Swimming

Here is a typical conversation I regularly find myself taking part in.

Me:  “I’m heading to my swimming lesson.”

Them:  “Oh, you don’t know how to swim?”

Me:  “Well, I can stay afloat and can move about 10 yards in the water using way too much energy to get way too little distance and doing way too much splashing. So, if that’s considered swimming then, yes, I guess I know how to swim.”

I have been upping my physical care and well-being lately, including being much more active. I’m in the gym 5 or more times each week. Some days I even go twice - before and after work. When I joined my current gym I wanted to get the most out its wide variety of equipment, classes and other facilities (racquetball courts, pool). For years I’ve wanted to learn to swim better and to use swimming as a fitness activity. Now that my current gym provided the facility, I signed up for swimming lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:00AM with the goal of getting a better understanding of proper form and technique which I would then use to become a more efficient swimmer. My goal was to use swimming as a regular part of my exercise routine.

So far I'v learned a lot about all the individual elements that go into optimal swimming: head position; arm movement; hand form; kicking; ankle flexibility; proper breathing; and a strong and solid core. I work with my swimming coach on each of these and I’ve seen improvement in all. With each passing week I am able to do a little more, I am able to go a little further without resting and my internal drive to be a better swimmer increases.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to the pool. I started with the intention to swim as a regular part of my fitness routine but now I find myself tailoring my fitness routines to improve my swimming. Swimming has become the driver with the rest of the fitness routine geared to becoming a better swimmer.

My short term goal is to swim 5 pool lengths without touching the bottom or stopping to rest by my 50^th birthday, less than three weeks away. On my last swim I did three lengths straight and thought that I could have gone for four or possibly even five. This gave me the confidence to know that I will make my goal. From there I want to try flip turns. And then I want to swim from Cuba to Key West without a shark cage. (OK, I really have no intentions of that last one. I’m just fine settling with chlorine sting over a jellyfish sting.)

It’s interesting how we take more diligently to hobbies and personal pursuits as we get older. They are no longer something to try out or to do because our friends are doing them. We do these things because they hold a special interest or attraction for us as individuals. Perhaps it is a goal that has eluded us for years. Perhaps it is something we never before afforded ourselves the time to enjoy. Perhaps the “embarrassment” of learning and making mistakes has a natural way to fade away as we get older. (See my flip-turn practice for the definition of embarrassing actions that no longer bother me.) Perhaps it is a combination of these and more.

In any case, the hobbies and activities we chose as we get older become more of a personal quest. We strive for personal achievement measured only by ourself,  not by any peer, coach, recruiter, boss or anything else else external.

Perhaps I’ll learn how to ice skate next.