Encouragement

For a long time now I have been trying to regain my confidence in putting my face under water. I mentioned this to the lifeguard/coach who takes Swimming After Surgery last week.

Last night she set up a couple of hoops in the bottom of the pool. We were advised we could lift these up and get each of us to swim through the hoops. I decided to do it the hard way.

I plucked up the courage bounced up and down a couple of times, held my breath and dived down through the hoop. It is quite disorientating as the hoops look distorted from the top of the pool and appear to move.

On my first attempt I reached the hoop and got in it and stood up. I then realised my head had only just gone through the hoop so as I stood up the hoop was around me.

The coach informed me that I had kicked too hard and I just needed to glide through the hoop.

On my next attempt I didn't kick enough.

By the end of the session I had managed to dive down and swim through one of the hoops.

Another challenge we had was to get an object from the bottom of the pool.

Normally when I go swimming I take with me my goggles, and nose clip. I had taken both but forgot to take the nose clip with me to the pool.

I attempted the dive to get the object from the bottom of the pool. One of my colleagues was struggling so I lent my goggles to her. She was amazed at the difference they make as she was then able to open her eyes underwater.

My colleague's backstroke is improving and my underwater swimming is too.

It just shows with the right encouragement things we think can't be achieved can be.

This has given me more confidence in time for the weekend when I finally start the long journey to become a swimming coach.