Lesson 2 tonight.
Positive point was that I confidently walked past my audience of mums and dads in the gallery en route to the training puddle. Maybe next week I will wave and perhaps stop to chat and sign a few autographs.
Another pupil tonight. A nice young lady. She turned out to be almost a decent swimmer however she just couldn't do the face in the water thing. Won't be long before she has mastered it and swims off into the sunset. Her technique looked very good, just a bit scared to get her face wet.
Well, like my school report cards used to say, I set my self some very low targets which I consistently failed to achieve.
Buoyed by last week's veritable successes, I perhaps was feeling a little more confident than I perhaps had the right to be. Tonight I just could not get it together. There wasn't really much of a lesson structure. It was a bit like 'ok do what you can and when you feel confident with that we will do something else'. Truth is neither of us progressed much past floundering and spluttering.
My legs just didn't seem to get it together tonight. I couldn't go from one side of the kiddies training pool to the other while doing the underwater breathing thing. I would get 2/3 or 3/4 across and then although I was still kicking it felt like I wasn't going forward. I did this for a while with a pair of floats and then with one bigger float and still It was a struggle. I couldn't even manage a straight line.
I maybe did 20 lengths and only really 2 I managed to do satisfactorily. I stopped trying to breathe underwater and just concentrate on kicking all the way across. It just wasn't happening. I was getting quite frustrated. So that was it. Lesson over and all me and my new chum managed to do was a couple of lengths of the tiny kiddie pool. Poor show.
I am home now and after thinking about it for a while I conclude that maybe I should have used the 'noodles' instead of the float, as last week when using the noodles I could move arms and legs and that just seemed easier to propel me forward. I'm not sure why the instructor insisted on floats this week. Next week I will try the noodles. To me it seems more logical to actually attempt to swim with all limbs using 2 noodles, then lose one and hey who knows maybe lose another. Didn't feel like I took a step forward this week. I only feel I achieved a wee bit more of sticking my face in the water. With varying amounts of success.
Perhaps, like aquamillie, I should go to the pool in between lessons to practice. Not sure if pools let you just flap about and disturb everyone. Will need to make some calls.
Need more work on the breathing underwater. I Just haven't got it together yet and 45 minutes just flies by in the pool.
On Sunday it's my turn to take little lad to his swimming lesson so I should get some underwater time. Every little helps I suppose.
Tonight I am reminded how I felt when learning to drive. Some lessons were great, some not so great, some frustrating but I guess if you can't practice between lessons then it's always going to be hard. Perhaps me and the family should find a quiet pool and just splash about. Perhaps.
So although I feel that I haven't made progress this week I am still looking forward to the next one. It's not impossible after all, surely everyone can learn. Focus on the prize.
So off to bed now. Night night.
Oh just remembered, I bought some groovy speedo goggles on the way there tonight. However I still don't feel I have the right to wear them. Maybe next week. Maybe next week.
2 comments:
First things first, for adults goggles are like underpants. You don't earn the right to wear them, you just should. ;) Who knows what you will find underwater, there's good sets of legs everywhere.
Second. Arms, legs, breathing out underwater blah blah blah.... Mate, this is lesson two. It takes months/years to get kids to swimming with arms and legs confidently and they don't come with adult "issues" like we do. Concentrate on one thing at a time.
Sounds to me like you are not getting great instruction. Don't let that put you off though. Most of these swim instructors have always swam so they have no idea of the apprehension adults feel learning to swim.
On Sunday pay attention to what techniques are being used to teach your son to swim. You should be taking the same steps, probably just minus the nursery rhymes. Sing them if it helps.
Here's what I would have you do;
Push off from the wall, arms out in front like a torpedo, you can use a kick board to hold onto or even a noodle if it helps. Face in the water blowing bubbles for a count of four, 1-2-3-4. Stop, stand up and breathe.
If you start to feel ok with that, start kicking. See how far out into the pool you can go before you have to stand up and take a breath.
Lastly, see if you can keep going. ie. lift your head out of the water and quickly take a breath then head straight back down. without stopping the kick or touching the bottom.
You will be across the pool in no time.
Remember;
1. WEAR YOUR GOGGLES!! and underpants.
2. Small steps Tom, small steps.
3. Practice, practice, practice
4. Most important, have fun.
Love your humour happy_tom. This post made me laugh out loud (with you of courae, not at you!).
As Adam noted there didn't seem to be much structure to this lesson. So much going on, like there was an expectation you would be able to run when you are barely crawling.
Practise is definitely important and lets you start to enjoy just being in the water.
Again, I second Adam's torpedo tip too.
Aquamillie
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