So here goes.....40 yrs of non-swimming and lessons TONIGHT!

[GettingFaster]

Well done, you! Great that you got in and did the whole session, and you even swam up and down a bit. Even if you did have a noodle that's not a problem.

Linny should be along soon, she had a very good description of getting your feet down on the bottom, so see what she says.

Goggle marks: you've almost certainly done them up too tight. They shouldn't be digging into your face as a beginner. (You do sometimes have to do them up tight if you're diving in, but that's not until your second set of 8 lessons so there's a while to go till then! ) The strap on your goggles is only meant to stop them from dropping off your face, so loosen the strap right off so that it's really, really loose. The suction you get from goggles will be plenty to keep them in place as a learner. Honest!

I think you've probably hit the nail on the head with the sore back. You were probably very, very tense as well, which just makes it worse.

Good idea to take Baby Clanger to the pool. Bring your (loose!) goggles with you too, to help with the confidence of not wanting water splashed on your face. You'll be able to kneel on the bottom and still feel very stable in the shallow pool. You never know, you might even find you can sneakily try to put your face in. (Kneeling in the baby pool hold onto the side, take a deep breath and slowly lower your face under the water. Hold your nose too if you feel better. You might even feel "safer" if you lower yourself under the water while still upright, by sitting down on your heels for example, rather than tipping your face forward. See how many elephants you can count to yourself: "one elephant, two elephants, three elephants" and so on) while your head is under the water. Doing it on your own there's no pressure on you to perform, and no-one needs to know if you don't manage it - but we will want to hear about your triumphs afterwards!)

Mushroom floats are probably bit less nerve-wracking (sp?) than floating on your back, so the other learners were just showing off. You'll be doing mushroom floats all over the place before long!

Stick with it, pat yourself on the back for all your triumphs. You got into the pool for the first time ever, so there's a ma-HOOO-sive triumph. You were kicking with a noodle so there's another one. Keep up with it, and in a few weeks you'll be wondering why you waited so long.

Well done.

[Verity]

Clanger

I don't know if this will make any sense to you or if it will be helpful but one exercise I sometimes to with kids if I have a pool with wide steps into the water ie. where the steps run the full length of the pool. Is to have the kids hold the top step with their hands stretch out your arms and body and legs and let them float out into the pool. As if you are clinging on by your fingertips.

If you can relax (and I appreciate this is a big ask) and drop your shoulders under the water so that you are only supporting yourself (holding yourself up) by your hands, take a deep breath and practice putting your head under whilst you are holding on with your hands. You should be able to feel the water pushing you up when you want to lift your head you press down with your hands. Once you feel comfortable try and lift your hands a couple of centimetres off the bottom and see if you can float there for a second or two. To regain control just press down with your hands. You could then try lifting your hands up and kicking your legs if you angle your body you should be able to kick a short distance without touching the step and only having your hands being a few centimetres away from safety.

I know this sounds horribly complicated but it is actually pretty easy to do.

Best of luck.

Once you crack being able to stand upright the rest is easy just try bringing your knees up to your chest and lean back... GF's right Linny can explain it better

V

[KatieBun]

I think you've done tremendously well for a first go, Clanger. It doesn't matter what you do at first. Just learn to be comfortable in the water.
The face in the water thing will come gradually. You can do that bit on your own in the baby part of the pool. Just splashing a bit of water on your own face will help. You're the one in control when you do that. If you can put your mouth in and blow a few bubbles, that's a start.
Keep at it. When you've made a bit more progress, you'll wonder why you were ever worried about it.
Extremely well done.

[Linny]

Welcome clanger! Sounds like you are doing just great.

Being as I've been mentioned twice now here is a link to a post on the subject from a couple of years back. It pretty much says what Verity has already said but a few more stages to go through.

As I say in the post, learning how to stand up is a really important skill to master early on so good on you for realising this. Knowing you can find your feet gives you confidence to try other things out (like floating!) so give it a go!

[swimslikeabrick]

I shouldn't worry about the goggles I am the same, I have to wear them else I can't see where I am going at all.

I think so far as group learning goes I was the last to abandon artificial aids I just seemed to have a natural propensity to sink without them. Everybody goes at there own pace.

As far as my back goes, regular swimming on the whole has done it more good than harm, I suffer a lot less than I used to before I took up swimming.

