Learning To Swim

This summer we decided to get Baba swimming.

He has never been a lover of swimming, in fact he has never been a lover of water, just washing his hair was a task and would generally result in crying and screaming from Baba.

So we decided at 6 nearly 7 we really needed to crack the swimming. I was a late swimmer, I was the child at the school swimming lessons was being pulled along holding onto a broom. I hated swimming, I hated water. To be honest I did learn but I have never developed into a great swimmer.

I hate water in my face, I can’t go under water unless I am holding my nose, and I can only really swim doing breaststroke.

I didn’t want that for Baba.

I wanted him to swim, I wanted him to love the water, be confident in it and to be able to look after himself in it.

I remember taking him to lessons when he was a baby and I think my fear of the water actually rubbed off on him. So I stopped after the first sessions finished.

I looked into lessons this summer, and found some intensive lessons, that were four thirty minute sessions in a week, Monday to Thursday. It was reasonably priced and was close by. So the first week of the holiday we booked him into the lessons and hoped that it would sort his confidence if nothing else.

The first day he was putting his head under, no issues at all, the second day he was bouncing up and down in the water, and going under every moment he got.

By Thursday he was swimming, not a lot but a teeny, tiny bit and we were told to move him into stage two.

We thought about it and decided to book him in for another intensive course immediately the week after his first week of swimming.

By the end of the second week, only eight lessons since he started. He was like a fish. He was swimming, he had his head under, he could swim on his back, and he was doing a fantastic front crawl.

Something had finally clicked and he loved it.

We were told at the end of the second intensive week he could go into lessons, and into Stage 3.

Two weeks, four hours of lessons and a completely different child.

We gave him a week off, and then booked him into stage 3 lessons.

Since the first lesson, he has moved on and on each week. Last week he swam three-quarters of a length of the pool, doing front crawl, with the correct breathing! Mr L and I were shocked, we were so pleased for him.

Such a difference in such a short space of time.

Watching his confidence grow, watching his technique grow, it makes us feel proud, so proud. Swimming isn’t just a fitness skill, it really is a life skill, and I am so pleased we pushed him this year. We got him swimming and he is enjoying it!