TICK! - Kick boarding a 25m lap

I knew that in order to make the most of my swimming lessons I would need to also commit to out of class practice.  In this vein I purchased a 20 visit pass to my local public pool.  As a side note – since when does it cost $4.50 to go to the pool?! Seems exorbitant!  The pass cost $66 which is $3.30 per visit, a somewhat more reasonable amount.  My local pool is a 2 minute drive from home and has a 25m heated pool which is conveniently tucked away to the side. 

Since buying the pass I have made 3 visits: one on 24 Jan, one on 29 Jan and one somewhere in between.  The visits have all been for around half an hour.

My first 2 visits were around half an hour before closing time on the theory that surely it would be empty or emptying out by then (not true) and my third visit was around 10am (perfect time – I had the pool to myself!).

Progress in terms of kick boarding and face in water action on these days was as follows:

·         24 Jan – I struggled to get into a good rhythm and my thighs seemed to be tiring quickly but by the end of my session I managed a 25m kick boarding lap without stopping. Yay! I pulled myself out of the pool, gave myself a pat on the back and given the amount of effort it required wondered whether it was a fluke (bad negative thoughts!). Nonetheless I concluded it was too early to tick this box. Although I was focusing on kick boarding I mentally acknowledged that there had been no face in water action.  My justification for that was because there were being about 10 others in the pool and I’d have felt a bit silly given how horribly ungraceful I was at the moment.

·         Next visit – I could only get about 2/3 thirds of a lap in before stopping and definitely no face in the water action. It was seeming like last time's full lap was a fluke.  :(

·         29 Jan – although there were a few false starts, by the end of my session I had done 4 25m laps!  I stopped between each and while I don’t know how long they each took by the 3^rd or 4^th one I was only gasping rather than heaving for the energy to get in the last few kicks. Box now officially ticked!  As for face in water action – none. No excuses this time, given I had the pool to myself.  

We have very hot weather coming up this week so more practice is scheduled. :)

A little bit about the swim centre

There is no lesson this week because of the Australia Day public holiday so I thought I would write a little about how I found my class, how much it costs and what the swim centre is like.

According to the yellow pages many public pools and private swim centres have adult learn to swim classes however, turns out that is not quite true.  Some didn’t even offer them and of those that did most only offered private classes arranged directly with an instructor, at a cost of $30 - $40 per half hour.  There were only 3 swim centres which had organised regular classes available.

Option 1 was a little out of the way and classes were on a Friday afternoon so I ruled it out. 

Option 2 was my preference:

·                Monday 7.30pm

·                5 minutes from home

·                30 minute class

·                $15 per class

When I went to check it out though, which was during the allocated class time, I was horrified! The place was dark, dank, had no natural light, looked somewhat tired, over powered me with the smell of chlorine, and worst of all the instructor was standing on the side of the pool yelling at the person in the water. Granted it was probably so that he could hear her but it put me off instantly and I left without bothering to look.

Option 3:

·                daily 11.30am and 5.30pm classes as well as an 8am Saturday class

·                10 minutes from work but a bit longer from home

·                30 minute class

·                $15 per class if you pay by the week

·                $12 per class if you book in for a term or for all of what is left of the term

When I went there for its inspection, I fell in love….  a gorgeous, bright, airy, state of the art centre with a great vibe, plenty of natural light and most importantly nobody doing any shouting!

The pool I use is 25m, 1.2m deep, has 8 lanes and is heated to 29 degrees, the change rooms are nice and clean with (divine!) hot sensor showers inside as well as poolside, and the only rules are that you must wear a swim cap in the pool and hop under the showers before getting in.

Given that Option 3 is part of a big busy gym the only downside was the increased chance of running into somebody I knew but overall I was sold!

I have paid $144 and booked in for 12 weeks.  I am the only one in my class (so at $12 a lesson my private instruction is an absolute bargain) and from what I have gathered most of the time slots are pretty bare.  

I go to the same half hour session each week which means I have the same instructor each week but you can change session times – it just means you may not get the same instructor.  You do need to book in though, point being if nobody does they won’t schedule an instructor.  The swim centre only has learn to swim pools which mean that after the lesson you can’t stay behind and practice. That hasn’t been a problem so far though because after my half hour I have been exhausted!

