Breakthrough made!

Hi everyone, this is my first post and i just wanted to share my experience as I made a massive personal breakthrough today at lunchtime in the pool and it is all thanks to TI (thanks Terry!).

My story is quite similar to Terry's blog post "The 3-Day Makeover–From 100 Meters to a Mile". I am a 37 years old male and until 3 months ago i hadn't be able, or even tried, to swim a length in a pool. I disliked swimming when I was younger and as an adult just never found an interest in it probably because I knew i couldn't swim! I could float and make a very poor attempt at the freestyle stroke but that was it. I didn't know a thing about the mechanics of the technique or how to breath underwater, nothing.

I registered for my first ever triathlon about 6 months ago, the Luxembourg IM 70.3 in June 2016 having never entered a competition of any kind before whether it be cycling, running or swimming. But it was a challenge I wanted to give myself (I have an office job and of very average fitness).

So here is my swimming history in a nutshell: I found a coach in Nov-15 and had 7 x 1 hour weekly sessions with him. We finished just before Christmas. In that time i have learned the basic stroke and breathing on both sides but it just felt a bit disconnected. I felt my main problem was breathing - I felt completely out of breath after about 100m and would have to stop each 50m for 20-30 seconds just to get ready for the next 50m. I felt i had the energy to swim further but my breathlessness was holding me back. I felt i had reached a point that it didn't matter what new drills he told me to do i just couldnt get past this 100m barrier. Maybe i was a bit hasty in signing up for that 70.3!!

So, during the last 3 months i was also checking the internet and came across TI. I checked out the excellent Youtube videos and workshops by Terry. I mentioned TI to my coach but he hadn't heard of it. When it comes to learning, one of my problems is i don't have a good memory (!) soI tend to forget the drills and how to incorporate TI movements into my stroke. But i kept chipping away over the last couple of weeks, watching over and over the videos and trying out little changes in the pool on my own.

Today I was able to swim 1.5km in a 25m pool, stopping only for about 5 seconds each 25m and overall it took me 42mins! During that time i concentrated on the following:

1. Aim for a point on the x/y axis every stroke
2. Keep arms and hands relaxed
3. 2 beat kick
and 4. Keep thinking to myself: a) left hip drop, left drive, right kick, right pull b) right hip drop, right drive, left kick, left pull.

I was amazed at how my breathing then came quite naturally and i didn't once feel the need to stop and catch my breath.

I know I have so much further to go but i now have the confidence to know that i can keep learning and improving using TI as my base.

Next step is to get the Perpetual Motion Freestyle DVD!

Thanks Terry for helping me find TI. To anyone in a similar situation to me who has not yet found the breakthrough it will come ... i assure you of that!

regards,
Brian

[terry]

Brian
Well done and thanks for sharing. As your story develops further I'd love to follow your progress and perhaps publish a guest post by you.
I'll have some further comments shortly--have to go lead an open water swim at our Open Water Experience in St John USVI--but I wanted to alert you that the latest and best self-coaching tool is the downloadable Complete Self-Coaching Toolkit. More evolved and complete than the PMF video.

PS: Where are you located>

Thanks Terry I will checkout the Toolkit.

I would be happy to share my progress towards the 70.3 in June. No doubt I will be on this forum more often as well for advice and listening to other swimmers.

I am based in Luxembourg and originally from Scotland.

One downside from my swim yesterday is a some pain in my shoulder but can probably put that down to some muscles not having been used in a while or for so long! Its a nice pain to have :-)

Regards
Brian