Swimming on my own for the first time

Well...  Maybe not the first time EVER.  Lol.  Just the first time since my "lesson" with the swim coach, Bill.

I use one of the aquatic centers run by Cobb County.  I like the facility, but I'm never sure of when the best time to go.  Out of the 20 25 meter lanes, 15 of them are constantly used by numerous swim teams.  So the other 5 (sometimes even 2) are open to lap swimming.  I don't like large crowds, especially when I'm alone.  I feel awkward asking others if I can share a lane with them.  I was worried the 5 lanes would be busy at 5:30PM on a Wednesday night.  But I went anyways.  I got lucky I think -- two lanes became open as I left the locker room.  I don't know if this is normal of not, but I'll take it.  :)

So I was told to work on 4 drills: one arm dril (plus using the rotation), backstroke drill, underwater swimming, and fingertip drill.  I did 150 yards on each drill (600 total).  Then I did an extra 100 yards on the fingertip drill, but I tried speeding it up (only a tad).  Then I did another 100 yards on the backstroke drill to help me relax.  I felt I did good for one day, so I figured I was done.

I wasn't trying to swim fast.  That's not the point.  I'm learning technique and efficiency.  I did find it funny though when I noticed while I was doing the underwater swimming drill, I was going faster than the man in the lane next to me who was swimming all out for lap after lap.  I was pausing at the end of the pool for a few seconds when the man finished a series and took a break too.  He gave me a weird look.

I was rather surprised at how easily I remembered most of what Bill told/showed me on Saturday.  I know I wasn't getting it 100% correct, but I sure was trying.  I kind of see it like music which I think is an advantage for me.  When I'm practicing anything in music, I don't get it 100% correct to begin with, but I understand how to focus on small things and improve them.  I try to isolate the smaller muscles and details instead of the general movement.

One thing I noticed last Saturday was my right arm/hand tended to point to the center of my body when it needs to go straight forward from the shoulder.  That was a specific thing I targeted yesterday.  Another one was I tended to point my arm too deep when face down in the water.  So I tried to keep it at the 45 degrees that Bill wanted.  However, I noticed that I kept my arm too deep when I was on my back.  Oops.  :/  Like I said, I don't expect to get it 100% correct right away, but it still pisses me off when I make stupid mistakes.  Lol.

I'm looking forward to the swimming leg of these triathlons I think.  :)  This is such a great feeling...  I just might sign up for 2 or 3 more of these races for this year.