Swimming Thoughts

My swimming lessons are over. Am I able to swim well? Yes and No… Yes coz I can swim now and No coz I can’t swim long distance. But the coach is happy about me. He said, now all I need to do is swim more.

Be it what, when I learn something, I try to understand the logic. It is hard for me to by-heart illogical things. Some are good at mug up and deliver but I am not at all good at it. It was same with my swimming lessons. I couldn’t agree with my coach, many a times. So I put some extra effort to check out how professionals swim and what is the logic behind ‘you should do this you should do that’. The result was shocking – I found out that my coach is not a professional. The way he taught wasn’t the professional way to teach. Now most of us who attended the 20 days (I think I missed 4-5 days) camp can swim (yes there are people who still can’t swim). But none of us are swimming in a similar way, though taught by the same person. Thus I decided to watch how others swim.

There were many guys who came to the pool when I was there in the pool. I stood in the pool and when they passed me, I took a dip and went under water and checked out their leg movements. And yes, their hand movements too. Then the way they take breath. Every day I spent some time to study this. But I did not try to imitate anybody. I found that each and every one has got their own rhythm or style. And now I can tell that the way most of them used to swim is technically wrong (or may be they did not learn it from a professional coach). I talked to many of them, including a senior citizen who is more than 60 yrs old. The most interesting thing that is happening in our pool (when I am there) is that, though many of them are very young, nobody swims like this senior man.

Initially, I got frustrated when I was not able to take breath while swimming and I consulted this gentleman. The first thing he asked me was:

“When did you start swimming?”

“Since 15 days.”

He shook his head, smiled and said:

“Its nothing, don’t worry and don’t get frustrated, you give six months time for you and then see the difference… in my case, I started swimming from childhood”

Thus, he became my motivation and inspiration. And then on whenever we met, he started asking me about my improvement.

After going through many professional videos, I realized that I did not learn many basic things in the proper way. When we learn something, it is better we learn it in the proper way, even if it takes some time rather than learning it somehow and then trying to correct it. It is not easy that way.I had similar experience with my Karate lessons. I learnt certain kicks in the wrong way and it was very difficult to correct it later.

So, today I decided to go on in my own way. May be I have to go back to the basics. And soon I will find my own rhythm. Let it take some time, but I want to swim gracefully.

Swimming offer lots of health benefits, true. So, there is no harm? Does it offer only positives? That too when we swim in pools? I thought in that direction also.

I observed that I became tanned (yes, I still can get tanned… now I remember an old Russian friend of mine asking me teasingly – “what is there to get tanned in you?”, when I told her that I was running around in sun and got tanned)… my skin became rough. Sometimes my eyes became itchy. I was wondering why my skin smelled chlorine, even after I took a shower after swim.

Then I found out that the chlorine can not be easily washed out. It stays in the skin even after a bath in anhydrous form and when it becomes an aqueous solution, again it becomes odorous. Chlorine can damage the hair (yes, I still have some hair left on my head). If people with brown hair swim in pools regularly, without protecting their hair, it will turn into light blonde. Another thing is, if the water comes in contact with copper, the chlorine will dissolve the copper and this will cause the blonde hair to turn into green…. The Ph value of water in pools is high and hence is not friendly with our skin.

Asthmatic people invite more trouble if they stay more time in pools coz, breathing chlorine is not at all good for them. And they should always prefer open and airy pools, to be on the safer side.

Pool water can give us lots of infection and skin irritation. One day my son developed swelling around his eyes when he returned from the pool. Chlorine can not kill all the germs and microbes and hence if people entering the pool are not maintaining good hygiene, it affects every one of us. I have seen many people entering the pool without proper swimming attire.

The most common infection in connection with swimming (in pools) is fungus infection and then the ear infection called ‘Swimmers ear’.

Too much of anything is bad. Same with swimming too. Too much of butterfly stroke can lead into back pain. Too much of breaststroke can give us knee pain. Even the most common free style, when overdone can give shoulder pain and injury…. Since there is buoyancy, exercise done in the pool has more effect on our body than done outside. I got carried away by the swimming and put lots of effort and the result? I lost two kilo just like that. Now, it will take about a month for me to gain that weight….huhuhu

So, there is a limit for everything…