First, before my actual lesson, I had a conversation with a colleague of mine that is also a swim instructor. He said from his experience, beginner adult swimmers are difficult to work with, and it usually takes longer than teaching a child. According to him the difficulty is a result of the adults’ fear of drowning and mindset. Mindset. He probably couldn’t have said anything more powerful than mindset. I am a serious believer of fixed and growth mindsets. This stuck and gave me a renewed vision of my 20Time project. I knew that I had to change my mindset before my first swim lesson.
I then watched a few YouTube videos. The videos I watched focused on floating and treading water. These videos were beneficial to feed the visual side of my brain. I could see exactly how I had to position and move my body underwater I have started a YouTube playlist with the videos that I have found the most useful.
I then met with my instructor, my daughter, and I was impressed, she wanted to create an action plan. I told her about the videos I had watched, so she decided we should watch them together. We talked about what specifically we were going to focus on during my first lesson. Floating using the mushroom move and flutter kicks, were going to be the focus. The day of my first lesson arrived. I was excited and nervous, but mentally, I was ready. I had been working on my mindset, I knew I had support, it was at a safe location and I had a plan.
My first lesson, on 06/27/15, was about an hour and a half and obviously I didn’t drown, I was able to control my fear and the noodle (one of the best inventions ever) is my new best friend. I was able to float for a few seconds, but only face down. I couldn’t position my body to stay afloat, facing up. I also practiced flutter kicks, and with the use of a noodle moved across the pool. I did take some video, but still working on adding it to my youtube playlist. My next steps are to continue working on these same things and possibly adding the use of my arms to help my move across the pool.