Back in June I started swimming lessons in the hope of improving my technique, stamina and confidence in the water. I learnt to swim as a child and was a fairly strong swimmer thanks to weekly lessons from the ages of 5 to 13, however I stopped swimming regularly and got out of practice. I developed a bit of a fear of putting my face under the water and stuck to doggy paddle whenever I got in the pool on holiday!
I found Kay’s Adult Swim and joined the beginners group where we went back to basics learning front crawl, back stroke and breast stoke. We are taught in small groups of 4-5 people so we get plenty of feedback and advice from the instructors. Lessons usually start with ‘drills’ practising a particular stroke using a float in widths of the pool, then we switch to lengths and use a mixture of different strokes without the float.
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| Lesson in progress |
I must admit swimming lessons have been a huge learning curve- I still really struggle with my breathing in front crawl, and I just can’t master the leg movement in breast stroke! However my back stroke has definitely improved. I’ve moved up to the intermediate class, and lessons are now 45 minutes (rather than 30 mins), I find those extra 15 minutes mega-tiring, but I can see I’m making progress.
Over the summer I visited Parliament Hill Lido to get in some practice with my swimming. The outdoor pool was freezing despite the hot day, so it took a lot of encouragement to get me to jump in!
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| Parliament Hill Lido in August |
Ultimately I would like to complete a triathlon, but I still have a long way to go with my swimming, so for now I’m still working on perfecting front-crawl without inhaling mouthfuls of water!