Swim Lesson
I’ve done something radical. I enrolled in an adult ladies swim class. That’s right– I’ve paid good money to squish myself into a bathing suit and parade around in a Lycra swimming cap.
I am not a swimmer. I won’t drown in a pool, but I never learned how to swim laps or dive without flopping or swallowing a liter of water. I’d crossed “swimming” off my life skills list, but when I injured my knee running a half marathon (another ridiculous endeavor), everyone said, “Get those legs in a pool.” So, I did and I have to say: I love it.
There is something so liberating about crossing out of my comfort zone (staying fully clothed and in control) and not caring about how I look to anyone else. You won’t catch me weeding the garden in my tight-bottomed suit, but stripping down at swim class and jumping into the deep end has been alright. And being in the water is divine.
You won’t catch me weeding the garden in my tight-bottomed suit…
I forgot how luscious it feels to be cradled in water, floating on it, moving through it, diving deep underneath it. At the end of the first class, I pulled myself out of the pool, wrapped myself up in a beach towel and felt that old familiar fatigue, you know, that achy, heavy feeling we used to get as kids after a full day of playing Marco Polo? I was tickled by the sensation– I was tempted to go buy myself an ice cream at nine-thirty in the morning just to top off the high.
One of the first posts I wrote for Stepmother’s Milk compared swimming with stepparenting and I just went back to read it. Here’s an excerpt:
“Some days the water is quite comfortable and I float easily on my back looking up at the clouds. Other times I want to grow fins and hide at the bottom of the deep end. Most afternoons, I’m simply treading water, but at least I’m buoyant and still breathing. It’s when I get overly-confidant and start showing off (Look at me, I can do a handstand!), that the words of my own mother speak into my plugged up ears, “Watch what you’re doing. It’s when you start thinking you’re a damn fish that you drown.”
Sound, motherly advice. No more grandstanding, she’s right. In this pool, you either sink like rocks or start kicking like hell.”
That was about nine months ago when my stepmom role was very new. Since that time, my perspective has changed. Plus, now that I’m actually learning how to swim correctly, I feel an obligation to revise my own metaphor.
Sara, my swim coach, says, “Swimming is less about the legs and more about your core strength.” In other words, stop kicking so much. It’ll tire you out. She was right. I was kicking like crazy and I could barely breathe. Instead, she suggested, “Use your arms to reach forward in the water, stretch your body and use your legs to glide you along… like a rudder.”
No kicking?
Today was lesson three and I came up with a little mantra to get me from one end of the pool to the other: reach, stretch and breathe. I’d say it over and over in my head and it helped me tremendously. I was able to concentrate and keep a steady pace. I was still darn tired after an hour, but I think we all were.
These days, I feel like this is the best advice I can give myself out of the pool as well. Instead of kicking like hell– reach, stretch and breathe.
Image courtesy of Women First Swimming
Tags:advice, Izzy Rose, Stepmothers Milk, swim lesson, swim lessons
Good for you for stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new. I commend you on this. Now if only I can find the motivation for it. haha
I can think of no other activity that does such an amazing job with physical fitness, weight loss, and just an overall great feeling both physically and mentally. And it’s so much FUN to do.
Enjoy it, you’ll find it to be very rewarding.
Oh, Izzy.
You crack me up, warm my heart and inspire me to think.
I love how you challenge yourself with these creative athletic endeavors meanwhile setting yourself up for all sorts of joke cracking. Swimsuits, head caps and fins: a perfect storm for auto-ironic hilarity. But I come away from this post thinking about the power of meditation. Your “reach, stretch and breathe” mantra is one I can imagine employing for myself, a young lady without offspring (my own or otherwise). The repetition of this mantra allowed you to focus, but do so in a self-caring manner, something I think in itself is a good, motherly lesson. I take your “reach, stretch and breathe” to mean, “challenge yourself, play around in the experience to feel it’s dimensions and delight in the activity.”
What a wonderful post! I also will be thinking “reach, stretch and breathe” to myself all this week, in and out of the pool.
*And* your new swimming abilities will make a Barton Springs pony keg that much more fun!!
I LOVE THIS SITE. Whenever I’m getting stressed or down or confused, I come here. Now off to the lanes. Maybe the water will purge my negative thoughts. Thank you IZZY!!!!!
I have written down the “Reach, Stretch, Breath” mantra on a 3×5 card and stuck it to my refrigerator. I love it! Thanks Izzy Rose. I too took swim lessons as an adult and I still feel it was one of the best things I have done. I feel so much more comfortable in the water. Good for you for pushing your comfort zone and reminding us to do the same.
one of the most quiet places and moments I know is sitting cross legged on the bottom like you did when you were a kid. 30 seconds there beats 30 minutes meditating.
just warn the lifeguard beforehand
Great stuff! Love reading your blog. Push that comfort zone!
I wonder if i can still fit into my one-piece…I’m inspired.
Dear Izzy, I have been a stepmother, stepdaughter, stepsister, now step-grandmother, really step everything my entire life–yet I still need to learn how to breathe. Thanks for reminding me in this post that when you’re swimming, breathing comes naturally.
Sara,
And in our stepfamilies, holding our breath often comes naturally! But, it sounds like you’ve been through it… and through it and through it. I’m sure you’re exhaling just fine.
IR