Fins Can Only Get Better

Went swimming today at Lloyd Elsmore Park Leisure Centre's free swimming pool in Pakuranga.

I told Won jin (English name: Alan) how, until I was 22, I had only been able to swim about 25 metres. So each week for a year I had gone swimming regularly at Teddington Pools on the way home from work. This and running certainly did good things for my general health and fitness that year. So by the end of those 12 months, just how far do you think I could swim?

That's right - 25 metres.

I just couldn't understand it. I especially couldn't understand the people who'd come breaststroking past me 50-odd times, casually chatting about mad cow disease, Princess Diana's hairstyle and how unbearable it was to be comfy enough in life to go swimming regularly.

The point I'm trying to make is that when it came to swimming, I was still dead in the water.

I mean HOW? After a whole year, something must have been drastically wrong with my technique. I obviously needed lessons. No, of course I never took them.

Today? 25 metres. About 1 length.

"I will take lessons," I positive-mindedly declared to Won jin, before leaving him behind to wade across to a clear stretch to have another go.

As I did, I overheard some guy tutoring someone. I stopped, made eye-contact, smiled and made it clear that I too was taking notes.

Next thing I knew this 75-year-old ex-lifeguard was watching me swim, giving feedback and advising me to breathe every other stroke, instead of between each one.

"You need to bring your legs up level with the water, and reach your hands across to the middle each time, because you're out here at the moment, because you've got such wide shoulders."

Excellent - Roy was just what I needed. I didn't do a great deal more swimming, but my triceps ached and I was exhausted when I got out, so I must have been doing something differently.

The guy Roy was already tutoring beamed with pleasure when I told him how good he was too.

Next stop - the coastline of New Zealand!