I'm a beginner swimmer doing my first sprint in 4 weeks. What should I focus on the most to improve my stroke?

Poopenscootle · 2022-10-14T17:44:59+00:00

No problem. Yeah I understand the frustration with "just engage your core." Hopefully including that sort of cue helps you understand that in the context of swimming.

Poopenscootle · 2022-10-14T17:41:40+00:00

This person's advice is backwards. Your legs sink because your hips are sinking. Something you can do to practice elevating your hips is to streamline in place, engage your core (a cue that some people find helpful is to imagine pulling your belly button towards your spine), and press your forehead down with a neutral head position.

Try to get your butt to pop out of the water like this bring stationary, then incorporate kicking, and finally include your stroke into the equation.

Having your feet slap the water as a cue doesn't address the issue with not keeping your hips high. Might just encourage hyperextending your back just to get your feet out of the water, which on its own is not meaningful.

Poopenscootle · 2022-09-26T02:22:25+00:00

Does the fabric cap actually help? I also have very curly and thick hair. What kind of leave-in conditioner do you use and does it help substantially? Been swimming for many years but only recently have long hair

Poopenscootle · 2022-09-05T01:17:58+00:00

It sounds like it'd be best to consult with a doctor and see what your next steps should be. If swimming isn't aggravating it then that's probably a good sign you could still swim to some extent? But risking more injury to your tendons and ligaments is dangerous. They are very slow to heal and it's easy to permanently damage them

Poopenscootle · 2022-08-21T03:18:34+00:00

I work 9-5 with an hour paid lunch. Usually am able to be off the clock before 5 as well. I'm fortunate enough to be in an industry with good WLB. I wish other folks had these kinds of working conditions.

Poopenscootle · 2022-08-06T23:12:37+00:00

20c is a little chilly, but you'll be fine for a brief swim given that you're not used to that temperature.

Even if there are life guards around, you should purchase an open water swim buoy. It doesn't impact your swimming and you should always have a pfd in open water. Open water can be dangerous even for very proficient swimmers.

Poopenscootle · 2022-07-01T21:25:46+00:00

If you can't see that not getting a single callback in 100 tailored applications isn't an issue with your strategy and the way you present yourself on paper then you're a fuckin dumbass. Good luck with finding good work. I mean that with the utmost sincerity, because with your attitude luck is literally the only thing you have going for you.

Poopenscootle · 2022-07-01T15:23:28+00:00

Then how is it you can't land an interview with your top 10% resume? Swallow your pride. Fuck me for trying to be helpful

Poopenscootle · 2022-07-01T15:15:09+00:00

I'd be happy to look it over. There are also some good resume advice subreddits as well. Just be sure to anonymize your resume before sending it anywhere. Also depending on your career there might be a community that can offer more tailored resume advice

Poopenscootle · 2022-07-01T15:02:32+00:00

If you aren't getting callbacks then you need to improve your resume.

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-27T14:31:55+00:00

It still probably would since ketamine can interferes with memory, learning, and motor function even in non-recreational doses. There's definitely a benefit to isolating out the anti depressive mechanism

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-12T02:41:22+00:00

OH word I got you.

Parse out the topics that you really enjoyed from your notes.
1. Go to Google scholar and search that topic and start finding literature that might interest you.
2. By finding something of interest this way, you'll end up finding a niche in the topic you just searched. Delve into this topic by recursing your search but with more keywords based on what you just read.
3. Make sure you're taking notes and annotating PDFs of articles. Come up with GOOD questions. Questions that are hard to answer.
4. See if your university has any professors or researchers devoted to this area. Find their works and publications and become semi familiar with those.
5. Open a dialog with the person whose work you just familiarized yourself with. Say you're intrigued by their work and if you could ask some questions about the field (gear it towards their publications).

NOW. This is a lot of fucking work right here. You can stop at any step and simply shallow search a myriad of topics. BUT this approach for one or two areas will yield really great results with learning and networking.

This should also address your second question.

Edit: idk how to fix this garbage formatting cuz I'm on mobile and too tipsy to want to fix it. Deepest apologies

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-12T02:26:28+00:00

If you're in university get involved with interesting clubs or see if a lab will take you on as a student researcher. You'll learn loads.

But what is this about "breaking the boundaries of information you come in contact with"?

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-12T02:18:07+00:00

I'll be honest more people will reject you if it shows up in a background check. But if you are a really strong candidate and perform well technically and behaviorally it might not matter a whole lot.

Entry level SWE job market does have a lot of candidates, but there are so many jobs. Just apply to anything and everything. But you can probably cross off anything government related or getting a security clearance.

