Take the plunge! (Swimming in General)

Member Name: ermintrude

Product:	Swimming in General
Date:	03/08/01 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See yourself improving week by week, you can go whenever is convenient, alone or with friends, there's not much to buy

Disadvantages: Not everywhere has a pool, some pools are not very nice, it can get expensive

Swimming didn't used to be easy for me. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but the nearest pool was a couple of miles away with an infrequent bus service. Add that it was almost £3 a session to change in grotty changing rooms and swim in a crowded 25m pool, and you can see why I didn't go much.

That all changed last September with the opening of a shiny new SportsPark, complete with 50m/2 x 25m pool, next door to the university where I'm a student. Well, September was when it opened - it took me until November to actually visit the place! But when I finally did - I was hooked. With going to the other pool, I'd almost forgotten how enjoyable swimming could be.

I don't want to get into all the calories-burned, muscle-groups-used, high-resistance, low-impact stuff, firstly because I don't really know any of it, and secondly I've never found it that important to be honest. My main reason for going is because I enjoy swimming. I count lengths, and I know I come out feeling tired, but good, and not hurting anywhere. That's as scientific as I get.

Before leaving for university, I used to go swimming with a friend, and comfortably swim 60 lengths in an hour at our local 25m pool. However, when I started again last November, I was dismayed to find I could barely manage 20 (with lots of breaks) before I was completely knackered! Still, I persevered, and this is where I found out perhaps the most encouraging thing about swimming - you can improve quite quickly, at least as a beginner. In a couple of weeks I'd progressed to 30 lengths, done in 5 sets of 6 with a break in between; soon, I was doing them non-stop, and moved up to 40, then 50... now I do 64, which is a mile, and takes about 50 minutes (on a good day), which is as long as I want to be in the pool! My next stage is working up to more lengths of more intensive front crawl/backstroke, as opposed to my usual breaststroke. I know it's not brilliant in
the grand scheme of things, but I can see myself improving, so I'm very happy!

What I do find difficult to improve is the quality of my swimming. I know my technique isn't that great, but there don't seem to be any "adult improvers" classes. There are clubs for kids and teenagers who want to swim competitively, and beginners' classes, but not much for those of us who want to sort out the bad habits we've picked up. So I'll keep on the lookout!

Motivation can sometimes be a problem. If I go with friends, I either talk to them (taking longer to do my mile), or ignore them and feel antisocial. I usually go on my own now, around lunchtime when the pool is quieter and I can use the deep water lanes (clubs use them in the evenings), and I use the time to think through things that are going on - it's amazing how many work problems I've solved while in the pool! But even though I've seen improvements in terms of my weight and fitness levels, without friends to cajole me it can sometimes be hard to work up the energy to go. So I've found something that really helps - getting sponsored.

It was April when I noticed the posters for the "Sharron Davies Channel Challenge", this year's Swim For Life initiative. It all seemed quite simple - swim at your own pace, over the whole year, but pledge to do some multiple of 22 miles (the distance across the English Channel). Get people to sponsor you for this, and raise a whole load of money for the Muscular Dystrophy charity. What could be better? Get fit, lose weight, take some time out from the stresses of the day, and raise money for charity as well! I signed up for 66 miles, which I worked out I could easily do by swimming twice a week, but with the lower limit of 22, almost anyone can join in (that would work out at half a mile, or 32 lengths, a week over the whole year, with some "time out" for holidays or illness into the bargain
!). I reckon that by the time I've finished, I'll have raised well over £100 for the charity, all by doing something I want to do anyway.

Of course, having a good pool so close by (and only paying £1 a swim, since I bought a student membership and I go off-peak) makes a big difference - even if I had known it would be this rewarding, I simply couldn't have got to the other pool more often. But if you've been wondering about going, waiting for that little shove in the right direction, I hope this opinion will provide it!

** For anyone wanting to sign up for the Swim for Life challenge, call 01382 451146 for an entry form.

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