learn to swim

It’s been about a year since I last logged anything about learning to swim. In my last entry I was somewhat frustrated and needing a break. Well, since that time I stuck with it, took my time, and finally accomplished my goal. I CAN SWIM! Yay, me.

I think what helped me the most was when I finally stopped worrying about what other people thought and stopped being so self-conscious, silly, and hard on myself. I started having an attitude of “Have fun. Don’t be in such a hurry. Do what feels comfortable. Relax.” Then before you know it, things started really coming together for me.

Anyway, I just want to let everyone know that if I can do it, ANYONE can. And whether it takes you 10 weeks or 3 years, whether you are 18 or 80, that’s okay. If you want to learn how to swim, eventually you will too. Stick with it. Have fun. And know that I am rooting for you :-)

I’ve decided to take a break from swimming lessons for awhile. Since my last entry, I went to the pool on my own just to get some practice in, and I felt really tense. I was not really relaxed at all. I felt kind of like I had taken a step backwards!!

I think I’ve been trying too hard and it’s beginning to feel like a job. Swimming is supposed to be fun, right?

Anyway, I told my instructor that I needed a break. I will still go to the pool, but I think I will just try to goof around and get back to the basics by myself for awhile. I need to try to just enjoy the “feeling” of the water. I need to be 100% comfortable floating on my back, front, side, whatever!!! I need to stop rushing myself and just try to learn at a slower pace.

I was all pumped and excited to get started. I have been doing so well that I thought surely today would be more of the same.

Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way. I just wasn’t really “in the groove,” so to speak. My side breathing/resuming swimming underwater coordination just really sucked. Also, my arm strokes felt awkward, and I kept getting tired kind of fast. I blame it on the fact that I had a terrible case of insomnia last night and got very little sleep. Oh, well, there will be good days and bad days. Hopefully, WAY more good than bad.

One thing that I did accomplish was I was able to swim sideways all the way across the pool a couple times with my head out of the water. I had to use the flippers, though, but it still felt pretty cool to go from end to end nonstop. Now if I could only master my balancing on my side while coming up for air and then resuming swimming underwater.

I really need to work on my body rotation and also trying to become more relaxed. These uptight muscles of mine aren’t exactly making me streamlined ;-)

Until next time…

Well, since I last wrote, I’ve had two more lessons. We’ve been working on my being able to coordinate breathing underwater, turning to the side to get air, while kicking. And today we also introduced the arm movements while trying to do all of the above. I can kind of do it while using a kickboard to keep my balance, but I still need a lot of practice. And my coordination is kind of off sometimes with the breathing, but overall I’m making good progress

I’m really looking forward to the day where I can make it all the way across the pool without stopping and without using any swimming aids. I told my husband that on that day I’m expecting him to bring his videorecorder to the pool to capture my triumphant moment ;-)

In the meantime, I’ll just keep practicing and trying to do better than I did the time before.

Well, it’s been three weeks since my last official lesson. I’ve had a lot of other things going on. But I have been practicing on my own in this time, and I have made some real progress if I say so myself.

Anyway, since I last wrote, I’ve made TREMENDOUS strides regarding getting over my fears. Lately when I would go to the pool with my husband, I would make it a point to spend a lot of time just holding my breath and goofing around underwater. Eventually I got comfortable enough where I decided to try to “dead man float” while still remaining close to the pool edge. Then when I saw that I survived that, I moved farther and farther away from the pool and floated face-down. Then when I saw that I survived that, I decided to try to add some kicking to my floating. So now I’m floating, gliding, kicking, life is good!!!

Okay, so now at the start of today’s lesson, I have the confidence of knowing I already can bubble underwater through my nose, float, glide, and even kick some. The teacher even commented on how much improvement I had made since we last saw each other. My kicking still kind of sucks, so we started off working on that. I need to remember to straighten my legs more and relax while kicking. She had me try it with some flippers and the kickboard. That seemed to help correct my leg positioning.

Then once I seemed to be doing better with the kicking, I took off the flippers and tried kicking with the kickboard and also bubbling through my nose and turning my head to the side to get air. That is still hard for me to coordinate, but, hey, I’m learning.

Anyway, all in all I am quite pleased with the progress that I am making. I’m not exactly a “swimmer” yet, but I definitely am not the fearful anxiety-ridden person I was a month ago. I finally actually can visualize myself swimming sometime soon.

I’ll keep you guys posted on how it goes, but for now I just want to encourage everyone who is trying to do this to not give up. Believe me, if I can overcome my fear and do it, ANYONE can!