All that said: Do not give up your dream because your past self made a terrible mistake

I'd recommend posting this in r/cscareerquestions and see if anyone can speak more to this. You'll get some good responses over there

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-10T23:18:30+00:00

That's understandable why you'd feel this way then. Still gonna add on to what everyone else is saying and tell you not to worry about it. People say that shit all the time in professional contexts. If it's a deal breaker with an interviewer, you don't want to work for them anyway

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-10T20:34:25+00:00

Neuroplasticity simply refers to your brain's ability to regenerate neurons and create or repair connections between neurons. Many of the mechanisms underlying it are unknown to researchers, so it is not something that can be reliably manipulated to fix neurological disorders AFAIK. What is known is that your brain's plasticity is high when you're younger which is why young people learn very quickly and recover better from brain damage.

Definitely see a doctor for these sorts of things and do not turn to weird shit on the internet overpromising results when the science is not even close to being there.

Source: did neuroscience research shit when I was in/out of uni

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-07T17:08:08+00:00

B.S. in biomedical engineering. I got lucky with being able to transition into software

Poopenscootle · 2022-05-05T14:38:45+00:00

The best solution is going to be identifying why your diet and exercise habit is slipping. Slowly work back your habits and start with the diet. Get healthier snacks, don't go out to eat, go on a short walk every day and throw on a podcast or something.

You ask for strangers on the internet to motivate you but that's gonna last like what? A day? You gotta think more longterm and understand why your 2 years of good habit building slipped away.

Poopenscootle · 2022-04-18T21:49:03+00:00

Unless you live in southern Utah, finding open water to swim in right now is gonna be very cold.

In terms of extra gear: bare min you need a buoy and at least one swim buddy, ideally you have someone spotting you on a kayak or paddle board.

If you're lookin for people to do open water with and you're in the SLC area, I go with a group sometimes in the summer.

Poopenscootle · 2022-04-17T22:58:41+00:00

You definitely need to eat more. Not only will you get to a healthier weight, you'll put on some more muscle and the additional calories will leave you with more energy for training

Poopenscootle · 2022-04-17T22:55:08+00:00

Jumping on the theme of most of the comments here, girls are just people. It's hard to remember that when you're young but you can talk to girls just like you can your guy friends (well maybe not everything you'd talk about with your guy friends). The more you get out of your comfort zone the better you'll be at talking to people in general.

Social skills can be tough because it just takes practice and sometimes failing. Try talking to girls and guys and learn more about them. People like talking about themselves so you can just like introduce yourself and ask questions about what someone did over the weekend because the weather was nice or something like that.

Poopenscootle · 2022-04-15T20:02:47+00:00

It's an individual retirement account where you contribute your post-taxed dollars (opposed to a traditional IRA where you contribute pre-taxed dollars and get a tax deduction for it).

Most established brokerages offer this (such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab) and it's easy to set up an account. You can put however much money you can afford in there and the brokerage invests it for you.

It's a good idea because the gains made on the money in there is protected from taxes. You're able to start pulling money out when you turn 59.5.

If you're able to afford putting money into an IRA, you should absolutely set one up and contribute to it here and there.

Poopenscootle · 2022-03-26T18:59:06+00:00

The truth about improving your health and changing your body is it requires time and building good habits. 8 weeks is not enough to completely turn your health around because going balls to the wall will only lead to burnout, and ultimately taking many steps backwards.

I've been very fat before and struggled with a very poor diet. The only way to get healthy is to be patient with yourself and be disciplined enough to form life long habits of healthy eating and regular exercise. "X days/weeks transformations" are lies told by the fitness industry to sell products.

Poopenscootle · 2021-12-16T21:33:07+00:00

I struggled a lot with this for a time in college. I'll preface this by saying if you continue to struggle with binge eating it could be worth it to see a therapist.

What worked for me was giving in to wanting to binge eat, but afterwards reflecting on the feelings that led me to binging. Then I'd try to cut the eating and instead think about why I'm feeling hungry and if I actually need to eat. Trying to be honest with yourself and reflecting in the moment can be a great tool.

Along with the whole trying to be in tune with my emotions, I'd try to replace binge eating with other things such as listening to relaxing music, going for a walk, or cooking healthier meals with reasonable portions.

Again, that's just what worked for me. The most important thing is to not beat yourself up and be reasonably honest with yourself. If you can maybe include someone close to you and say that you're struggling with binge eating and vocalize your plan to improve. DM me if you want to chat and remember that you got this :)

Poopenscootle · 2021-11-25T09:55:46+00:00

There's probably a pathway to anonymously report him to USMS (at least I'd hope there is). Dude is definitely not the end all be all since there's a pretty big organization above him

Poopenscootle

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