[fdfd]

Well done! I had to start swimming regularly as therapy for my back. For the first 3 or 4 months I walked up and down the pool (fortunately the pool I went to was single depth). I could 'swim' breaststroke before but absolutely hated getting my face in the water (my dad still calls me swan neck to this day because of straining to keep my head out of the water as a child).

Before a swim I always duck my head under the water first - I use this opportunity to check for goggle leaks, but the primary reason is to get used to the water on my face....

Easier said than done I know, but relax and take things steady. There's no time limit on learning to swim but once you have learnt it's a wonderful thing. I wouldn't worry about being a non-swimming trying to learn - everyone in the pool with you has gone through the process of learning at some point and understands what it's like.

Don't worry about the others in your class who can either swim already, or suddenly felt confident - good for them, but everyone is different and you will certainly get swimming if you take it at your own pace.

Good luck

[AD]

Hi Clanger,

Great to read that you've taken to the water again to learn to swim. It's fantastic and I hope you get the confidence you want pretty quickly.

From reading your posts, I think the best piece of advice is to take things at your own pace and don't focus on others around you. I think some of us have a natural ability in the water, whereas others have to really work at it. Likewise, some of us won't have had the traumatic experience you had as a kid to dent our confidence even more.

Keep persevering with it and you'll get the hang of things soon enough. Just take small steps until your confidence is at the level you want it to be.

Good luck.

[Spidey]

Originally Posted by clanger

Hi everyone, Wow! what a friendly bunch you al are - I honestly didn't expect to have so many of you wishing me well!

Well................ I went along, (stood there looking odd in prescription goggles digging in my face cos im blind as a bat without em). Anyone any constructive comments?

ps - is it ususal to look like ive got 2 black eyes after taking off the goggles afterwards? - this has faded, but was scary at first!

What prescription are you? What make of goggles do you have? Can you loosen/adjust the tension of the straps to prevent them pressing on the eyes? I have Keifer prescription goggles, Swans also make them to.

[Matthew]

Wow, well done Clanger, glad you made it.

Take it little by little to improve your confidence, you will get there. In just 6 months, or under, you will be amazed at how far you've progressed and this thread will serve as a reminder to you at this stage about how the first time was and how you felt.

As you become more confident (practice as much as you can!) you will enjoy the water more, it's very de-stressing really.

Definitely consider 1:1 lessons, I had these to learn crawl properly a couple of years ago and it was a great investment and I freaked-out at first!

Keep going, persevere, what you're doing is fabulous for you and your kids.

[clanger]

Hi again, thanks everyone for the fab support you are all giving me, its great and really geeing me up to get on with it....

Well, this weeks' update is that, I really didn't feel like going back again, but I forced myself to to and I also loosened off the goggles this time! (they are the Hilco anti-fog - and im afraid to say a -6!). - and I was very brave in that when I got in, I held my nose and put my face in the water! - twice!!

Then, the teacher got us all to hold hands in a semi-circle and support each other whilst we took it in turns to float on our backs, upright ourselves , then float on our front and come upright again. When it got to my turn (about 5th) I thought, oh, well, better get on with it, and it was actually better than I thought.

The lesson proceeded to go to swimming up and down the pool with the woggle accross my chest, under each arm. I was brave enough to do it in the middle of the pool, but at one point it become out of place under me, and the utter panic was indescribable.

Teacher thought that I was dong a good stroke etc, and thought I appeared all confident and asked me to step back from the edge and swim to the side with no float etc. To this, I replied 'youre kidding'! - and he said, 'ok, whenever youre ready'. Thing is, I really dont think I ever will be ready as I am sooooo scared of that moment when you are stopping swimming, doing nothing in the water for a split second and you submerge a bit. I dont think I can put my feet down quick enough - tried it one foot at a time etc. but its as if I either am too lazy to keep moving and sink, or just havent got it together yet.

I am really wanting to nail this mental block and have been having a good old think this week about what else I can do to get past it..

How does this sound.....

1 - Going to an ladies only swim session, even if it means wearing 'arm bands' and getting sympathetic looks! for practise

2 - going for hypnotherapy!!!!! - yea I mean it, please can anyone tell me if they have, or know anyone who has done this for swimming successfully? - I know you have to be careful who you choose, but id really like to know if it can work.

