I’m going on holiday to New Zealand on Boxing Day for the best part of a month and the tour includes a lot of water based events (kayaking, boating, surfing, snorkelling). As it’s the height of summer, I figure it would be best if I could enjoy and to do that, I’d need to be able to swim. So I’ve just taken it up lessons - 30 minute 1-1 sessions on Tuesday nights and 1 hour sessions on Wednesdays. These is booked up until Christmas.

I’ve never really been afraid of water; I normally get the goggles on and swim around on the bottom but I’ve never been able to swim on the surface and be able to breathe, so that pretty much puts me within a lungful of something to cling on to!

My target is to be totally confident in water to the point where I can just jump of a boat into the sea and be able to potter about indefinitely. Abroad last year in Majorca, people were just leaping of the boat, swimming for a bit, treading water for a bit and then swimming again. I sink like a stone!

So far it’s gone very well indeed. Breathing (enough) while moving is hardest part but I’ve managed to do a couple of widths doing both front crawl and breast stroke on the first two lessons, which is pretty good apparently!

I guess I just wanted to throw this out there to see if others have ‘taken the plunge’ in recent years or learnt at a more senior age (I’m 34 in two weeks). I may also put the occasional update on if I achieve any milestones

Can't really help you on the 'recent years' - my father was *your* age when he taught me fifty years ago...

But congratulations on taking the plunge; keep up with it. All mammals can swim, but Man is the only one that panics and ends up drowning. Learning not to fear the water is the first step.

(p.s. 34 = senior?)

Good luck with it.

I can't imagine trying to learn something like that later in life. The Mrs is currently learning to drive at the age of 29 and she wishes she'd done it 10 years ago.

Sounds like you're on the right track though.

I use to swim competitively in my early yoof, but gave up to focus on Badminton and hadn't done any meaningful swimming since then. Approx Eighteen years ago (I am also senior at 33 :)).

Three years ago I decided to give Triathlons a go and wrongly thought the swimming would come back to me with complete ease. Hopw wrong was I.

Ended up doing a six week course on how to swim properly. Not quite in your situation, but was refreshing to learn to swim properly again.

Now I think nothing of doing a mile in my lunch break.

Keep up the good work

Can't help you Trappy. My swimming consists of not drowning immediately.

I've been swimming since my early school days (early 60's) It's the one thing I can do easily today.1/2 a mile non stop breast stroke still is no bother. Very exhilarating.

Fair play to you Trappy. If I can do this easily, a young whippersnapper like yourself can Best of luck, stick in there.

Best of luck to you in your quest. Just a quick story to give you an idea of what's possible. I'm a swim and triathlon coach and taught a guy last year who was an ultra runner but couldn't swim 5m. We met once a week for 6 months for a 45min session and he completed Ironman Wales last September, 2.4miles.

Stick with it and you'll be fine. Have a look at some of the SwimSmooth vids on YouTube as well to help you visualise the fundamentals.
Chris

Good luck. That is all.

Trappy you have youth on your side mate.
As an infant i was terrifide of water and learnt the hard way by my brother (18 years my senior) by nearly drowning me in a local pool, ( still a bloody fool) Him not me!

But i can swim and look confidant in a crowd and can dive from a fair hieght. But have had no real tuition really.

Get stuck in mate as NZ is the nuts to swim and eat Fish!

Good luck Trappy and well done

Swimming lessons were part of the PE curriculum when I was at junior school, we would all jump on a bus and be taken to the local pool for dunking session.
We had the bronze, silver and gold awards which in exchange for swimming a few lengths of the pool in your pyjamas, then removing them and inflating them to make a buoyancy aid, you were given a snazzy cloth badge to sew onto your trunks.

The swimming continued through into secondary school, swimming was still very much a part of Physical Education.
Does this not happen anymore? It's shame to lose such a vital skill.

This was what got me swimming. Though I can now confess that my foot did touch the ground more than once during my 10 yard certificate swim...

Well done Trappy ! I admire you doing it, I was brought up in the seaside-went deep sea fishing as a young boy (Early teens)
Done some waterskiing and sailing, enjoyed many a day out in rough seas in northatlantic Ribs traveling with mates from Northern Ireland to the Scottish Coast and Islands - and to this day I can't swim on top if the water 😕
I swim anytime we are near a pool and can still manage a length under water, all of my kids are strong swimmers and my wife can swim a bit too.

I always meant to take lessons and your post has given me a good boot up the arse-biscuits

Good on you

I imagine the statute of limitations has probably passed now, Jim. You can probably keep your certificate.

For what it's worth, I've seen a couple of books which suggest that my father was the person who first used weights to train swimmers, back in the sixties.

Guess who he trained...?

Thanks for all the words of encouragement and stories peeps!

I’ll look up some of these youtube videos – it’s amazing what you can learn from the many videos on there now. I recently bought a scarifying rake for my garden having watched The LawnSmith the other day! Grass looks a treat now!!

It’d also be really good if others took it up lessons off the back of this!

My experience of ‘swimming lessons’ as a young kid was holding a float and being told “kick, kick, kick”. I did it once a week for 3 months of the year for years, and did nothing else that I can remember…

Into the teen years, and swimming lessons involved boys vs girls ‘keep the sponge ball in your team’. For an hour. Oddly, I never did see the incentive in passing it to a team mate when I had 4 or 5 scantily clad teenage girls leaping on me and trying to trip me up / get the ball off of me… no swimming there either.

No holidays abroad (or indeed, of any kind) as a kid and my parents couldn’t swim either – I guess the opportunity or need to learn never occurred.

I think I'll get some videos of me swimming in NZ and post them up when I get back. End of January or early February then. A personal challenge!

Who did he train then Neil?

I used to swim at county level, forty years ago. These days when I get in the water, I just mow down the fogies who think they should be in the fast lane.