At this preliminary stage I am glad I am the only one in the class because that means it is all about me! J   And really I just don’t think that any more than a class of 2 is conducive to a decent learning pace for this sort of thing.  I think though that as I progress it would be nice to have others to share the different experiences with.

I am pretty pleased with everything so far and am actually surprised at the pace of progress.  I wasn’t expecting face in the water action from lesson #1 and I certainly didn’t think that by lesson #3 I would be trying to incorporate taking in breaths from the side (that’s coming up next lesson I am told....).  Having said that though there is no overbearing pressure to attempt anything I am not comfortable with and I think that that, combined with Jackie’s calm nature and the really nice vibe and environment of the centre has kept my enthusiasm for this challenge well and truly alive. J

Lesson #2 - Kicking and Bubbles

Googling and YouTubing

Since my last lesson I have been Googling and YouTubing “kicking” and “head under water” topics to high heaven!  Legs straight, ever so slight bend in the knee, chest pressed down into the water to help raise the hips, toes pointed, ankles a little floppy, kick from the hips, kick in the water not the air, blow bubbles through the nose. Needless to say, a lot to take into account but I was looking forward to Lesson #2.

Kicking

When I got to my lesson (after a quick scan of the place – phew, no boss or boss’s husband in sight), with all my newly acquired information on kicking in my head, I set off kick boarding.

Bum-bah...  got nowhere, well not nowhere but hardly anywhere . While I was managing to stay afloat I did a lot of kicking on the spot. After a chat to Jackie we established my legs were too tense  and I wasn’t using my thighs (the biggest part of the leg) to move water but rather I was using the lower part of my leg.

Armed with that information I tried and tried and tried and finally kind of got it – basically when you’re thighs are burning you know you have it.  I was still pretty good at kicking-on-the-spot but there was progress.  I went from stopping about 5 times in 25m to 3 times to being able to stop only once.  My thighs were absolutely killing and I was getting out of breath but I figured it was very good exercise!

My next aim now is to complete a full lap. I don’t know what planet I was in last week when I recalled that I kick boarded the whole lap on my first go! Not true peeps. Sorry.

Morale for today though is Google and YouTube as much as you want, but nothing beats just getting in there. Doing it. Feeling it. Trying different things. And practice.

Bubbles

My big big achievement for today’s lesson though was putting my head in the water without getting water up my nose!!!! Now THIS was exciting! 

When Jackie mentioned that the next step was going to be kick boarding and putting my face in the water to blow bubbles, my instant panicked thought was “nnnooooooooooo” and said can we try that after one more kick boarding lap? When that lap was finished I looked at the clock, realised I had less than 10 minutes left which meant that this part of the class could only last so long. 

So off I set clumsily kicking, kicking, kicking  - psyching myself to put my face in – just a smidge.  1, 2, 3 breathe, nose in the water a little, blow - blow -  blow starting before I even got to the water  – no water up the nose!!! It actually worked!  And of course it did. If you are blowing enough, which doesn’t need to be strongly, but enough so you can feel the water bubbling how can water get up your nose?   I did this, in single spurts, about 6 times before the class was over and while there was hesitation and a lot of internal psyching myself up before each time, I was pretty chuffed with myself overall. 

I hope I haven’t made this all sound too graceful because let me tell you it was nothing of the sort! Each time I was done with the kick boarding / blowing bubbles combination I would come to my feet abruptly, eyes tight shut, hands flying up to wipe the water from my eyes, nose and mouth.  I really hope nobody is paying any attention to me during these classes!!!!

My next aim here is to be able to put my head under more than once in a row before stopping.

I don’t know what it is but something about my swim class environment gives me a higher level of confidence than I thought I had.  The whole head under water thing is something I have not done in YEARS, and while it still is a major stumbling block, I now feel like there is a chance I can really overcome it.

I felt great after today’s lesson so I decided to go home, open a box of dark chocolate Ferrero Rochers and pig out. I convinced myself I deserved it. hehehe

Lesson #1 – Seems I can float after all

The day of Lesson #1 finally arrived. I sat in my car in the car park a few minutes early mustering all my courage not to drive away. I walked to the counter ever so "calmly" scanning the aquatic centre for anybody I might know – phew none in sight!

