Getting there

I am now seventy. I can swim. Not very well, nor very far but I can actually swim.

In my last post, I mentioned that the teaching pool at the Malden Centre has a great feature. Its greatest depth is only one meter. Its less than great feature, is that the depth quite quickly becomes half a meter. Drowning is difficult, but so is swimming once the water gets shallow.

I found a solution to this.

My wife Diane is a member of The River Club (not as posh as it sounds). It is a gym which has a swimming pool. The pool is about eighteen meters by six meters, but only one point four meters deep. So drowning is almost as difficult as in the Malden Centre teaching pool. Nevertheless, it has the great advantage being 1.4 meters deep over its entire length.

I had a trial session and liked what I saw. The facilities and gym equipment are good. The staff are friendly. The pool allows me to swim without finding myself out of my depth or running out of water. So, I signed myself up.

Since then, I have continued my weekly lessons at the Malden Centre. I also try to fit in a swim at the River Club at least twice per week. This has helped a lot. It lets me try out the things that Sue teaches us on a Monday night. It also allows me to concentrate on one aspect, for example my breaststroke kick.

I can now swim a full length of the pool comfortably, using breast or back stroke. I still struggle with front crawl (freestyle). Coordinating kicking, breathing and arms is difficult, for me. I haven’t tried butterfly yet.

Another feature of the pool is that the roof is retractable. During the summer it is pulled back, and you can swim in the open air. It also allows access to an outside deck, where you can sunbathe.

So, I learned to swim by my seventieth birthday. I have lots of room for improvement, but I am getting there, slowly.