Well, it’s been two weeks since my first lesson. Since I last wrote an entry, I’ve been practicing my bubble blowing/breathing exercises at home in the bathtub and with a large bowl. I found this other cool site that explained how to do it. It’s called, “Swimming: Breathing basics.” Here is the link for anyone interested: http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12272&category=triathlon&num=0

Also, I’ve visited a public pool near my house about three times with my husband. Each time I was there for about an hour. I’m getting more and more comfortable with just being in the water. I’ve been practicing my bubble/breathing exercises, bobbing, and I even floated facedown once. I thought I was kind of getting the hang of it all, and I just knew I would impress my instructor at my next lesson, or so I thought…

Then today at my second lesson the weirdest thing happened. The instructor wanted me to bob and do the whole submerge, blow air out your nose, come back up, and repeat, and do you know that I froze again!! I couldn’t do it for him. What’s up with that? I think I just dislike the feeling of having someone standing there staring at me EXPECTING me to do something on cue. I feel pressured and get all tense.

Anyway, since that didn’t work out, he had me work with a kickboard for the first time and showed me how to kick. I was actually able to do that pretty good and get some good forward motion going. But, man, I had no idea how winded that would make me. Whew! I need to work on my stamina and get more relaxed. But I felt like I did learn something new today that I can work on at the public pool, so that was a plus. Also, he had me float on my back for the first time. I wasn’t too stressed while doing that. So that was an improvement too.

All in all, I am making progress. I haven’t totally mastered any of it, but, hey, I just started, right? It’s SLOW going, but it’s coming little by little. If I could just get REALLY comfortable being underwater and stop worrying and being so self-conscioius, I’m sure I would do much better. Oh, well. At least I’m a tiny bit closer to being a swimmer. Inch by inch I’ll get there eventually.

By the way, here are a few other links that I’ve enjoyed viewing. They are all short videos demonstrating basic swimming techniques.

http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/freestyle-swimming-intro.htm

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IYuSMumlUk4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HOzo-dWWFHI

For a little background information, I’m 41 and have always been kind of afraid of the whole concept of swimming. I did have some knucklehead throw me into the pool when I was about 10 even though I was screaming, “I don’t know how to swim,” and I had to be helped out of the pool by a kind bystander, so I guess that might explain some of my phobia. But, also, I’m just kind of a fearful person in general :-0 But next month my husband and I are going to Bermuda, and I thought that maybe I would like to try snorkeling while there. So I thought I’d bite the bullet and finally learn to swim.

Anyway, so I signed up for a 6-week course. Now, all week long I’ve been kind of dreading today’s first lesson. But I was more dreading it for the “newness” of the whole thing, or so I thought. I had no idea that I would be as scared and uptight as I turned out to be!

Well, I get to the pool. I am taking a private lesson with this guy who is just a gem of a fellow. He’s been teaching swimming lessons to all levels of swimmers for years, and he is just so kind and patient.

Once there we start off with the whole put your face in the water and blow bubbles thing, and do you know that I became so tense and fearful that it took everything in me to barely get my face in the water. I had no idea that I would have that strong of a reaction. I was so embarrassed and felt so lame, but he just kept telling me it was okay and being very kind and patient.

I told him that I thought I could hold my breath under water rather than the whole bubble blowing thing, so we tried that for a while. I held my breath for five seconds under water while he held my hands and had me in the prone position floating. Then we included me being able to do this and go back to the standing position. After doing that for a bit (I even held my breath for 10 seconds a couple times), we worked on some kicking techniques and he explained about how to relax my knees, the position of my toes, keeping my legs a certain distance together, et cetera. That went okay.

Next, since I seemed a bit more comfortable, we went back to the bubble blowing excercises. Actually, this time it was easier and I was able to do it and not be quite so freaked out and tense.

But one thing that stayed with me the entire lesson is that I kind of just wanted it to be over. So after 30 minutes, I asked him if we could wrap it up for the day.

It’s weird but I just felt so self-conscious, lame, baby-like, scary. He kept telling me that I was doing great and encouraging me and all of that, but I just never felt totally comfortable in that water. Man, I hate being such a neurotic person, and I’m hoping I can get over all of my mind games and just relax and learn how to swim. Hopefully, some day this will be just a goofy memory.

Whatever the case, I think I’ll practice my bubble blowing at home in the tub over the next week until I have to face swimming lesson number two. Wish me luck!

(By the way, I found this cool site for new want-to-be swimmers. It gives you instructions on how to breathe in water. Here’s the link: http://www.relaxnswim.com/ )