First Swimming Lesson

I had my first swimming lesson today.

The coach is the same person who taught Coco swimming. He is also coaching Baby on a different day of the week.

I was glad to know that the two other indian ladies were also having their first lesson today. Besides us, there were 3 other Indian men and 1 Chinese man.

At first, it seemed easy enough.

We were taught to hold our breath under water. Then, hold onto the side of the pool while allowing our body to float on water. Eventually, we were asked to let go of the side while we withdrew our legs to stand in the pool. I couldn't do it.

The moment I let go, my legs couldn't withdraw together and I lost my balance, and fell into the water.

I panicked, and struggled despite it being a 1m or 1.2m pool. The coach had to pull me up to save me from drowning.

In the end, the coach got me to skip that 'let go of the poolside' step and taught me to kick the water and floating around the pool while grabbing onto two pieces of swim board.

I got a little discouraged and asked the coach if it's possible that I wouldn't be able to pick up swimming.

He was nice, as usual.

He said I wasn't that bad (doesn't that sound familiar?), and that one of his students didn't even dare to put his face into the water when he first taught him.

I first learnt swimming when I was in Primary 3.

The coach was handling half a class by himself. He asked us to walk across the pool for the first lesson. Being one of the smallest-sized, the water reached up my chest, or somewhere near there. While many of my classmates walked fast and furious, I faced a lot more resistance due to my (lack of) height. And I fell into the water a few times, resulting in me drinking a lot of water while doing somersaults in the water.

It scared me.

Then I had another coach who asked everyone to grab a swim board and start swimming across the pool before he even taught us. I told him I didn't know how to and he asked me to practise 'washing my face' by the pool, meaning looking under water with eyes opened.

Then I fell a few more times into the water when I tried to do what the coach asked us to.

All these unpleasant experiences scared me.

I was so scared that when the schoolbus came to pick me up, I pretended to be asleep.

When my parents tried to wake me up, I was so frightened I cried and told them I didn't want to go swimming.

I didn't think that I would ever learn swimming again.

As I signed Baby up for her swimming class, I thought it such a shame that I couldn't even enjoy Wild Wild Wet and Adventure Cove because I didn't know how to swim. And I do want to have a good time with Baby when we go Adventure Cove again. So I mustered all my courage and went to the class tonight.

Let's hope I'll do better in the second lesson!