I put on my swim class appropriate cossies and came out, swim cap in hand, to see my instructor (Jackie – quietly relieved it was a female) already in the lane in the water waiting for me.  I knew I was the only person enrolled in this particular class so at this stage there was nothing else to do but get into the pool.  Which I did – ooooh - 29 degrees was a smidge cooler than I had been expecting. What had I been expecting – a spa bath perhaps??? Anyway at this stage I wasn’t hesitant about getting in because at 1metre along the entire length of the pool the water level was well within my comfort zone .

The first thing Jackie did was ask me about my water skills, or lack thereof. A few questions along the lines of:

-          Can I swim at all – nope. 

-          Can I float on my back – I don’t think so.

-          Do I put my head under water – only with my eyes closed and holding my nose else water goes up my nose - eeek.

We tested whether I could float on my back– tick! Seems I can. J

After that she pulled out a kick board and showed me how to kick.  It was a bit hard to see her technique in the water but I grabbed onto the board and off we went kicking down the pool (me holding onto the kick board trying not to make it or me sink, she walking in the water beside me).  I managed to reach the other end without sinking or stopping but I was exhausted and breathless - that was actually hard yakker!!!

It was at this point that I also noticed a man who looked very much like my boss’s husband sitting at the end of the pool with his young boys – OMG it was my boss’s husband. Arrghhh! Did he spot me, is he going to tell my boss, does she ever come during this time, will he recognise me in my cap, bloody bloody this was all going well until now.

Perhaps it was a combination of seeing a familiar face and exhaustion but kicking back down to the other end was very stop / start. My feet kept sinking and I was only going a few metres at a time. When we got to the other end Jackie pulled out some flippers and said using them would let me feel what position my feet need to be in for proper kicking. The flippers were awesome – I was literally gliding down the pool. Unfortunately though when I went back to no flippers for the next lap I felt like I was going nowhere and worse backwards.  My kicking seemed worse than the very first lap and my feet and kick board kept sinking after a few metres.  Jackie said I was doing quite well for my first go but it was pretty clear this was going to require a good amount of practice (and some googling on good technique).

Jackie then asked me if I would like to try to put my head under water. I said “maybe not today” thinking lady “I haven’t put my head under water for 30 years I am not about to just do it now”! but after one more stop / start kicking lap I thought what the heck, I am here to push my boundaries a little. So I tried, using Jackie’s tip: to avoid getting water up my nose gently exhale out of my nose as it submerges into the water.

Bzzzt! I couldn't do it. I was tense and felt like I was out of breath before I even got close to getting my nose in. This wasn’t going to happen today and was going to be my biggest immediate challenge. I have to say I was a bit disappointed that Jackie didn’t have any exercises or other ways to help  me relax me and coax me further into the water. I made a mental note to google when I got home.

So after Lesson #1: yes I can float, yes I am still very reluctant to put my head under water but most importantly yes I will be returning next week for Lesson #2. J

A confession

I have a confession – I can’t swim.  And I really really hate it.

While I will go into the water (short spurts, shoulder high only in pools, thigh high only at the beach) I am just not comfortable in it and over time have turned into a moderate aquaphobic.   If I am at any risk of having my feet anything other than firmly planted on the ground I get anxious and I get out! My bum sinks to the ground when I try to float, I won’t open my eyes under water and worst of all I can’t put my head under water without getting a noseful. 

So, last November, during a period when I wasn’t quite feeling myself I decided I needed to do something for myself. I toyed with the idea of a pottery class but it wasn’t going to fulfil me in the way I needed at that time. Then suddenly - I had a brainwave – I will learn to swim!!!! Now, not surprisingly, it is not the first time I have had this brainwave but this time I knew it was different – I was really going to... well look into it at least....

2 months later...

It is 11 January 2011, and after numerous delay-booking-into-swimming-classes-tactics, I have finally done it – I have booked myself into weekly adult learn to swim classes. They start tomorrow. Arrrggghhh! I am nervous and excited and nervous and excited and nervous and excited. If I can learn how to swim I am going to feel as if I can do any-thing!