Date:

Activities:

How I have improved:

Example:

Jan 7th

Example:

Freestyle kicking, Streamline gliding, Divestick activity.

Example:

I now can combine streamlined gliding and freestyle kicking. This will improve my freestyle technique as I will now be more streamlined as I swim, reducing drag and improving my ability to swim freestyle longer distances.

March 6th

4 Freestyle laps, free time

Today we just started to get a feel for the water and was just to see what we’re capable of. I swam for the first time in about a year so it was good to kind of see and remember how I to swim and how I can improve. I want to improve of being able to breathe while swimming because as of right now, I keep having to stop and take breaths which slows me down drastically.

March 7th

Game with rebounding goals, freestyle laps

Today, we worked on a lot of what the proper technique is for freestyle swimming. I think I’ve somewhat improved a fair bit during this lesson because I learned that I shouldn’t raise my head when I swim (should look down) and when taking a breath (turn head to the side). This allows me to not float up. Also, at the beginning I was pretty confused about what my hands should be doing while I’m doing the strokes and I think I have a better understanding of what to do now (straight down, pull back water).

March 8th

Freestyle laps using the kickboard and buoy, ping pong ball game

Today, I really tried to focus on improving my technique during swimming. There were a couple things that I needed to work on from last time, keeping my arms straight, turning my head to the side to take a breath, looking down so I don’t sink, and during this class, I primarily focused on trying to develop a good arm technique to enter the water with. Some tips I picked up were entering with my fingertips and extend as far as I can. I think I did improve on my stroke in freestyle today because my arms are now more straight as I’m pulling the water, and it helps me to get more distance in a shorter amount of strokes. I really need to work on turning my head to the side instead of lifting my head because if I lift my head, my legs sink more.

March 9th

Warm up laps, sharks and minnows

Since we used flippers today to swim, I could swim a little faster. It also helped me to focus on my arm strokes instead of having to split my attention between my kick and stroke. I think today my change of breath might’ve gotten better. I really tried to turn my head instead of lifting it and now I think I’m starting to get the hang of it.

March 13th

Sharks and dolphins, touch all 4 corners of the pool

I don’t really think I improved today to be honest. I actually think I’ve gotten slower. The teacher said that I should try to keep my arms straight during the strokes to help swim faster so today was a lot of working on the stroke. It did help a little bit because I was cutting through the water more instead of pushing at it. I can’t focus on all the tips at once though because once I focus on one, I’ll forget another tip and it all gets messed up.

March 14th

Survival situations

We did some survival situations today and it didn’t go very well. I would have died in those situations because in the 2 meter deep water, it turns out to be a lot different than the normal swimming pool and I can’t really swim in the 2 meter pool. The hardest part was probably the step entry into the pool though. I kept swallowing the water accidently and my entry was not improving the more I did it. My survival stroke did gradually somewhat improve by the end of the lesson. At the beginning, I couldn’t really move anywhere using the survival stroke but I got a little better at it and I was pulling back more water each time by the end. It helped me move along the water faster and more efficiently.

March 16th

Review of freestyle, Started backstroke with kickboards and pool noodles

The backstroke was not the easiest thing to do. I never really learned it so I was kind of just trying it out so everything was an improvement, but really, I think I improved a lot on my ability to glide in the water and putting my chest out so I don’t sink by the end of the lesson. I was able to float along the water easier and to actually move forward/go faster instead of staying in the same place. I was able to do that because I relaxed my body more and I really concentrated on pushing my chest up to float.

March 17th

Warm up laps, The bouncing game that’s like water polo

We played water polo today and I think I’m improving with how comfortable I am in the water. Now I’m able to swim to where I want to get to instead of just slowly walking against the water. I’ve really gotten more comfortable in the water since the beginning of the unit. I’m starting to just casually be able to swim in the water and just move around easier using the freestyle stroke and kicking techniques.

March 20th

Shoulder Hurts, didn’t participate, but it was diving

What I learned from watching: Enter with your fingers first, your fingers should also control your dive; move them down to go deeper, move them up to go back up. You also want your arms and basically your whole body to be straight because as you’re entering, you’re trying to enter as smoothly as possible so you’re kind of going diagonally in. That means your feet also should be straight as you’re entering. When you’re in the diving position, your hands/arms should be raised above your head, not below, so again, you’re able to

March 21st

Lost swimsuit, Backstroke, freestyle

N/A

March 23nd

Still lost swimsuit, Breastroke

N/A

March 24th

Warm up laps, water polo

I just got back in the water after a while so doing the warm up freestyle laps felt like I was going a lot slower than before. I felt more like I was splashing through the water and not going anywhere compared to gliding through the water. I was really focusing on the proper freestyle techniques like having your arm straight, looking down, etc, but I still didn’t feel like I was really going that fast. It could be because I was just getting used to the water again after the short break. I also realised that lowering the floor level affected my confidence in my swimming because usually I’m more comfortable playing water polo and I move a lot more but since I’m still trying to improve on my ability to change breath, I don’t think I was as comfortable in 150 cm as I would’ve been in a higher floor level. So there was really no improvement during this lesson.  

March 27th

Breaststroke review with and without pool noodles, warm down laps

So since this is the first time I tried the breastroke, I didn’t improve much. However, I really tried to apply the tip that we learned; short quick strokes in a heart shape. With the short strokes though, it feels like I’m going slower than if I were to do a bigger motion so I used slightly bigger arm movements even though Mr. Ferg wanted us to try to use short sharp strokes. I watched some other people’s breastroke and they had the hands together to glide for a bit right before their stroke and so I tried also using that in my breastroke technique. I think it helped my to go more smoothly in the water and also, it helped me to cut through the water instead of having the resist against me.

March 28th

Warm up laps, Relays, Free time

Today was the last day of swimming and honestly, I think I’ve improved a lot, especially from the beginning of the unit. For one, I’ve learned how to properly freestyle at a normal pace because at this point, I’ve thought about the proper freestyle techniques so much that it’s basically ingrained into my head and I think about it every time I swim. I’m constantly focused on whether or not my fingertips are entering into the water properly or if my arms are straight and pushing the water back and I think that’s a major reason why I’ve been able to improve so much in the freestyle. Also, now when I freestyle, I feel more like I’m gliding through the water instead of just trying to go against the current which is what I was doing at the beginning by just pushing back the water. The backstroke and breastroke were good activities to show my what I could improve on but I feel like I did improve since we started each stroke, although not by much, it’s still an improvement. By that I mean, I can actually somewhat float on my back for short periods of time and I’m making a little bit of progress on my breastroke speed.