[Closed] Swimming! FFS - does it actually get any easier?

I learnt to swim a freestyle a few years ago. I did a class at my local halo which was alright

Total immersion helped me alot. The superman glides are a great start and teach to you float with good body position.

I would not worry about swimming any sort of distance just practice swimming 1 really good length. have a rest go again. swimming distance will come as you technique gets better there is no benefit practicing struggling in the water.

Swim smooth and the race club aqua notes are a great resource on how to develop your stroke and how to reduce your drag.

I used to swim on a Thursday night as half the pool was set aside for the triathalon club who had a very good coach and I could watch better swimmers technique and get some free tips.

<span style="color: #444444; font-size: 16px; background-color: #eeeeee;">non stop doing breast stroke underwater and have managed to get my distance up to 1100m</span>

Is suspicious of this claim.

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Swimming’s a funny one eh. If I go to the pool I’m generally the fastest there or thereabouts. Not a humblebrag, because I’M ACTUALLY RUBBISH! Put me in with a club or someone with actual decent technique and they’re going half as fast again.

Yep, typically the 'fast' lane at the public session I attend is much slower than the 'slow' lane at the masters club I used to go to (and am avoiding going back to until I can at least keep up with the slow lane!)

To the OP: it doesn't get easier. You just get faster...

Yeah yeah, I'm shite, thought I was okay until I tried a tri  and swiftly had to revise this estimation. There's such a gap between generally fit folk who think they can swim, like me, and those who've actually learned and trained how to go quickly ( cheating).

Art of Swimming is what I used, with an Instructor.  There are various youtube tutorials. Here's the basic one 

I too am somebody who finds swimming a chore.  Unless I'm at the local pool with my 8yr old grandson.

As a windsurfer, I just need to be able to get back to the board after a dismount, and sometimes if the sail manages to balance itself in a semi-upright position, that can be a bit of a way.

The other week, In Cape Verde, I was just in shorts and a harness (negligible bouyancy) standing in the shorebreak, waiting for a moment of calm to launch, when one of the "beach boys" grabbed my board and said "OK, I'll sail it out beyond the breaking waves, you swim out".

I don't know if I was more annoyed that I looked like a fat old man who couldn't handle a breaking wave or that I was going to use my valuable energy reserves on an unscheduled flap about.

Swimming with the goal of getting to the other end of the pool is easy. You just need to sit and spectate at a local pool during public swimming times to witness it in action. With enough spectating you'll see everything from those who can do endless breast stroke while never getting their hair wet, to those who cruise up doing some kind of flailing doggy paddle/front crawl hybrid, to those who just glide up and down seemingly effortlessly (and often with rubbish technique!).

Swimming properly is hard. It's not that any specific thing is hard, it's just that combining everything correctly and at the right time is hard.
As others have said, get some lessons. It doesn't really matter about any specific method (total immersions, art of swimming, local pool instructor, etc), as the basics are all pretty much the same, and until you can manage the basics, any specific method isn't going to have any major benefit.

I've had a good few lessons, and I'll admit I'm still rubbish, but at least I now know what I'm doing wrong, and can at least attempt to practise the correct technique, even though I still regularly start thinking about one thing then forget about something else resulting in an abrupt halt mid pool :-/

I'm entirely self-taught (Well, I got to Grade 3 in swimming lessons and school) and got down to 22:22 for 1500m and 5:22 for 400m. **** me it was hard work. Completely disagree it was 99% technique (though of course you need that) 1% fitness, it took me a lot of brutal interval work to actually get quick (ish...) once technique was dialled.

I agree with Finbar once you can actually swim front crawl and breath properly a lot of speed comes from doing what you do but harder.

As for coaching I don't feel (for me at least) one off coaching sessions give much benefit. Yes they will tell you you are dropping your elbow or crossing over. However next time you swim unless someone is reminding you dictating the drills to help correct it, you will revert to type.

For me the most important thing in learning to swim better, is you have to get in the water at least 3 times a week. If you don't it will be very hard to progress.

I went through a stage of worrying thinking it was my technique that was the big problem. I now subscribe to the swim hard badly philosophy.

This has put me in the middle of the swim times when doing Ironman. So basically good for the general public and pretty crap for a real swimmer 🙂

Bazzer

So basically good for the general public and pretty crap for a real swimmer

+1.  I was humbled on Sunday by the Swim Club kids, age around 10, doing 2 lengths to my 1 🙂

Re that comment ^^ about being humbled by swimming kids, that totally happened to me.

I have the luxury of swimming in an Olympic pool (Edinburgh Commonwealth pool) it has 7 lanes with half of those being used by squads at any given time. One afternoon, I thought I was doing well - holding a decent pace in the fast lane. In the lane to the left was the squad lane & as I pushed off, a squad member also pushed off. I managed to hold their feet for the whole 50m, a feat never before achieved. I was going absolutely flat out so had a break at the end of the length exhausted. Only the next time the squad member came to my end of the pool did I realise it was the girls under 12 squad and she was just cruising up& down effortlessly!