2km in less than 25 mins are considered elite, not 'good'

Swim once a month.

Cannot swim

I wanna swim, but always end up going gym.

Do you have any instructors to guide you?

Your legs needs to be strong when you are swimming freestyle.

Firstly for your breathing, its hard to breath if your kick is not strong.
Second is when we breath for freestyle, if the kicking legs are not strong, we will sink abit.

As for a beginner for freestyle, i can suggest dont focus on swimming stroke first, can swim and breath for 2 to 3 times is consider very good d. Then slowly from there, you can pick up your pace, abit of stroke correction.

Drills is good, do you stretch forward your arms when you swim?
Gain some muscles might help too. Forearm muscles, legs and core.

possible to do it without instructor, but it take times

Imagine u learn from youtube or from other platforms, how are you going to refer back to your videos or pics when you are in the pool ? Possible, walk up from pool, dry your hands, refer back through phone, the go back in the pool.
haha abit mafan ~

Thanks... how to tell if my kicking leg is strong enough? And what do you mean by swimming stroke? And stroke correction? Sorry noobie here.

Always get a instructor to correct your stroke because what you been struggling for months can be corrected the first minute an instructor see your stroke. Save time imo.

I had problems with freestyle too. Couldnt do the flutter kick fast as it tires me out. So i learn how to do 2 beat kick and invests in swimming fins. After alot of kicking drills i can slowly do 4 beat and 6 beat. And now on a good day i can sprint 50m free sub50. Consistency and trust the process.

My problems now? BACKSTROKE.hahaha.

Senang la just a terbalik freestyle. NOPE. I was wrong. But I'll get there.

You can test by doing some kicking sets. there are two ways to, one is use a kick board to kick. second is without a kick board, streamline your body and keep your head under the water and kick.

swimming stroke ah, the layman term is the "pattern". haha

but as a start, with a correct basic pattern, make yourself able to swim for at least 20m or 20m non stop. If can achieve this, then only consider to do some stroke correction.

haha actually is very senang ya. just make sure your hips dont sink too much. if can for starting, hug a board and practice your kick. then slowly only take the board away. haha

The problem occurs when pulling starts. Need to work on rotation and core balance.

Now balance and core soso. When swim from 0 to 25m ok. But starts to tire hip drop which lead to inefficient kicking. The stroke break down hahaha.

oh. haha and kicking also lo. practice your kick also . haha

That 500m or 200m warm up is scary for a beginner swimmer like me. I can swim 30m or 50m only, need to stop to recover the heart beat.

Update.

I've ventured into open water swimming now.
Signed up for 2 open water event this August.
Went for a beginner clinic earlier this month.
Learn the basics and did a 100m loop x10 time trial. Im surprised and excited at the same time.
Been training since March. And i cant wait for August to come.

Open water is fun.


Dont give up. With consistency your body will adapt and use less oxygen and you will have more in the tank soon.

how is your swim ya?

Be frog my friends

August event has taught me great lessons.
Incorporates running into my training now.

Joined another ows to try 4km distance last October. Not bad not good either but a great barrier breaking experience.

Year 2024. My target for swimming will be completing Oceanman 5km or 10km.
5km totally doable. But 10km makes me have doubt which is another great experience to break my limits. But I'll follow the feel of this year.
Staying off injury is always priority.

Peak mileage per month, 20k to 30k swim. 120k run. And a lot of sleeping.

Always tired but somehow i kept doing it. Think alot of ppl can relate to this haha.

Swimon?

i self taught myself about 6 months from don't know how to swim to know how to swim.

part of the drills includes
1. review the recording myself swimming
2. watch youtube and understand what style you want to achieve (for me was to join triathlon 1.5km swim and swimathon 6km , so any style will work however backstroke and freestyle was the most efficient.
3. i swim 3-4 times a week on a 25 or 50m pool from beginning 1lap to 100laps. build up your distance at your comfortable pace.
4. have a few open water swimming to get use to the sea water.
5. as for gears a decathlon basic waterproof watch will to do your timing, advance you can go for gps based watch. ( i use a zeblaze swim and amazfit trex interchangeably) , googles is very important and pool ones and sea ones are different from a lenses perspective, and accustom to wear head cap and swim wear including tops because the sun will burn you.
6. from a technique, technique is priority before stamina, i use a swimming snorkel, a kick/pull board to fine tune technique. similarly like gym, leg day, strokes day, full body, core too.

Hope this helps whomever reading.