So! Hello there! It's me again. The chap who drowned like 4 times despite all the talk of buoyancy!
Finally decided to face my fear of water (no no im not rabid just terrified i'll drown again). I joined swimming classes at a fairly decent pool not so near by. This blog is mostly for my reference but you are free to join in my experience :)
I plan to write about what as taught each day and how my progress has been so here goes:
D1
Get in to pool at the 1meter deep level and walk around the pool. Just get a little confidence walking and wading in water for about 20 minutes. Then hang on to the rod at the end of the pool bend at the waist and duck the head shoulder et al into water. Chin should be close to the chest. Watch how the legs automatically come floating up and voila! you are floating. Hold breath underwater and get over (a little!) of the fear of water.
D2
Again 1 meter depth. Practice the floating technique for longer. Relax!!! Towards the end kick back against the wall and try to float a distance. Then practice landing with both legs and then getting up for air. I fucked this one up. I was not relaxed, got tense and basically pulled my hamstring a litte cause I always freaked out and landed on one foot and came up gasping for breath. So I come home and look up how to keep body straight and not freak out.Findings:
Duck the head and back underwater to bring up the legs! Plus contract the glutes and back to align the body into a straight line. Mine is a little hunched from bad posture and used to cause my legs to drag down. Breath in, go all the way into water and only then kick off! If you kick off above water a lot of resistance will cause you to slow down. Also I was not so relaxed and confident of water yet.
D3
Armed with info and determination I step into the pool at 1M depth. One round of floating using handle bar and then we were allowed to practice by kick off from the wall. Braving the waters I plunged my head and back all the way into the water and then kicked off. Relaxed and floated and landed on both my feet. That boosted my confidence and then I practiced it a little more. The distance covered didnt matter but proper landing, breathing, relaxing and posture did. Voila! I was confident of this one.
Today he made up go to the middle and push off the floor and float towards the end. He would push in order to assist us. 2 rounds of this and then we went back to 3/4th of the pool and again same thing. The point was to hold our breath till we reach the end then land perfectly then come up for air. After this we practiced the kick off wall(reach midway) and kick off floor(reach 3/4 and once more) to reach the other end. By now I felt a little OK with my technique and was confident of floating. Yay my buoyancy is back :P
He closed class by making up take a sharp quick breath 1sec long and go under water and blow it out for 3 secs as we were coming back up. This was done standing holding the rod. Overall a good class, i am happy unlike yesterday!
D4 - D21
In short I did manage to learn a little swimming. Looking forward to this summer to actually practice it and make it an instinct!
Finally decided to face my fear of water (no no im not rabid just terrified i'll drown again). I joined swimming classes at a fairly decent pool not so near by. This blog is mostly for my reference but you are free to join in my experience :)
I plan to write about what as taught each day and how my progress has been so here goes:
D1
Get in to pool at the 1meter deep level and walk around the pool. Just get a little confidence walking and wading in water for about 20 minutes. Then hang on to the rod at the end of the pool bend at the waist and duck the head shoulder et al into water. Chin should be close to the chest. Watch how the legs automatically come floating up and voila! you are floating. Hold breath underwater and get over (a little!) of the fear of water.
D2
Again 1 meter depth. Practice the floating technique for longer. Relax!!! Towards the end kick back against the wall and try to float a distance. Then practice landing with both legs and then getting up for air. I fucked this one up. I was not relaxed, got tense and basically pulled my hamstring a litte cause I always freaked out and landed on one foot and came up gasping for breath. So I come home and look up how to keep body straight and not freak out.Findings:
Duck the head and back underwater to bring up the legs! Plus contract the glutes and back to align the body into a straight line. Mine is a little hunched from bad posture and used to cause my legs to drag down. Breath in, go all the way into water and only then kick off! If you kick off above water a lot of resistance will cause you to slow down. Also I was not so relaxed and confident of water yet.
D3
Armed with info and determination I step into the pool at 1M depth. One round of floating using handle bar and then we were allowed to practice by kick off from the wall. Braving the waters I plunged my head and back all the way into the water and then kicked off. Relaxed and floated and landed on both my feet. That boosted my confidence and then I practiced it a little more. The distance covered didnt matter but proper landing, breathing, relaxing and posture did. Voila! I was confident of this one.
Today he made up go to the middle and push off the floor and float towards the end. He would push in order to assist us. 2 rounds of this and then we went back to 3/4th of the pool and again same thing. The point was to hold our breath till we reach the end then land perfectly then come up for air. After this we practiced the kick off wall(reach midway) and kick off floor(reach 3/4 and once more) to reach the other end. By now I felt a little OK with my technique and was confident of floating. Yay my buoyancy is back :P
He closed class by making up take a sharp quick breath 1sec long and go under water and blow it out for 3 secs as we were coming back up. This was done standing holding the rod. Overall a good class, i am happy unlike yesterday!
D4 - D21
In short I did manage to learn a little swimming. Looking forward to this summer to actually practice it and make it an instinct!
