I swam today!

Today was only my second swim lesson, but I conquered a lot today. I even SWAM! 50 meters freestyle! It was pretty cool!

When I got there, we started nice and easy as I expected. We picked up rocks again. Then John threw then a little farther out and so I was supposed to "dive down" to get them. I had a lot of trouble with this. So John stepped back and just had me stay underwater for as long as I could. Trouble is, I am apparently "as buoyant as a cork". John couldn't even hold me under! So we decided to hold off on that for a bit and come back to it.

Next was floating on my back. This scared me a lot. But John held my head and back up in the right position and then like any good dad teaching his kid to ride a two-wheeler, he let go. This is supposed to be relaxing, he said. Ha! was my first reaction. But after a while and several tries, it did feel less scary. John didn't have to hold me up either. I was able to get into proper position myself. He explained to me that in lap pools they should have flags hanging from the ceiling at a certain position so that when you are doing the backstroke you know when your lap is about to end.

After that we tried pushing off from the wall and swimming underwater, but I was having trouble with that too. We're going to come back to that. Then we treaded water for a few minutes. He wanted my hands to know how it feels to "scull". Then I put on my fins and got the kickboard. I went across the pool with one hand on the kickboard and the other at my side, breathing properly. Then I turned and came back the other direction with the other hand on the kickboard. Then I went down the same way, but without the kickboard and staying on my edge, as opposed to having my belly flat. Then John had me alternate hands with each breath as I went down the lane.

Then finally, he said to continually alternate hands and breathe when necessary. As in: go ahead and SWIM! So I did! Two laps! That was a great way to end a tough session. This is how it is going to be. We are going to work on overcoming the fear and increase the comfort level. We'll go over the last lesson and do drills and work on techniques, and end it with some "fun".

I feel really great about today! I can't wait for next time! (I never thought I'd say that!)