The First Step is the Deepest

Hello.

I am a 36 year old bloke, who just never learned to swim and have avoided water for almost 20 years since leaving high school. I have a 3 year old son who loves the water and has just started swimming lessons at the local pool with his mum, after an 18 month wait to get a place. Therefore I decided it is now time to get over this and get on with having fun with my family instead of watching, jealously, from the side.

It's not been an easy thing to do. There has been a little embarrassment over the years about it and people do think you are a bit odd, in the same way that I think people who choose the harp as their musical instrument of choice are a bit odd, some people even offer some form of pity in the same way they would upon discovering you are vegetarian.

Two weeks ago I finally plucked up the courage and just booked some lessons at the pool before I could talk myself out of it. With the lessons booked and paid for there would be no way of chickening out. I deliberately chose the adult class I considered would coincide with a quite time. Wednesday 5.45pm. And sure enough when I arrived there was not too many folks around and due to no-one else showing up, although others were booked, I had a 1 on 1 lesson. Fantastic.

My greatest fear was seeing someone I may know and the shame and humiliation that would come of being outed! I nervously made my way to the training pool populated by loads of small children being barked at by a disinterested 'swimming teacher.' Hmm not ideal.  A moment later my instructor, Rebecca, appeared and after a quick chat the kids were evicted into the main pool and I was alone in the training pool being watched by the parents of the kids that I had evicted. Sorry!

The interrogation consisted of:

Q "Can you float?"- A "err I don't think so, no."

Q "How do you feel about putting your face in the water?" - A "Not keen but not terrified."

From that the lesson was planned. 

I decided very quickly that as I only have 45 mins and I really want to get my money's worth I am going to have to play the very difficult part of being brave and keen instead of the more natural and easier part of being pathetic and a bit scared and embarrassed.

So using big long foam spaghetti things under me I started trying to push myself from one side of the pool to the other. Very tricky but mastered after 2 attempts.

What I was not expecting was the effort that the legs have to put in, they work very hard. I have been running (ahem, jogging) for about a year and thought I was reasonably fit although overweight however I was surprised by how much effort the legs have to do. They hurt pretty quickly.

A mixture of doing  lengths of the wee pool with the spaghetti and the floats for half the lesson was pretty good. Mixing up using just the legs and using legs and arms was good and I seemed to get better each time. Confidence was good too.

No doubt 'becca picked up on this and with 10 mins to go she asked again about face in the water. I had been recently reading Aquamillie's blog, which inspired me to do this, and I recall it took a few lessons for her to stick her head under. I knew if I said no I would just dread next week's lesson for 7 days so I decided to give it a go. I practiced walking across the pool sticking my head under, count to 3, and out. It wasn't easy and it is completely alien to me and, amusingly, just when I though I was getting the hang of it I would get complacent and the next time I went under I would get it all wrong and take a drink by mistake, then I would stand up and have fizzy swimming pool water come out my nose. Attractive. Also I didn't know if I should open my eyes or not underwater. Sometimes I did, others I had them close. Goggles would no doubt help, however goggles seem to be a tool of the swimmer and I don't know if I have the right to wear them yet. I am glad I was brave enough to give it a go. I have started the ball rolling and although nervous about doing it again tonight I am also keen to get it right. Aquamillie's blog says that she blows when she is under water, I didn't do that. Will try it tonight.

Near the end of last week's lesson I spied someone looking at me from another pool. I recognised them as a chap that runs with me 2 or 3 times a week at the Jolly Joggers running group. Horror upon horror. I was found out. Oh the shame. I nervously waved back, realising I had been found out. He hasn't been to the group since I saw him, so I haven't had a chance to talk about it, but I will probably see him on Thursday if he turns up.

Initially my heart sunk when this happened but by the time I was out of the pool and waiting for my lift home I decided that this was the best thing that could have happened. It means I can just concentrate on learning to swim without fear of loosing my cool. It has also made me confident to tell people that I am learning to swim.  Which I have done with a strange sense of pride. It's like I am ready to conquer my fear and I am proud of it.

OK so lesson 2 is tonight and I am again nervous and excited about it, will be glad when it is over. As long as I manage to do at least what I did last week I will consider that success.

Aquamillie's blog, which has inspired me, is here:

http://diaryofanadultlearningtoswim.blogspot.com/

Check it out.