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