Making a Splash

In anticipation of the summer, Colin asked to take swim lessons. Safe and Sound is very popular, so we were placed on a waitlist until a regular weekly time slot that coordinated with our schedule opened up. In the meantime, we enrolled Colin in semi-private lessons with his friend, Markus, at the Queen Anne Pool. He didn't make as much progress as hoped, but gain more confidence being in the water. Once his turn came on Safe and Sound's waitlist, he was ready to make the most of his weekly 15 minute private lesson. (He is mostly swimming, but needs a little work to look genuine).

 Rachel has also asked to try Stroke Development. Luckily, Colin's swim lesson was right before Stroke Development, so it was easy to have Rachel give it another chance. She was even more excited when she learned her friend, Kaelyn was also doing the lessons. However, after going a couple of times, Rachel was still frustrated. The other kids have been doing it much longer and are faster, she worried more about falling behind.

While my parents were visiting, they came along to watch Rachel swim. For this particular lesson, it was even more clear to me that she wasn't having fun. In hopes of encouraging her, my dad suggested they swim laps at the Queen Anne Pool. She was very excited to swim with him. I surprised myself, when I said I would go too.

I haven't taken any formal swim lessons. The only time I tried swimming laps was at Hopkins while pregnant with Rachel. After attempting a lap or two, I learned my crawl was pretty exhausting, and swore off ever doing laps for exercise. That isn't to say that I can't swim, I like being in the water and am confident enough to get scuba certified (been in the open water three times) and like snorkeling; but I have never been "taught" to swim.  After years of watching swim instructors teach my children, when the opportunity presented itself, I figured I could try to apply the knowledge absorbed.

I don't know who had the most fun. I was actually swimming laps comfortably and Rachel was happy to swim in a less competitive environment. Rachel decided not to continue Stroke Development at Safe and Sound. Instead, we have been going three times a week at the Queen Anne Pool (Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 8:30-9:30 and an hour Saturday or Sunday around 4pm).  We discovered using flippers helped us focus better on our form and breathing. We're getting stronger and can keep pace with the swimmers in the "medium" speed lanes.

When we first started, I would have ranked favorite strokes: back, breast, crawl. After two months of swimming, my front crawl is respectable and I can comfortably swim laps for an hour. At first I took a breath at every fourth stroke (I liked this because I only had to turn to my right rather than alternate), but am now working on doing it every third and focused to keep my head down looking straight at the bottom of the pool. I'm kicking less frantically, there is more deliberate controlled movements (more and more of the lap feels like hitting a ball with the bat - the sweet spot, super fluid and smooth). I still like doing the back and breast stroke, but use these when I need to take a break and continue getting laps done. I haven't tried butterfly and don't like all the water getting up my nose somersaulting at the end of the lap; but will be my next goal.

I'm in awe of this new hobby. Rachel and I have come to a point where we'd rather be swimming. We have even watched swimming tutorials on Youtube!