Had my first swim lesson with my new teacher, today. What a night & day difference from my last experience! The last person I was in the pool with was more of a coach. She presumed I knew what I was doing & yelled when my form was bad. This new woman is more of a teacher. I explained my background & told her what I KNOW I'm doing wrong. In ONE SESSION she talked me through how to change what I was doing-- & it worked!!! I was going through the water with no fins, no floats, no board, no hand stabilizing units... nothing but me! I am over the moon excited!!! 

When the old instructor told me my legs were sinking & "get them up". I presumed I had to kick more. Today, the teacher told me to arch my back. Arch my back? That's it?! My legs instantly went to water line & everything else took care of itself. I was shocked!!!

She added arms, eventually. (We were just gliding, then kicking, at first.) I explained that my last coach told me I was "wind-milling". She took a kick board & pushed it down at a full arm's length away. Then she held it closer to her body, with bent arm, & pushed it under water. It was an illustration of the ease of moving water at the correct positioning. When your elbow is bent, directly in front of you & closer to your body, you propel easier. So simple! So easily explained! I was stunned! No one had ever explained how to hold my arms in the water. 

I asked about my hands, knowing I was told that my wrists were "breaking" upon entry into the water. She watched & explained that I was going in pinky first. I should be going in thumb first. In essence I was scooping water to myself- not propelling through the water. As she explained, I adjusted & was BEYOND ecstatic that my arms automatically made the "S" shape, that I had read about, as I "sliced" the water instead of scooping it. 

I am SO happy I took a chance. Many adults, like I was, are afraid to admit that they can't swim. People usually laugh when they find out. This is why I'm sharing this "happy ending" story. -This teacher was respectful- not demeaning. She was obviously instructive. I learned more in one lesson with her than I did with 3 complete sessions in another class. 

Start with the foundation & THEN you can build. I'm finally getting that foundation by learning proper swimming form, in a one-on-one setting, from a "specialist". Sometimes you just need to pay someone to teach you. Most of the time, family isn't the best match for patient teacher, either. 

As I happily tell the girls what I learned, they smirk. Jillian tried to interrupt, explain, etc. I ask her to please let me finish & use an illustration to help her understand that something that seems obvious to one person isn't so obvious to another, i.e. a deaf person. If a person, from birth, is deaf and suddenly regains his hearing, you can't fault them for not knowing the difference of sound between a motorcycle & a cat. It's "all new" & it's "sound" that they haven't processed what it correlates to... It's the same with swimming. Because they have know from an early age, to swim, doesn't mean everyone has the same advantage. I was insistent that the girls take swim lessons when they were very young-- because I didn't know how. It is evident that it worked. They are both good swimmers & can't comprehend not knowing "how".

As I've gotten older, I find myself thinking: "Why am I just making their lives better? I deserve to know how to swim (or learn an instrument), too!" I've enjoyed learning these new skills & I can not wait for my next lesson. I have to make more pool time to practice what I just learned! That triathlon doesn't seem so far fetched, anymore.