I went into my last swim lesson feeling like I had to get the dive down. I even told my husband the night before, “Tomorrow is my last swim lesson. I hope I can dive.”
Even still, I felt myself dreading it just a little.
We started the lesson practicing freestyle stroke and backstroke. I felt like my technique on both of those strokes was good and like I had the basics down.
We also practiced butterfly and breaststroke. Both of those strokes are more difficult. I know the basic techniques, but probably won’t practice them as much. Mainly because they are so much harder and I simply wanted to learn how to swim, not swim competitively.
Teacher Jess left ample time at the end to practice dives. I kept looking at the clock and said, “No, let’s practice this stroke instead.” But she encouraged me to finally get out and try, and I am so glad I did!
I started out doing two knee dives and Teacher Jess said they both looked good. I could feel my body hitting the water properly. So, onto stand up dives. I tried one and asked her to take a video of me so I could get a visual of how to position my body differently. She grabbed the iPad and shot a video of my next dive. Seeing my form helped me visualize how to adjust my form. I tried again after that and was successful! I dove!
I did several more after that and felt good about every single one. I had learned to dive! That was a huge accomplishment. For some reason, diving was always a fearful thing and something I could never get. I will certainly need to keep practicing to keep the fear at bay.
I am really excited that I took swim lessons. I can now successfully swim and don’t need to doggy paddle or just float around when I am in the water.
I would encourage anyone who is thinking about taking swim lessons to do it, if even for a short time. I had five lessons total and feel like I learned a lot in that time.
Whether you have a fear of water, or just want to learn the basic techniques, try it out. It is never too late to learn a new skill and the one-on-one instruction makes a huge difference.