Splash - swimming lessons aren't just for kids

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Splash – swimming lessons aren’t just for kids

19 July 2011 No Comments

duchesssa

By Erica Phillips

I just jumped right in.

Recently, I completed swimming lessons- Adult Splash 1. The seeds were planted a few years ago after started running: taking Aquafit for cross training, then at a friend’s pool party: I started to learn to love the water and not fear it. It’s unclear how the fear started: other sport-related fears have to do with falling and getting hurt (bloodied and bruised after a recent running accident, I kept going), or not being good enough (coming in last) I have yet to do a race.

It wasn’t only fear of the water that kept me out of the pool: undiagnosed, low grade lymphoma, CTLC-MF- made the thought of wearing a bathing suit in public uncomfortable- with ultraviolet treatment my skin is better now. CTCL-MF (Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma-Mycosis fungoides) left my skin with light and dark patches all over my body. Visit www.clfoundation.org.

Committing my Sunday afternoons for 12 weeks was a challenge, but this was something I needed to do; taking swimming lessons as a child was not a great experience and I “excused myself” from taking swimming in high school so there I was over 30 in the pool with several other adults, and two, very young two instructors- one was a volunteer.

Anxiety and fear are like emotional handcuffs: I wanted to unlock them with swimming; just let go. And so I did. Starting with that first lesson, I didn’t ease my way into the pool, jumped right in, embraced the moment, cold water and all. That first lesson was about getting comfortable in the pool and learning basic moves: floating on the front, floating and back and kicking. Despite the swim cap my hair got wet: after another 60 minutes at the gym, I washed the chlorine out of my relaxed hair and deep conditioned it with olive oil – my hair survived.

Report Card

In lesson two, we reviewed material from lesson one: I still had to work on arching my back for the back float, (I’ve done Pilates and yoga and I do P90X, so it’s counter intuitive: I’m used to engaging my core and keeping my joints soft). The volunteer instructor helped me with gliding on my back and front, “keep your joints locked.” I figured it out and did fine: the instructors gave me the thumbs up.

In some lessons, I worked with the senior instructor and the men: The other women were having trouble so they worked with the volunteer instructor on earlier lessons. It was nice to be one of the strongest ones in a class. Even when I was tired I just jumped in, sometimes a little breathless for a few minutes: swimming is hard work.

We did the flutter kick with the flutter board, moving to other end of pool for part of the lesson: I tried to kick with the board as opposed to walking over like the others, no problem so the instructor said on the way back to try a light grip: nailed it, no more use for flutter board, just remember to keep my head inline with my shoulder.

In subsequent lessons we worked on the front crawl; I picked it up quickly, then we learned the front crawl incorporating proper breathing. I kept moving while others took their turn- another technique from other workouts. Learning the eggbeater kick on the edge of the pool was much trickier. We practiced it in the deep end first with a noodle with the volunteer instructor: senior instructor said I didn’t need the noodle.

We also learned to grab objects from the bottom of the pool, hand stands, front and back glides and underwater swimming- l love that. We learned treading water in the deep end: The course requirements are treading water with a personal floatation device for 30 seconds, but my instructor had me do it without the PFD- and I’m glad.

Not all lessons went smoothly, during one class I was quite sluggish initially and the instructor said one arm was dragging, but I improved throughout the session. Our instructor had us do a lot of drills, which I appreciated as it’s the key to improvement. For two lessons I was the only student, so I worked on my weak areas: the backstroke and treading water, especially that eggbeater kick. For the last class- the second unintended private lesson- I learned the whip kick, we did wild wave games with another class, practiced earlier strokes and treading water.

A letter from the instructor

Just before Lesson 12, I learned how to get water out of my ears: hop on one foot while tugging on the ear lobe- Thanks for the “You Docs” tip, Dr. Oz. My classes ended with a great note from my instructor and encouragement to take Adult Splash 2, which looks intimidating: standing dive into deep water, treading water one to two minutes, and crawls for 25 to 50 metres.

The following Sunday, I went for a fitness swim practicing what I learned in Splash 1, preparing for Splash 2. My endurance needs work, and I’m still a little apprehensive in the deep end: both will take time, but that’s what Sunday afternoons are for. Hopefully by learning to swim- I’ll learn to fly.