Jay Learns to Swim !

Among other species, humans are the only one who are not natural swimmers. We need to learn. How good am I as a swimmer? I don’t know… I can’t rate myself since I don’t know how to swim…

Today I took my first swimming lesson…

I first entered a swimming pool some 18 years ago. Some of my friends and a cousin of mine used to go to pool. One day, I accompanied them. It was that cousin of mine who told me that he will teach me how to swim. Every one jumped into the pool and so did I. Man, it was suffocating! The pressure! When I looked around, I saw many grinning faces, those who came with me!

A couple of them gave me some basic lessons. One was how to stay in deep water using the ‘cycling method’ (I don’t know the technical term). The theory session went fine and then my cousin asked me to come to the deep zone which was 14 feet deep, grabbing the sides of the pool. I did that.

Now is the time to put all my cycling theory into practice. I started doing what he said, moving my legs in a cycle riding way and moving my hands in an up and down fashion. And the result?

It was a fantastic experience. I started going down… I started getting drowned…. I tried to call for help, but the sound is not coming….. I drank lots of water…. Down and down…. Then I saw a hand coming towards me and I grabbed it with all my energy… it was my cousin’s hand…he still was grinning, though it looked like he too got scared a lil (otherwise, he is always a smiling guy and cracks joke all the time)…. Luckily, the pool authorities did not ask me to pay for the water I drank !

I never tried the deep zone again, in that way (but I did go there catching the sides of the pool) and there ended the cycling session. Why he tried to teach me that first? He said if you know this, you can at least survive. But I changed my mind and decided to learn how to float and swim. Since the pool wasn’t free, the guys who came with me were busy swimming and I was left alone. But when I call them, they came to me and gave some tips and then disappeared.

Then I finally floated a little….then I started beating my legs….hey, it works…. I moved forward and I was happy about it. So I did that a couple of times and then decided to use my hands too. I started moving using the legs only and then started using my hand…sway …sway… and I hit something. I saw a guy standing in front of me bleeding!!! I hit his face and coz of my nails, he got slightly injured. I said sorry and he didn’t say anything….

In a day or two, others stopped (first was that cousin) going to pool and so did I….

(In between, a few months ago, I went to our pool with my gym trainer, who had no idea how to teach and there ended it)

When I came to know that summer swimming camp is coming again, in our club, I did not think twice. Last year too I enrolled but I could not take up the lessons since I had to travel to Bangkok. This time I didn’t want to miss it.

Today morning I woke up early… i didn’t get enough sleep and hence I felt like I just came out of my grave… but its my first swimming lesson… cant miss it… I had to do some online transaction which was urgent and hence I went online and …. Yes, as I told yesterday, being with friends we like is a boost (what if that friend is a swimmer?)…. YEHEY!

My slot was 7-8 am and I went punctually. I did not see anybody except somebody sitting on a sofa. I asked the security where these swimming people go. And he said that is one of the coaches. So I went to him an introduced myself. Four people were supposed to come and none of them turned up. My coach’s name was Jacob and he was from native State. We waited for 15 minutes and then decided to start the lesson. The coach disappeared for a moment….

I changed into swimming trunk, took a shower and sat on a chair waiting for the coach. It was windy and I started shivering…. Then I saw a man waving hands to me, smiling. I looked at him and I have no idea who he is. There were two others with him, a teenage boy and a kid. I thot, may ne he is waving to somebody behind, I didn’t see anybody behind so I just smiled at him and nodded my head in acknowledgement, wondering what is happening around. Then I thought it out. He is there to take the swimming lessons and he thought I am the coach!!!

(well, I was wearing just swimming trunks sporting my athletic body…. so can’t blame him).

He too sensed the situation based on my cold response. So, he asked :

“Where is the coach?” …..

There came one more coach and he was assigned exclusively for me. I was asked to walk inside the pool…. Then this bubbling, I was asked to take deep breath, take a dip and then breath out slowly keeping my head inside water…. As soon as I went inside the water, I got pushed out and here my head comes up…… then floating lesson….. When I did that, I started getting drowned!!!

God, I love your ways! Very funny !!