Early morning classes are always hard to drag yourself out of bed for, especially when the weather seems tailor made for snuggling up. More so, if the night before had you falling asleep at 1am. Surprisingly enough, I made it before hand to see there were chairs put out around the pool with new students like me waiting already. And I was so so so glad I didn’t buy the sessy swim suit with HUGE flowers right down to the ankles. People were dressed to walk into a movie set right away. We all waited for Nisha Millet to turn up but a guy walked in instead. So much for being taught by a star. ;) And the guy was on the heavier side and right out went any notions I had about losing weight by swimming. Sigh. So much for an easy weight loss plan.
We started out by learning to breathe while swimming – breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose. I should have figured out right away all the happiness this procedure was going to bring to my life :D
Next, you will float automatically if you let your body go limp. And cough cough, he looks over at the ladies and says, you guys will have it easy- women float very easily. It should have made it easy but as it happens, most people floated making a straight line but few(part of whom I was of course) tilted off to the side . uahhahahaa. Luckily, vision under water is a toughie and no one could see the embarrassment or others toppling off.
The first day left me all excited. I realized I actually enjoyed being in the water and trying all the breathing stuff. Of course, when I went to office, the first question I was asked was if I had cried or not slept. Turns out chlorine water for the eyes – not a good thing. I zombie-fied around office with bloodshot drunkard eyes. Nope, no one felt sorry enough to take some work away.
Day2
Swimming wise, day 2 got us kicking water trying to propel ourselves ahead. Looked like I was making decent progress, before I could congratulate my self on that, the trainer started with freestyle.
That’s moving that hands like swimmers do. Piece of cake. Or so I thought. Just make sure your palms touch the water at 90 degrees,Your wrist upto elbow should be perpendicular while they enter the water. Push the water away right beyond your hips. Oh and while you are at it, make sure you breathe right and keep kicking those legs.
Oh, wait did I miss a teensy-weensy detail. Looks like I did. On the count of 4 strokes, pull half your body out and take your next gulp of air. No more ‘swimming’ for as long as you can hold your breath only stuff. We had progressed to , if you run out of it, get some and continue.
The day saw me get goggles from the instructor. Ah, must have forgotten to mention, I bought the cap also from him and he offered me a choice of blue or pink – I said it doesn’t matter. And for the goggles, he offered navy blue (which he dint have, but would get the next day), so I chose the fluorescent cyanish-blue. If you haven’t caught on to where I am leading , wait for it , I am that specimen in the pool with a fluorescent orange swimsuit, red shorts, bubblegum pink haircap and fluorescent cyan goggles J There, did I paint a pretty picture J No wonder the dude kept trying to get me to choose sober colors !!
Day3
Day 3 was by far the toughest. Having gotten goggles now and being able to look at the floor, I started counting the number of tiles I was able to cross with one breath while swimming (read as flailing arms and legs wildly) I made it across 2 tiles, the size of a Rubik’s cube side each. I could have cried. I furiously started coordinating the arms, the legs, the breathing and failed miserably. Turns out my hand-leg co-ordination aint that great. I should have played all those video games. They would have helped, I am sure. If I would use my hands, I would stop kicking. If I took the breath, it would be at the wrong count of by turning to the wrong side. There were times, when I would nail most of it – swim for the count of 4 , kick my legs, turn left and get back into water only to realize that I had taken the air at all. And then , tying to get the breathing right, I stopped kicking my legs and found that I was sinking. All my joy of having gotten a hang of swimming was going right out the pool. It is more distressing then one would think.
Rest is in Progress :)
