My confidence is still growing, but is much slower than I'd anticipated so am feeling a bit frustrated.
One good thing has been gradually getting better at breathing out under water. I can submerge further down now while holding onto the edge of the pool and feel much more relaxed doing this. Can also breathe out for longer meaning I can glide a bit further with one out breath, but am still reliant on a float. We also did some back stroke this week - with the noodle float to help - suddenly I found albeit for a short time I was actually moving through the water! It was very exciting! There is a point where you look up at the roof and see a piece of bunting go past - it is a bit like crossing a finishing line. Ha - that'll be the day! I do have dreams of swimming strongly and confidently down a lane one day...
We had a substitute teacher the other week - was a bit nerve wracking wondering how it would work out, but she was just as encouraging as my usual teacher and urged me to try and get some practice in between classes so I can maintain my confidence levels. By the time I get to the end of class I am usually much more relaxed - the difficulty is then sustaining that over the week.
So anyway I turned up half an hour early for class this week to get some practice in, to be frustrated by being told that I couldn't take a float into the pool during the swim for all session. This just doesn't make sense - it wasn't that busy, and how am I meant to practice otherwise? I'm just not confident enough to go without a float just yet. I felt so embarrassed and self conscious. There was nothing else to do but sit in the water at the side. I also got rather contradictory information from different lifeguards, but the teacher gave me the OK that if he is around he is happy for me borrow one of the ones he uses for lessons so I'll try and do that next week. I had thought about signing up for more frequent lessons, but it is really nice being part of the same group all the time, and although I do feel as though I'm bottom of the class I don't really mind. I have never ever got this far in any swimming lessons before, so as far as I am concerned this is real progress!