Well, off to bed for now. look forward to reading your replies as im finding that it really helps.

[clanger]

hey, just had another thought, does anyone know if they make 'back floats' to strap on your back for adults?

[Verity]

Originally Posted by clanger

Hi again, thanks everyone for the fab support you are all giving me, its great and really geeing me up to get on with it....

Well, this weeks' update is that, I really didn't feel like going back again, but I forced myself to to and I also loosened off the goggles this time! (they are the Hilco anti-fog - and im afraid to say a -6!). - and I was very brave in that when I got in, I held my nose and put my face in the water! - twice!!

Then, the teacher got us all to hold hands in a semi-circle and support each other whilst we took it in turns to float on our backs, upright ourselves , then float on our front and come upright again. When it got to my turn (about 5th) I thought, oh, well, better get on with it, and it was actually better than I thought.

The lesson proceeded to go to swimming up and down the pool with the woggle accross my chest, under each arm. I was brave enough to do it in the middle of the pool, but at one point it become out of place under me, and the utter panic was indescribable.

Teacher thought that I was dong a good stroke etc, and thought I appeared all confident and asked me to step back from the edge and swim to the side with no float etc. To this, I replied 'youre kidding'! - and he said, 'ok, whenever youre ready'. Thing is, I really dont think I ever will be ready as I am sooooo scared of that moment when you are stopping swimming, doing nothing in the water for a split second and you submerge a bit. I dont think I can put my feet down quick enough - tried it one foot at a time etc. but its as if I either am too lazy to keep moving and sink, or just havent got it together yet.

I am really wanting to nail this mental block and have been having a good old think this week about what else I can do to get past it..

How does this sound.....

1 - Going to an ladies only swim session, even if it means wearing 'arm bands' and getting sympathetic looks! for practise

2 - going for hypnotherapy!!!!! - yea I mean it, please can anyone tell me if they have, or know anyone who has done this for swimming successfully? - I know you have to be careful who you choose, but id really like to know if it can work.

Well, off to bed for now. look forward to reading your replies as im finding that it really helps.

Clanger

You are doing brilliantly, keep going at your own pace all of a sudden it will just click and you'll never look back,

V

[GettingFaster]

Well done for going back a second time - I think that was probably harder than the first because you went to the first one in blissful ignorance of what you were letting yourself in for!

Before your third class, think carefully about all the positives that you can take from the first two classes. Here's a few I've thought of. Feel proud of yourself for your achievements.
1. You took the plunge in the first place. Getting your head round the idea can often be one of the most difficult things to do.
2. You have floated in the water, and you didn't drown. (Remember that one, particularly when you're feeling nervous or scared!)
3. You have learnt that you're not the only person very nervous of the water.
4. You swam up and down the pool, and not holding onto the side! That's a MASSIVE achievement. Woggle or no woggle, you weren't hogging the wall. Bet you wouldn't have done that three weeks ago!
5. You put your face under the water - twice! Wouldn't have done that three weeks ago either.

You are doing really well, and you have a lot to be proud of.

Your idea of going to the pool in a ladies only session is a good one. You might want to try a couple of the suggestions made earlier in the thread, particularly Linny's one about getting back on your feet as that seems to be the thing that freaks you out most.

[KatieBun]

Ditto, Clanger. Congratulations on your courage and tenacity.
Every time you get back in the water, you're building on previous achievements, even if you just stand still and occasionally dip your face in. There's no hurry and no timetable.
Well done.
What area of the country are you in, if you don't mind me asking? Apologies for the question if it's an invasion of privacy.

[Matthew]

Originally Posted by clanger

hey, just had another thought, does anyone know if they make 'back floats' to strap on your back for adults?

Well done, you're doing a fabulous job, keep going!

Couple ideas for you, don't know if it's what you're looking for:



Swimshop: http://www.swimshop.co.uk/Foam-Rocke...t-PFOAMROCKET/


Swimshop: http://www.swimshop.co.uk/Barbell-Floats-PBARBELLFL/


Swimshop: http://www.swimshop.co.uk/Aqua-Runni...LOATATIONBELT/

Lots more belts, etc from here: http://www.swimshop.co.uk/Swim-Belts-CSLTSSWIMBELT/

The above seem OK for adults? Like you say lots aimed at kids.

Good luck, keep us updated.