Are you embarrassed at the thought of
trying to swim?
I have always wanted to swim. I used to look at the
swimming on TV and I was in the water with them. I couldn't understand why I
couldn't swim. I took swimming lessons when I was much older, after making a
definite decision to do it!
I did not have a 1-1 in a private pool but was part of a
group. This was not a satisfying way to learn because no one was at the same
stage.
I was given a float and told to kick my legs that were
deep in the water. Boy! that was hard to do! I was done in by the time we
finished.
I was asked to push of in the shallow end and lasted 2
seconds in the water and panicked! I felt awful, but this was my time to
learn and I was not going to be put off.
Because I was not working at the time, I was able to get
to the pool every day in-between my swimming lessons. I must have looked an
idiot, all by myself trying to get into the water and stopping every few
feet. I would never go out of my depth and always clung to the side, but
little by little I made progress. My progress was not the right sort, I was
to discover this later. I had swimming lessons for about 6 months and was
able to get my head in the water for breast stroke. Do you think I could
move? No way! Try as I might, all I did was move inch by inch and spent time
looking at people chatting away to each other swimming length after length
zooming up the pool. I just couldn't understand it! What was I doing wrong?
Later I was able to venture into the deep end. I was so
scared my heart was thumping away. I can't explain what I thought was going
to happen there, all I knew was that the deep end meant I was going to
drown.
Well, here I am now, not embarrassed while people are in
the pool because I am in there with them and am a very proficient swimmer,
also teaching people how to swim.
It didn't take long to perfect my swimming techniques. In
fact after learning how to swim the correct way, 3 months later I swam a
mile doing the front crawl and not even out of breath.
If you would like to know how I did this, feel free to
email Irene