WEEK SIX!
Christ, where did that time go? I’m at the end of week six of my learn-to-swim challenge at the Aura Swim Academy and this week I’ve gone backwards.
Actually, backwards.
Not backwards in the progression sense, but ‘backwards’ as in lying down, facing the ceiling and, kind of (!), floating.
Big deal? Yep.
You see, last week Daniel McConnell, who’s my swim instructor at the Aura Leisure Centre, might well have asked me to saw my own arms off when he instructed me to lay down upon the Aura’s waters.
Regular readers will have noted last week’s ‘fear of the unknown’ diary, but this week Janice McCready happens to be standing at poolside with her index finger over the red ‘record’ button on her iPhone so the time for delaying has long since passed.
The group has come a long way since Daniel first gathered eight swimming novices in the corner of the Aura pool six weeks ago as we began what has become a collective mission.
[adrotate group=”37″]Now, we’re at the stage where we’re becoming somewhat comfortable with the idea of pretending the pool is some class of a mattress that we’re resting ourselves upon.
If you’re a swimmer, or a water regular, reading this and going ‘big deal’, well that perhaps explains some of the reservations people have when embarking on a programme like this.
Everyone can’t swim. I couldn’t. Six week ago, the idea of jumping into the pool at the Aura was the furthest thing from my mind.
Now?
I can swim.
There, I said it!
Week six and I can, finally, emerge from the depths and actually say with a degree of confidence that I can swim.
When I say ‘I can swim’, I don’t mean to declare a candidacy for the Olympic Games, but a few strokes, including the dreaded breath, can now be done successfully without looking like a man in desperate need of oxygen.
Well, most of the time!
It’s that old thing about practice, practice, practice.
Sometimes you feel here as if you’re getting nowhere and then, all of a sudden, it just clicks.
[adrotate group=”37″]That’s how it’s been with me anyway. Even this week, after five previous weeks of trying to get confidence, co-ordination, breathing and Christ knows what else in line, it didn’t quite begin too well.
We’re down a couple of regular members this week, perhaps owing to the rock-splitting sun that’s staring down at us and I begin here a bit concerned that this challenge – to be able to swim a length by the end of week 8 – is in danger of sinking.
But it isn’t. I hope.
It started this week with a familiar issue with the breathing. We’re all in the same boat. If only we had a boat!
It comes and it goes but, the main thing is that we’re getting there.
Daniel’s encouragement, patience and persuasion is paying off.
The routine this week was no different to the previous five: A few strokes back and forth to get the feel of it again; the breathing practice, with the float and then at poolside.
Daniel has a little challenge for us this week. Off he goes, out to the first marker. ‘Out to me and back in – and get it right’. So, away we go.
[adrotate group=”37″]Back goes Daniel to the next marker.
‘Out to me and back in – and get it right’.
Away we go again.
Finally, he’s off out over halfway up the pool.
‘Out to me and back in – and get it right’.
And we do it.
‘You can all do it now. It’s just keeping the breathing going.’
Last week, the swimming hour came after a session in the gym with Charlie Webb and this week’s comes a day after I decided to run a 5k around the streets of Letterkenny with my girlfriend, Alice.
That was another thing I thought I couldn’t do. But I did.
The sense of accomplishment of completing that 5k in a semi-decent time feeds my confidence as I’m trying to master the Aura’s arts 24 hours later.
Anything really is possible – I convinced myself of that running (jogging, barely-walking, call it what you will) past the Mount Errigal Hotel on the way back around towards Dunne’s Stores, where we started off the 5k route.
It’s the small steps sometimes.
Leaving the Aura this week, even after Janice and Gavin get the thing recorded for evidence, I’m in a good place: Week six and I can say the words ‘I can swim’.
And don’t worry, that video will apparently be uploaded before next week’s installment.
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