Now lemme tell you that the few encounters that I have had with swimming are once when I was a kid … I remember that I used to wear floats (that ended soon) … and the others when I had gone to MGM Dizzee World on 2-3 occasions. And I have never dared to venture into waters that were deeper than my height … So for all practical purposes I was a novice to swimming …
So I enrolled, purchased swimming trunks later also the swimming cap. Day one was exciting … our first lesson … our teacher instructed us to exhale through our mouth while keeping our face underwater … Quite a start … Then with floats on … He started to train us in the basics of "Breast Stroke" style of swimming … First only the hand movement and then during day two and three the leg movement was also introduced and then to synchronizing the breathing with the movement … We were taking the aid of the floats till day 6. Then seeing our confidence our teacher asked us to swim the breadth of the pool without the floats … And that was a defining moment … When I felt that I could swim … Indeed I was swimming … It was such a happy feeling … Words fail me …
But gliding would get me underwater a bit … And I was scared to keep my eyes closed underwater, so I would open my eyes underwater … The chlorine content in the water affected my eyes … For two days in succession my eyes burnt … quite a discomfort … After that, I gathered the guts to keep my eyes closed under water … And the problem was solved …
Please note that I far from an expert swimmer … Though I am swimming … I am still having problem taking breaths in between my swimming … Its when I have to bring my head up and that's when my body goes down … Oops … Also some errors in my action is causing some lower back pain and pain in the thighs … Trying to overcome all that …
One of my achievement is learning to dive into the water … Head first … I just love doing it everyday … It’s a cool experience to touch the base of the swimming pool in the process and swim underwater for a long time before you emerge at the other end of the pool.
My experience with swimming till now has been rightly summed up in this quote by Kieren Perkins - "Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves" … It’s a mind game … You have to overcome your own fears if you want to swim well …
And they say … "Swimming is a magnificent sport for athletes of all abilities and interests" … So why not try your hand at it … I can assure you … It's an amazing experience … Out of the world …
1 comment:
I like that one
Its more about overcoming the barriers 'we' put in front of ourselves....
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