Talent is nothing without dedication and discipline, and dedication and discipline is a talent in itself.
Luke Campbell
Hey there, It’s me Jerry Garrett back with another blog post for this week. Today I am going to be talking about my swimming experience for the past seven days where I have been learning swimming. Without any further ado, let’s get right into it.
Day 1
All right so, This was the start of a whole new journey where I’ll be swimming and swimming is something that I’ve always wanted to do, whenever I get the chance, I always try to do it. And now finally comes the day that I can do so. So first of all, I woke up quite early and then I started getting ready to go to the swimming pool.
After that since it was the first day we spent about ten minutes doing all the registration and everything. Then I finally jumped into the pool, for the first few seconds it was freezing, but then I got used to the water.
Then after that, the coach told me to do some breathing exercises that helped me get bubbles in the water. Which will be very useful later on when I swim. And then Coach introduced me to Floating, obviously with the wall as I would be too scared to do it without the wall. And I had to be breathing, then I straighten out my whole body, let loose and Voila, I was floating.
That Happiness itself was really good and then that day I mainly just practiced floating before the time ran out, as we were only staying 1 Hour per day.
Day 2
Okay, A new day, and hopefully I will be learning something new, first of all, I had to go in the pool and warm up, do breathing exercises, and practice everything the coach had taught me till now, which was floating. Then came a surprise for me. All right, so it was about 20-30 Minutes into the hour we were staying at that time, and then Coach told me to attempt to try and float without the wall. My dad was holding my hand during the time I was doing it. And I had done it. I was so happy to do it because I never thought I could end up doing that, especially on the second day of learning swimming.
Then I tested out how far I could go in the swimming pool without the wall, and this was during the 45-minute mark so only a few minutes were left that we could swim. So I attempted to go as far as possible while holding my dad’s hand. And there were lines there, and I did 3 lines, which I estimate to be about 6ft. At the start, on Day 2 That was an Achievement.
Day 3
On day 3, I had to learn how to land by myself when going to float, because then I wouldn’t need anybody’s help when I was trying to float. And then I can go all by myself peacefully and that would be great. So I tried my best to do it but in the first place to even attempt to try and land by myself I had to try and leave the wall slowly, which Coach had taught us before. But I had some Mind Barrier which wouldn’t let me do that. I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t or so my mind thought. I kept on attempting it by the wall but never did I get off the wall and tried it without any support. But then after that time ran out, so I just hoped that I would do better the next day.
Day 4
Then came the worst day of them all, You probably saw the title, and how it said “Tears To Laughter” Well today comes the part of the tears. From outside it seems like I would be crying because I couldn’t make it right. Well, that’s not it. So pretty much on Saturday, my dad had an important meeting so he had to change it to the hour after that. Well, that’s where the bad part at that time came in. Because it was a different Hour, it was a different coach for me, and then that usually would be fine, but compared to the other one the coach was MUCH stricter. For example, I was still practicing with the wall during this time. And then he did one thing that changed my mind about him. Do you know what my first encounter with him was? When I was still practicing with the wall, he pulled me from it and let me go. After that, he caught me but that was not something your body can adapt to. As in, when somebody does that when you are still learning and you haven’t learned how to land, Your body just can’t trust them.
I just couldn’t and after that when I was practicing floating he wanted to straighten my body because I was doing it wrong, I’m not exactly sure but I think so, he tried to make it straight but he rather bent it from what I was feeling and it was so much pain. To the point where I was gasping for air. After that, I started crying, because at such an early age or especially when I haven’t been used to this kind of coaches/teachers it is very hard to adapt to things like that. Anyways, amazingly the hour came to an end during that time.
Day 5
This day overall wasn’t too bad, like for starters the Coach I hated, he wasn’t the one coaching us it was the other Coach which I think personally is much better, because he is kind enough but he also teaches me and makes me do the things I need to do.
Today, I tried to somewhat float without support, what I mean is that I would lift my hands a bit, on top of the wall, so I was floating without the wall but in any case, if I had to get support I could always grab onto the wall, And I Was continuing to do this until I could hopefully get it right. But in the end, 1 hour had passed and it was time to leave.
Day 6
When I started I didn’t expect much, as I was pretty much failing on the other days. So I began to do the basic things that I would have to do. Like starting breathing exercises and practicing floating. But then something came in, kind of like a surprise which I did not expect.
Instead of failing over and over again, the coach decided to give me a kickboard (I think that is what it is called), And then pretty much it would keep me floating, I was scared as I didn’t know how this kickboard would be working. But after the Coach and my brother convinced me to go for an attempt, if it failed someone would be by my side. And then I gave it my all, did a wall kick, and went. For a few seconds, I was just filled with happiness that I could float.
As like I mentioned above I did not expect this. And then came the moment of truth. To see if I could land on my own, all these days could I do it. And then, I made it, I landed. Finally. Since it was the first time I had some small mistakes but then I ended up correcting them with the help of the coach. Then for the rest of the day, I mainly just practiced going for a lap, I couldn’t do it in one go it took about four tries but I managed to do a whole lap. Below is a video of me going for a lap with the kickboard.
That was a great achievement for me, For the fact that I was struggling for 3 days and my Brother and my Mother were way ahead of me, this was something to help me get one step closer to their skill level. And I think I went for something like two more laps and then by that time it was 1 hour so we had to leave. (If you are wondering the pool is 13m)
Day 7
This is the seven-day mark. After one week of learning to swim, sure I may not have learned how to swim myself yet. But this is something that I’m proud of, I’ve always wanted to swim and now being able to float, that itself is great. But now continuing to the actual day itself. I came and then I changed, asked for the kickboard and then they gave it to me. I think I did half a lap or something and then the coach recommended me to try without the kickboard. As when he demonstrated it to me when you pull it down, it does end up going down. So then would that mean that I’ve pretty much been swimming till now? But jumping back to reality, I planned to do it with the kickboard today and stop using the kickboard the next day. But then I kept the kickboard aside. After half attempts of going into the water, I finally managed to get the courage to do so. And then. I managed to land on the ground myself! by myself too. This was probably the greatest achievement that I’ve done till now. And now I’m super happy with the progress I’ve made. And with that, I did a few laps which made me super proud. Here is again a video of me going for a lap without any support.
Going from hogging the wall to doing multiple laps is not small for me. It’s something I’m super proud of now. And that is pretty much it for this blog post.
If you have read it till here, I would love to thank you for reading about 1500 words. It means a lot to me. Anyway, See you next week!
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