heartache before it is mastered.

We may be a little biased, but we think it is absolutely worth it.

Living in Brisbane we are blessed with the mildest of winters.

Our daytime temps linger in the 20’s and our nights rarely slip into single digits.

Even so, those rogue colder days and that little chill in the morning and evening air can have the best of us looking for an out from our swim sessions.

These are our top 10 tips for swimming through winter:

1. Just do it - Don’t let a few moments of feeling cold on pool deck before sliding into and out of the water keep you from your goals. Once you are in the water and start moving it will all be ok we promise.

2. Stick to your schedule – try not to skip swim sessions. Long gaps may give your procrastinating mind all the ammo it needs to decide to put off your goals till summer. Summer times and distances are built over winter. The competition that pushed through will love showing you their results when you return to pool deck.

3. Partner up – swimming with a friend or training buddy can help you to keep swimming. It is so much easier to let yourself off the hook if you are flying solo. Committing to meeting up or even picking each other up on the way makes it harder to hit the snooze button or send the cancellation text.

4. It’s not a fashion show – getting warm fast once you get out of the lovely warm pool is the priority. Ugg boots, dressing gowns, a fleece throw blanket worn as a poncho are all acceptable fashion choices on pool deck at this time of the year. It may be ugly but if it’s warm who cares!

5. Bathing Caps are important – the majority of heat is lost through our heads. If you usually swim without a cap, now is a good time to put one on your noggin. Neoprene caps retain heat better than latex. Some swimmers even choose to double cap through winter.

6. Try out new things – new strokes, new drills, new training programs are all your friends this winter. Time can speed up when trying out new skills as you will be focused on mastering the skill with the white noise suddenly disappearing.

7. Reward yourself – new togs and equipment are always great rewards for your hard work. Even small rewards like a hot chocolate or your favourite food after a good swim session are well deserved.

8. Don't believe the myth that swimming in winter will make you sick - in a well ventilated environment like our heated outdoor venues your risk of sickness from being in the pool is not increased over winter.

9. Challenge yourself – pick an event and train towards it. Whether it’s improving your time over 50 metres in your stroke of choice, training for a triathlon or distance swim, a goal will keep you turning up on the days you would rather sit on the couch with the remote.

10. Talk to your coach – If you are finding yourself with a big case of the “don’t wannas” talk it through with your coach. Coaches love feedback and chances are your coach is already reading your struggles through your performance and technique. A well timed pep talk and knowing that someone cares about your goals and has your back can do wonders for lagging motivation.

Thankfully winter in Brissy is relatively short and will be over before we know it.

If you would like more information or suggestions for events you could train towards, get in touch for a chat.

Just keep swimming!

The AAA Team.

Introduction of a Professional Development Workshop

I had the absolute pleasure in travelling to Cooktown to run a professional development workshop on behalf of AUSTSWIM. The great thing about these types of workshops is we need swimmers. The swimmers get to participate in 4-5 sessions over two days and therefore also get technique improvement.

I have been to Cooktown twice in the past 4 months. I will give a brief overview on my first workshop was in November 2016. However, it was my second visit most memorable with the learning I got from running this workshop. The aim of the program was to provide swim instructors with some new techniques in teaching the strokes.

Getting there is not always as smooth as the workshop itself

I must start with a little story about my travels. Like any workshop you need to get there. Well my first trip didn’t start off too well.

I arrived at Brisbane Airport for an early flight to Cairns. Upon arriving to Cairns I was then to get a connecting flight to Cooktown. At 6:30am in the morning it is exceptional rare Brisbane has storms. Well this morning we did. It soon became apparent after several delayed messages, I was going to miss my connecting flight. Problem solved…. I would drive from Cairns to Cooktown.

So 4.5 hours later after I arrived in Cairns I made it to Cooktown. The drive was beautiful and so was Cooktown. So green. The pool was a 25m, 6 lane pool and set in a nice green tree areas.

We had to delay the start of the clinic we got going with the first of the sessions – freestyle. There were four instructors and around 40 swimmers across the session. The next day we run 2 more sessions for backstroke and breaststroke. The key learning the instructors walk away with was the importance of head and body position or what I call the strong position.

Unfortunately due to the fact that I had to drive it meant our time was cut short….and I couldn’t site see that much. Both the instructors and swimmers still gained a lot learning and it was evident that I wanted to come back and they wanted me back. So we organised another visit for February 2017. They had some foundations to work on in the meantime.

This time the weather was on my side and I made it to Cairns with no delays and yes I got the connecting flight. I have travelled to many places and been on many planes but this was the first on a 12 seated where the pilots do the safety talk. You carry on luggage goes in the back of the plane and you have to sit in specific seats to balance the plane.

Once we were in the air, my face was stuck to the window. Oh how beautiful is the reef up that end of our coast. The 45 minutes was breathtaking. The landing was smooth by the pilots and I had landed once again in Cooktown.

Love our country

Learning from in the water

One of the lovely instructors, Chanelle, picked me up and we headed straight to the pool for the first session. Nothing like getting into it.

As per usual, once I was in the water I was at home. The learning began for all of us.

What I am going to go through next is some key things highlighted not only to the instructors and swimmers but to me.

First I must get you to take note.

On land:

We learn to walk from an unconscious requirement….ie when we are born our goal is to get upright with our head above our feet and move forward. We learn to navigate the world by experience i.e. we bump into something the next time we go around it….well hopefully.We move from a vertical position.

In water:

Swimming is not an unconscious requirement. It is a conscious choiceSwimming is an environment we cannot live in and the additional force called buoyancy means how we move is so different to what we do on land.Swimming is done in a horizontal position

Swimming is unnatural therefore we need to consciously work with our swimmers to assist their learning to move in water. If teaching the strokes we need to start with the strong position.

So let me explain what the strong position is. This is the position that swimmers need to be in to engage their muscles in the strongest possible way. Think of it as what position you would stand in if someone was trying to push you over or your were trying to pull yourself over a wall. As our children don’t fall of monkey bars or run around outside as much as they use to, they are not unconsciously learning how to move from a strong position. Concerning water the strong position is:

arms above the head, shoulder width apart (there’s more to this),head in neutral positionstomach tucked and core engagedfeet shoulder width apart

So what did I do to work on this with the swimmers?

This time I had brought my “magic sticks”. These are a piece of equipment I have been playing with to assist swimmers get into the strong position. With a background as a Physical Education teacher and being in the swimming industry for over 25 years, I have noted children’s inability to understand their body, where to move it and how to move it. So I start to play with my “magic sticks”.

I must add that the name of the sticks came from the swimmers from this Cooktown visit. They kept calling them magic sticks and after seeing what they did to the swimmers techniques, they were magic.

What the magic sticks do is give swimmers a reference point as to what is their strong position for their arms and head. Their feet will naturally align from there. Remember when someone is swimming they cannot see where their hands are places. They need to feel this i.e. how far their arms are away from their head, how far their hands are from each other and what the muscles feel like when they are in this position.

My Learning and hopefully yours

At the end of the weekend, the words that came to my mind was… “Gold. These magic sticks are gold”

All I can say to swim instructors is….What are you doing to develop and reinforce a swimmer's “strong position”. It is key this is worked on more consciously in our industry alongside our breath control. For my it is my magic sticks and I am going to continue to play with them to see what I can use them for.

Be strong, stay strong and teach strong.

Stay tuned for more information on “Magic Sticks” and breath control.

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