As you may already know, I’ve been learning how to swim the past couple of months. After a horrible experience taking 3 lessons at my local YMCA, my swimming has improved greatly now that I’ve been taking lessons with another swim school. When I started about 8 weeks, the only thing I could do in the water is stand in the shallow end. I still don’t feel like I know how to swim but I’m far more comfortable in the water than I’ve ever been:
- I can now float on my back and on my stomach and can flip from either position to the next.
- I can now exhale with my head under the water – out of my mouth or nose.
- I can now do an elementary backstroke.
- I can now do a slow and ungraceful backstroke.
- I can now do a slow breaststroke with my head in the water or out of the water.
- I can do the freestyle – as long as I don’t need to come up to breath, at which point I totally lose my form and balance.
I’m going to continue to work on my swimming, in hopes that I can conquer the following:
- I’m still not comfortable (as in major fear/anxiety) being in the deep end.
- I want to conquer the freestyle, with appropriate form and breathing technique.
- I want to continue to improve my backstroke and breaststroke.
- I want to learn how to tread water.
I’m guessing there are still other strokes that I’m not familiar with but for now I just want to focus on these. I only have one more lesson with my current instructor since they only offer lessons on a seasonal basis. I’m hoping to find a new instructor sometime in the next few weeks. If you know of anyone in the Bay Area (Peninsula/South Bay) who offers year round swim lessons for adults (either they come to my pool or their facility features an indoor pool), please let me know!