Milestone #1: Ditching the floatation device. It happened after almost 8 classes. I could then propel myself across the breadth of the pool, face under the water, legs straight and kicking hard, hands in front, coming up twice for air. It took me a long time to get rid of the float. What finally helped was a snide comment made by dear husband during the Amritsar trip. We were watching the lovely fish in the tank, at the Golden temple. They would come till the edge of the tank, flitting in and out of the water rapidly. S said "Don't they swim like Amma?" When I glared at him, he smiled "I meant so gracefully." Snide remarks aside, I started observing their fluid movements more closely and when I was struggling to float, I would conjure up their image in my mind and think of how they just cleaved so cleanly through the water. This kind of visualization, thinking of myself as a fish instead of a large ungainly woman thrashing about in the pool (!!) really assisted me in learning how to float.
The next challenge has been how to get across the pool without keeping my feet down on the bottom every time I came up for air. Come what may, I could not coordinate hand movements, leg-kicking and breathing all at the same time. I almost gave up after a couple of hours of fruitless work. Hunger pangs would strike me hard after a good 30 minute session! The pool closes in a couple of days and I have (kind of) managed to get across the pool very laboriously, without the hand stroke. It has been much harder than I expected and I will have to kickstart the whole process in the summer. But now I know it's do-able and my confidence has definitely improved. A major plus point if I have to exhort my risk-averse firstborn to learn swimming in a few months!
hey, you are doing great..keep patting on your back like this. Every hurdle crossed is an achievement!
ReplyDeleteGreat going. Actually am making a mental note of all these updates and pushing myself to go do it. You are a true inspiration.
ReplyDeleteHey that's really cool - Congrats :) ! And I am not being sarcastic - I remember how difficult it was for me to float too! The hands and legs together is a bit tough, I still cannot do hands and legs and breathing pattern together, but can get across a decent length with just the leg movements somehow.
ReplyDeleteLove your visualization fundaa - am soo going to try it next time I'm in the pool !!
i have also shied away from swimming for various reasons over the years - don't know when I'll get down to it ... seriously, the visualization helped? that's motivating!
ReplyDeleteThanks Uma, Sumana :)
ReplyDeleteThanks aparna. The amt of coordination required is a lot! Of course, once u get it, I guess it becomes very natural and u do it without thinking...a lot like driving, i thought!
ReplyDeleteYuvika, please just do it, now you have the time. Pluses : great exercise, u live in ARIZONA, clean pools (better bet than in India?), better coaches for sure! Minuses: I got badly tanned even without the sun hitting the pool and even with liberal amounts of sunscreen :(
ReplyDeletethere u go - my biggest worry with swimming - the tan - i HATE getting tanned (and I swear that's an understatement)
ReplyDelete@Yuvika - I know, that's why i mentioned it. Dare I mention also that my skin became all dry and rash-y?? :((
ReplyDeleteHey just thought should mention this, if you feel patches of dry skin coming on which don't go away with moisturizer or coconut oil type of things, do check it out. I had something like that recently and went to the dermatologist only after a month when it was unbearable - to find it was an allergic reaction to sunlight :) !!
ReplyDeleteActually you may find it easier when you start again in the summer. Especially since your confidence levels will be much higher than what you began with now.
ReplyDeleteFish visualisation huh - Boss, you need to try your hand at motivational speeches :)