Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Mile Swim

I learnt swimming from my father at the Southern Chinese Swimming Club in Shawkiwan, Hong Kong when I was really young. He taught me all the basics, from dog stroke, to back stroke to frog (breast) stroke. When I was in secondary school, I taught myself the cross (free style), or what I thought was free style. I would show off my "techniques" in swimming pools and at beaches, and the thought of continuous learning never entered my mind. It was when I joint the YMCA/YWCA here a few years ago that I realized how little I had known about swimming. I was not bad with short/medium distance, but when it came to the mile swim, all the imperfections in my swimming techniques showed up and multiplied exponentially. Did it ever cross my young and proud mind that I would have to learn swimming all over again? Of course not !! The mile swim really taught me a good lesson about life-long learning.

3 comments:

Eden said...

I learnt mine when i'm in primary school in Singapore. I had to pay for my swimming lessons. The 1st lesson was to run across the baby pool, where the water level is up to knee length!

Then when we proceed to the deep pool, something happened that make it discontinue my swimming lessons. I had a cut on my thumb and while sitting at the poolside listening to the instructor, i kept dipping my blood-stained thumb into the pool to 'wash' off the blood. "Doooop" I dropped into the deep pool! I struggled ... felt like drowning ... very uncomfortable ...

ha, of course the instructor 'picked' me up from the situation else i won't be alive and chatting here.

Till now i know how to swim, not not professional nor perfect. I can't even take the length of the pool, hee. Usually, i'll swim half the length, then return and that's counted as 1 lap haha ... exercise is the main thing .. i dun care if i did it perfectly hee

Haricot 微豆 said...

Hi Eden: Sorry for the delay in responding ... I have been quite busy at work. Well, I am glad you are still around to tell the story :) I am not perfect either. It took me almost 6 months to learn to breath bilaterally (both sides) in free style. I think it's important to learn the basics (e.g. treading water or swimming slowly) so one will not get panic in the event of an emergency. But you are right, exercise is the main thing .... and fun too !!!

Eden said...

agreed ! =)

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