Lesson # 2

My first lesson was about getting into the water and overcoming the fear I had built up in my head for over 40 years.  Lesson two was actually about SWIMMING, which turned out to be more complicated than I had expected. 

I quickly remembered why I quit piano lessons, flute lessons, and ski lessons….because it takes practice and I don’t have the patience for practice.   I want to be able to do it right out of the gate and be awesome at it.    

My instructor, Patty, started the lesson with showing me the breast stroke.  There is a rhythm and synchronization to the breast stroke; arms, legs, and breathing all working together to propel you forward in the water.  She showed me what to do and made it look really easy as she glided through the water with little effort.   I must admit I thought, “Piece of Cake!”; “It doesn’t look so tough.”  I pushed off the wall put my face in the water but my arms, legs, and lungs decided not to work together but to do their own thing.  I was not moving forward but merely staying in one place.   I forgot a very important aspect of the stroke and that was to breathe.   I panicked and took in a huge gulp of water.  I quickly stood-up coughing, and wheezing trying to catch my breath. Yuck, pool water… I must say, I don’t really enjoy it. 

Patty came over and gave me some more instruction which to be honest went in one ear and out the other since I was concentrating on the chlorine burning in my lungs and the anxiety that was starting to rise in the middle of my stomach.  She told me about the physics behind the stroke and why the way I was doing it wasn’t propelling me forward and that my kick wasn’t effective because I was not doing it correctly.  “Do it again”, she said, just like my childhood piano teacher would bark at me.  The nice sweet little old lady who had been so supportive and kind last week was replaced with a no-nonsense instructor who is clearly hell bent on either drowning me, or making sure I am successful.    Her transformation to task master happened so fast and I wasn’t ready for it.  I thought about faking a drowning episode so that maybe I could go back to lesson 1 where everything was happy and nice, but I am on a schedule and leave for Hawaii in several weeks so there is no time for regression.

 

Next was the back stroke.  It was a little easier for me but not by much.  At least my face was out of the water except for those few times when I didn’t have my head back far enough and  began to sink which caused me to drink more pool water.    She showed me how to roll from one side of the other while bringing my arm up and out of the water.  The kick for the back stroke is different than the frog-kick of the breast stroke (which I wasn’t able to do either).  Patty yelled, “POINT YOUR TOES!”  My legs felt like weights and I was starting to get winded. I had to stand up in the middle of the pool because I didn’t have enough strength to keep going.  The realization started to set in that this is going to be a lot more difficult than just getting over the fear of the water.  It was going to take true effort if I was going to learn to do it correctly, and damn I hate effort.

 

After my first lesson I was so excited, pumped, and ready to take on the world.  I felt I had conquered something huge and I was on an adrenaline high.  After this second lesson my throat was burning from drinking so much chlorine water, my hips hurt from all the kicking, and my ego was damaged because I thought I would do much better.  I guess it was the universe’s lesson; a reminder that it wasn’t going to be easy and I will have to practice and keep pushing forward to succeed.   

I can’t play the piano, flute, or ski because I gave up when it didn’t come easy to me.  Floating is easy, but what fun is there in just staying in one place?  I want to be able to swim, and if I drink pool water at least it will be from the deep end.