and we'll all float on, ok!

Alright, already we'll all float on.

With the usual mix of excitement and anxiety me and the chap from last week made our way into the training puddle as normal. There was an odd moment when a girl from the previous class was marched back to the pool by her mother demanding that she jump into the pool. The kid was obviously terrified of doing so and her mother was saying "If you jump in you will get a reward!". Apparently a similar thing happened last week. It shows how some people, even a mother, don't really understand the fear that some of us have of doing such a thing. Of course we know that we (probably) won't die but just for a few seconds you will be underwater and what if it goes up your nose and you lose your footing and panic and flail about and there are people watching, and that is obviously terrifying for the poor girl.

Also I  feel that swimming coaches sometimes don't empathise really. Of course they know that eventually you will figure it out and manage to swim as much as you need to or want to, but perhaps as they have obviously been swimming for such a long time they have forgotten what it's like to want to but be unable to. They may have never been in the position that some find themselves in, when they fear and dread the water and the whole week is ruined as the minutes are counted down until the next sorry episode in the wet.  I remember as a kid I felt like that. I am braver now but I can still remember.

So my online coach, Adam, has been on hand with some great advice again and the usual first few laps with the float were as successful as ever. As usual legs weren't up to the job of propelling me right across the puddle. The same legs that on Sunday ran up and down a muddy and quite hilly 10th Anniversary Dechmont Law 10k trail run. Hmm. 130th place thank you very much. (no medal for 130th place apparently-gutted!) Teacher suggested I try a putting a float on my back and she brought out this brightly coloured sharks fin with a strap. O the humiliation. As polite as I could I told her where that can float off to. A few more lengths with a couple of noodles which went reasonably well. Breathing, sponsored by Adam, is not too bad, the underwater part is virtually nailed just getting the other part needs more practice, I don't know if I am taking too big a breath (if that's possible, I am sure Adamski will put me right on that) as after a few of them It goes a  bit wonky. Thinking about it perhaps I have been breathing out and in too hard. So  I decided to  have a chat about floating with 'teacher' . She suggested it would be good to try and thinking about the physics of it it all kind of makes sense. You see when I'm, ahem, swimming with the noodle and I have a couple of practices without sticking my face in the drink I usually run out of leg steam before I get all the way across but when I stick my face in the wet-stuff it feels like my legs are lifted and therefore there is less resistance and I can propel myself forward quicker and with less effort. Intriguing huh?

So although nervous I decided to float on. This could be the pivotal part of the whole game as I have always just believed that I can't possibly float so therefore I can't possibly swim, changing that mindset is still proving challenging and the fears of childhood pop back in to town and wave a cheerful hello. However I am now led to believe that actually, yes, it is possible to float. So here goes....well I thought about it for a moment more. OK so breath in, breathe out count of 4 and up again, it's easy, just give it a go, ok but i'm scared, JUST DO IT!!!!

So I did it. err and I did it again and again and again. Wow! I was surprised to find that actually I didn't need to count to 4 and come up for air. I could stay in the water face down for longer than I expected. Amazing. A miracle. While it may have looked like I was practicing playing dead I was actually enjoying just floating. Ok so it wasn't perfect, only a few times did I do it text book but what I did achieve was quite a revelation to me. Maybe I can float on ok!

Alright already, so going back to what I said earlier about breathing in a gentler way, I don't yet  know if that is the key to getting it all together. Well there was certainly no need to breath as heavy while just floating on but I ran out of time to do a few more lengths, so that will have to wait until next week. Next week we have a new teacher, a fella argh! as Becca has a holiday. No need to be nervous.

If I could just find the time to have more practice. A busy boy at the moment though.

As far as the view under water, as my online coach has asked, well there is just another pair of Scottish male legs, typical milk bottle colour, even in what we like to call summer! So as yet nothing at all to report and as our female companion didn't show up this week much less to view. However I will keep that in mind as, to some people,  it may act as an extra stimulus to get out and get wet more often, at the moment for me any of that business would just be a distraction.

So thanks again to Adamski and to Modest Mouse. More fun next week.

Pip pip!