Lessons from the water

I’ve come a long way, baby.

It’s taken me more than a year to get here but—dare I say it?—I’m starting to enjoy swimming. That’s a big deal, because up until January 2015, I hated swimming.

My mother was deathly afraid of being in water, so much so that she would get panicky if she waded in water deeper than her waist. As much as she tried not to pass that fear along to her kids, I grew up wary of water. During summers, I’d paddle around the shoreline, watching with envy as my siblings swam out to the middle of the lake. They weren’t afraid something lurking below the surface would grab a foot and pull them under.

For several years, Mom paid for one-on-one swim lessons, and I learned enough to not drown, and eventually enough to pass the swimming test when I enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

But before 2015 I rarely got into a pool. When I did swim, I stuck to the sidestroke so I wouldn’t get my face wet or get water up my nose. That all changed in January 2015 when I decided to train for the Wood River Triathlon in July.

Classing It Up

The triathlon included a 450-meter swim, a feat that felt insurmountable. But, honestly, I was tired of being a non-swimmer. Athletes I knew were competing in triathlons, and I wanted to do them, too, and solo—without relying on teammates to make up for my weak swimming.

So that January, I joined a master’s swim class. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I quickly realized I was out of my league. The coach put the group through swim drills, but since I could barely swim freestyle, they didn’t do me any good. Another problem: I was afraid to go into the deep end. The little bit of swimming I did ended at the black line that separated the safe zone from the abyss beyond.

You’ve seen the cartoon of the horse galloping headlong until he comes to the edge of the cliff, when he puts on the brakes, screeching to a halt inches from going over? That was me at the black line.

At the end of the first eight-week session I gave myself a stern talking to. I signed up again and learned to cross the line. That was my first accomplishment. But the coach wasn’t interested in helping me and I wasn’t progressing. I decided I needed lessons.

Great Strokes

I signed up for lessons in March, and every subsequent session, for weekly lessons at the local college. I can practice at my own pace and get some personal coaching if I need it. Even more helpful is a DVD a friend lent me. Terry Laughlin’s Total Immersion Swimming is a training video that teaches balance, streamlining and propulsion. More importantly, I learned to rotate my torso. It sounds simple and obvious, I know, but it wasn’t for me. Once I made that connection, I’ve been able to improve another obstacle—my breathing pattern during swimming.

Before we’re even born, we spend nine months floating in an amniotic sac, so you’d think that swimming would be easy. It’s taken me 59 years but I’m finally able to do it.