Frustratience and the endless propulsion of positivity

Greetings again earthlings.

Although 6 weeks in to my blog, I am actually counting this as lesson 2. As you may recall I changed venue and teacher last week with an immense amount of joy, and this week I turned up full of excitement and reinvigorated.

It turned out to not be such a joyous occasion for various reasons but as it is only lesson 2 I will keep up the positivity. I read somewhere recently that when you are learning a new instrument you have some good lessons and some bad lessons. It happens. If you are having a bad lesson it doesn't mean that you are incapable it's just that the brain is working harder than the body this week and it is all being taken in and processed ready for next week. I Understand that somewhat as last week it was going in one ear and out the other, this week I feel I can remember just about everything teacher said, although I would give myself a C- on the practical. No biggy.

Frustratience, though, is a new word I invented which sums up how I feel after 6 weeks.  4 of which I wasted really. Frustration with my original teacher and my inability to see the obvious and change what wasn't good. However I did pay for 10 weeks up front  with no chance of a refund (that was part of the deal). My instincts told me not to sign up for something with not even a written plan or any goals whatsoever and with a no refund clause. I should have smelt a big dirty rat but I guess I was desperate. It makes me angry. However a good Buddhist would turn those negatives round and I am switching to patience and positivity. Patience as I am starting again and determined to see it through, no matter how long it takes and positivity as that takes no effort at all really.

So off we go to get changed and showered.

I am no longer the new kid. A new lady showed up tonight which initially I was pleased with but it turned out to be a mixed blessing as I was no longer centre of attention, and especially as I seemed to do OK last week most attention was on the new lady. Which is fair, however her inability to listen and do what teacher asked made her get into constant bother which on 2 occasions caused teacher to dash away from whatever we were doing to rescue the new lady, leaving me splashing and spluttering and annoyed. I think it showed a lack of respect to the teacher to constantly do the opposite of what teacher said and get into bother but in fairness her enthusiasm was 10 laps ahead of her ability so what can you do, better that than a terrified learner I suppose.  Just goes to show you how difficult a job it must be really. I spent probably half of the hour just keeping an eye on the newbie as she kept going deeper and getting out of her depth and instead of swimming into the side, she was heading from the side out into the middle. 

So what did I get up to, well, like last week we started by visiting the deep end. Doing a few dunks, holding on to the side of course. As usual first one was a partial success, all the rest were OK. Just takes a couple of goes to get it right. Back down to the middle of the pool, holding on to the side of course, and a noodle and some breaststroke practice, walking out  a bit and swimming back into the side. This was going too well so I swapped the noodle for the arm-bands of shame and normal service was resumed.  A bit patchy and the legs were getting it right about 50% of the time. Apparently its legs stretched out straight behind you, bend the knees, toes under bum and push out like a frog and back to the start. Like last week  arms or legs were perfect, rarely both in sync but I managed to keep making it into the side without too many incidents.

Teacher suggested we do a lap of the pool on our back, with noodle, to look at our legs to make sure what they were doing is what we thought they were doing. Great idea. It was funny as sometimes I would get in to a rhythm and It just worked and it was great and then when I thought about it, it all fell apart again and it would take a few strides to get it back. The best advice, half way round, was when legs are stretched out count to 3, then bend the knees then push out like a frog. That really made the difference as I really got a good rhythm up and sped away down the side of the pool. 

So that was about it really. Not a huge amount done and not really any progress from last week at all, but  hey it's only lesson 2 (again) so it's still early days. 

New teacher is on holiday for 2 weeks now and I have 2 weeks off work too so either I can go next week at the same time, assuming the other girls will turn up anyway, or I could have a couple of sessions splashing about in a pool with my family. Either way it will be fun and exciting. 

I almost forgot, I was looking at Youtube at some treading water exercises and I was really in the mood to crack that this week but It didn't quite work out that way. They egg beater technique is very hard work on the old legs and I could manage no more than a few seconds, I will try the more traditional 'treading' technique next time. 

So arm bands off and I finished up with a few face down floats, Adam inspired, it's really funny. I feel I have kind of cracked that and I can do it and stay completely afloat for as long as I can blow bubbles and it seems that maybe I could just surprise myself and swim away and maybe I will one time, but obviously I would need to come up for a breath and go back down so next time, well next lesson anyway, I will try and float and then come up for a breath and see if I can manage that. If I can I will be delighted.

I feel I have been getting carried away with myself of late and as I am Scottish and there is a tremendous amount of Calvanism inherent in the Scottish psyche that will simply never do so  I am going to revisit Aquamilie's great blog tomorrow and read from the start again and see how it compares with my experience to date, after-all she is part of the reason I started to learn and all of the reason I started to blog.

'til next time, folks, all the P's. Patience & Positivity. Pip Pip.