Lately I've been spending time at the pool and doing a few experiments to see just how well I can sink. It's always been hard for me to swim because it requires a lot of effort to get to the surface for a breath, and I'm starting to understand why.
1. When I fill my lungs completely with air (including the deep belly breath) and just go motionless in the water, I float vertically, with the top of my head about two inches under the water's surface. This means I float, but I float entirely under the water. So it's more like I don't sink.
2. If I then let out a tiny bit of air, I start to sink very very slowly.
3. If I let out a bit more air, I start to sink quickly, so quickly in fact that I accelerate. When I hit the bottom of the 17ft pool I actually have to bend my legs a little bit when I hit the floor.
In #3, the amount of air that I have in my lungs is still quite a bit. My lungs still feel full, and I can stay underwater for a good 30-40 seconds.
Conclusion: Thus I conclude why it has always been harder for me to swim than anyone else. When I swim, my first breath when I launch off from the side is full, so I have no problem staying close to the surface and getting my first breath. But my second breath is less full than the first, and I start to sink. This sinking means I have to exert a lot more effort than others just to get to the surface to breath, and this in turn tires me out and makes my swimming poopy. It's a bad chain reaction: Less air in lungs, start to sink, exert more force to get to the surface, at the surface for a shorter amount of time, get even less air in lungs, start to sink again, exert even more force to get to surface, etc.
Comments? A lot of people have seen my sinking and they say it's very unusual. When I'm at the pool I love to just relax and allow my body to drop to the bottom, where I'll just chill in the peace and quiet for a while. The lifeguards, apart from being nervous, just kinda stare at me the entire time and I guess wonder how I manage to sink so effortlessly.
1. When I fill my lungs completely with air (including the deep belly breath) and just go motionless in the water, I float vertically, with the top of my head about two inches under the water's surface. This means I float, but I float entirely under the water. So it's more like I don't sink.
2. If I then let out a tiny bit of air, I start to sink very very slowly.
3. If I let out a bit more air, I start to sink quickly, so quickly in fact that I accelerate. When I hit the bottom of the 17ft pool I actually have to bend my legs a little bit when I hit the floor.
In #3, the amount of air that I have in my lungs is still quite a bit. My lungs still feel full, and I can stay underwater for a good 30-40 seconds.
Conclusion: Thus I conclude why it has always been harder for me to swim than anyone else. When I swim, my first breath when I launch off from the side is full, so I have no problem staying close to the surface and getting my first breath. But my second breath is less full than the first, and I start to sink. This sinking means I have to exert a lot more effort than others just to get to the surface to breath, and this in turn tires me out and makes my swimming poopy. It's a bad chain reaction: Less air in lungs, start to sink, exert more force to get to the surface, at the surface for a shorter amount of time, get even less air in lungs, start to sink again, exert even more force to get to surface, etc.
Comments? A lot of people have seen my sinking and they say it's very unusual. When I'm at the pool I love to just relax and allow my body to drop to the bottom, where I'll just chill in the peace and quiet for a while. The lifeguards, apart from being nervous, just kinda stare at me the entire time and I guess wonder how I manage to sink so effortlessly.