Day #6 Lesson

Milestone - side breathing with freestyle !   Carol had me practice getting the rhythm of stroke-breath-stroke-breath by holding onto the edge in the shallow end and repeat 10 times to get the cadence.  It was alien to me but I got the hang of it.  One arm stroke is associated with exhaling through the nose under water and the other arm stroke is associated with inhaling through the mouth on the side above water.  Now the trick is getting the technique correctly so I don't twist my body like a pretzel and throw off balance.  Oh that's another thing about swimming - balance in the water !   I've discovered one side is stronger than the other and it shows in my kicks.  Not surprising since I have a long history of knee surgeries.

So I swam the length of the pool toward the end of the lesson using the side breathing and it was like coasting !  Keeping the head down is tricky as I want to look up.  Practice, practice, practice !