Breathe

People drown because they freak out because they are drowning.  It's a natural response to drowning, but it's the worst one.  Relaxing and breathing sounds like yoga class, but they are the two most important skills to have to be able to swim and not drown.

A couple of weeks ago I got talked into swimming with a co-worker.  She's a real swimmer.  Swam for UCLA.  Thinks swimming is fun and she is endlessly cheerful and helpful about swimming.

I used to love swimming (my family is reading this and thinks of me as the 12 year who swam endless, easy laps) and I was good at it.  But seriously, that was more than twenty years ago.  I was pretty terrified to try swimming laps.  Half a mile of side stroke and breast stroke later, I grinned and agreed that heck yeah, let's do a triathalon!  So now I am committed to improving my swimming.  I knew that I needed to swim freestyle, but I was terrified.  My brain and body would just seize up.  And like someone on a bike after an accident, I knew that I first needed to relax and breathe.  So I have been doing easy laps and doing some relaxation exercises that I found on the internet - literally just blowing bubbles and practicing sinking in the pool.  This morning I went to the pool before work and after my sinking exercises, I warmed up with the breaststroke.

I pushed off from the wall for the 4th or 5th time and as I glided out blowing bubbles over the line at the bottom of the pool, I felt empowered gliding through the water and I felt the incredible feeling of being relaxed in an environment that won't allow me to breathe in.  And instead of bringing both hands out to cut through the water for a breast stroke I felt my right arm cut down and up in a crawl and my left arm came up in a crawl.  And when I came up on the side for air, I was smiling.  And when I got to the other side of the pool I was grinning.