Thursday, July 09, 2009

My 1st swimming lesson

Before I continue, those who are professional swimmers or at least know how to swim for the past 1 month, plis DO NOT continue reading this. It will do nothing to u, but to bore you to tears, or to embarrass me beyond control. Seriously. Stop. STOP!

Ok. I'm taking swimming lessons now, yup, in an attempt to get slimmer. Yesterday was my first class (if I exclude the lesson I took when I was 14, it was only an hour anyway, i cannot really count that). Well the truth is, there was no instructor yesterday, she was on leave. But since i was there with my sister, bringing my brand new swimming suit, I can't just ignore the pool, can I? Lucky there was a colleague of my sister's whos also taking the swimming class and yesterday was her 5th time, and she agreed to teach us the basics. Cool.

So the lesson began.... first step, breathing technique (bubbling as they called it)... I tried that a couple of times and decided that it was not important. I mean, everybody can breathe, I've been doing it since I was born. So I skipped that. The next step was to learn how to float. Well, in my experience (in my swimming lesson when I was 14), I was able to do this. So i didnt think there should be any problem doing it now. True enuf, I managed to float, (only my hands were so scared to let go of the edging). But I let go anyway, just by an inch.

The third step where I thought was the tricky part. The 'landing' technique. Its the technique to land on the base of the pool from ur floating pose, without ur hands touching the edging. I know its simple guys...yes I know. And why are u still reading this if you know how to swim? Didnt i tell u this entry is only to bore you and embarass me?

But now i can do it. After 15 minutes of self training, now I know how to land properly. and now that I know how to do it, its actually very simple, I dunno why did I have a hard time doing it the first time. Come to think of it, its not becoz its difficult to be done, its the difficulty of conquering your fear, the fear of drowning, aquaphobia or so they call it. Becoz, to be able to land using the right technique, you must let go the edge completely and use your both hands to balance your body while standing up. Once u do that, you can swim. But then again, I can't. Hua hua hua..... At least not with the right technique, unlike the Olimpic swimmers (not even close, the comparison can only embarass me even more).

Becoz now I know why I should learn the breathing technique in the first place. Its to help you to breathe while u swim. All I can do now is swimming while holding my breath. So I can only last for at most 2 minutes (i didnt really time, so maybe less), then I have to stop to catch my breath.

Lesson to learn here guys, is to never skip lessons. There are always reasons behind the sequence of every training.

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