The trick to skiing is to think of it as standing while the ground moves under you...
Like an escalator? There's no trees on escalators!
Heeven, I'm with ya. I can't downhill ski either. I used to be able to manage a little, but now I've lost my nerve. I can cross-country ski, sort of, as long as no big hills are involved.
No, but sometimes a little kid starts walking up at you and you have to move around it, even though you're not going anywhere.
Don't feel so bad, dear Gautam. I am hopeless at anything athletic. Always have been. It is embarrassing.
I, too, have had dozens of swimming lessons, but I can't seem to master the sideways breathing that swimming requires. I always get a mouthful of water. At least I float well...I rely on that to keep me from drowning. Being able to float easily makes me a good snorkeler, and I love that. So relaxing.
There are lots of other things that I AM good at, however, and a few that I am VERY good at, so I've learned not to let my shortcomings bother me. Remember: Nobody can be good at everything.
Gautam - it's not too late. mrs. hamburger didn't really learn to swim til she was in her late 50's. She used a kickboard a lot at the beginning. Now she and hamburger swim for about an hour every morning.
I've always loved to be in the water more than just about anything, but I didn't become a properly good swimmer until I was in my late 20's. Before that I was mostly a floater and a jumper-arounder in the lake/ocean.
Gautam, try wearing a pair of goggles or a snorkling mask to get over the fear of putting your face in the water.
I swam on clubs as a teen, diving team, lifeguard ect. Two traumatic things happened and I developed a huge fear of open water - rivers, lakes and the ocean alike. One was Jaws - damn Steven Speilburg, the second was a horrible diving accident off a bridge, I had to swim after the 'now' dead guy and drag him in before he was washed out to sea.
Anywhoo, I couldn't put my face underwater for the fear of the unknown. Now I can see whats underneath. I still won't venture out very far but I can swim again.
Do they sell water noodles in england? 5' poles of polystyrene, they come in a variety of colours and shapes. These are wonderful for tucking around different body parts and floating.
grew up right next to the water (the elbe river/germany). always loved to be in and on the water - but didn't learn how to swim until i was 55. i'm still not a good swimmer and won't go into really deep water; but i manage to swim a few lenghts at a time without drowning (at least not so far!). i DO NOT like to put my face underwater; i always swim with my head sticking up! i like to see what's going on around me and chat now and then with the other swimmers. i did not take any lessons; i just started to get into the pool regurlarly every morning and now it's become routine AND FUN ! hbg.
I used to volunteer as a lifeguard at the ymca when I was 13-14, i believe it's in your attitude gautam. If you believe the word "can't" then you will fail just as if you believe you are a loser "just an example" you will become a loser. your never too old to learn anything.
This seems to be a thread directed to me myself.
I visited the ocean with my parents at Jones Beach on Long Island? when I was eight, and probably got wet up to my chin. And... apparently there were jellyfish about, I almost remember one nearby, and that was that. Sand in the green bathing suit, etc.
When I was about eleven I took ten lessons at the Northwestern University pool one summer, and learned to dogpaddle, perhaps float a bit, and dive. Sadly, when I surfaced, I merely shook my feet, which did no good at all, and I barely made it to the side.
When I was about fourteen, I took swimming as a class at my, yes, small catholic girls high school, really very small, as was the pool, and I revisited how to blow bubbles and dog paddle across a few feet.
And that was about it. I lived in so. California, home of great pools. I avoided being at the deep end at parties.
After I married and years after I got into jogging - I think I was 38 - I signed up for swimming at the Y, and a couple of classes of time later, so did my husband.
I FINALLY learned how to breathe doing the crawl stroke.
I managed to do a length, and then two. And then four, and so on.
I could do the backstroke. Looked like some flibbertygibbet trying to do what many people do easily, the side stroke. HOW TO DROWN OSSO - THE SIDE STROKE.
At the Y, somewhere after class 1 or 2, we had to dive off the medium board. I about died. I cried. She wouldn't let me off. I had to go back and dive off. I did it. I lived. Actually, I liked it.
A few class sequences later, my husband was interested too, and we went together to the Y on three nights a week.. He got up to a mile fairly easily, and even I eventually could do a mile, I think that was 72 laps, though I was slow. Slow is a problematic situation, as people tend to overtake you in the lane, both disconcerting and annoying, as you are to them. On the other hand, there are all these galumphers, who wave the whole pool when they move. whapping yourself as they zoom passed. Hisssssss. One gets to know people and their behaviors and you work stuff out.
So, I could do a mile some time ago, though slowly. I loved it, actually. The breathing thing works out, you just need to relax. I think the ideal would be to swim at something like one thirty in the afternoon on Wednesdays... when not many other people are in the pool, and to get used to being under water as part of the breathing routine. No need to gasp, it is just an adjustment of breathing pattern.
I have no pool around me at all now, and never did learn to swim in the ocean. I do know a neat motel, the Discovery Inn in Ukiah, which has two big pools, one Olympic size, and I stop there when I can, but at this point I am flailing to get to the other end of the first lap. But now I know it isn't thaaaaat far away to move past that into lap ten, and so on.
Swimming laps is wonderful, or so I say in memory.
Hmmm - looks like I should give it another shot.....
What I've always liked about swimming is that it's hard to worry when you're swimming. Or at least I can't worry when I'm swimming. I'm too busy counting. I get into a bit of a zone.
1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3
I went swimming while we were on the road to Madison - did 45 minutes of non-stop laps. Apparently, I can still do it.
it's also great cardio for anyone with joint problems .
i find my joints won't stay lit in the pool. good exercise nonetheless.
lmao keep your head up
.........wait we aint goin there
Good evening..,.y'all are pretty witty. I never sank, like Guatam, while attempting to swim. But I did seem to swallow a lot of water. So I was inclined to sit at the edge of the pond (we didn't have pools).
Joints? I assume your are speaking of the therapeutic effects of swimming. Right? Not about the things that skinny-dippers (did I mention that?) smoked. Not me of course.. Everyone seemed to laugh a lot. We laughed a lot.
I could never make bubble gum work. A few guys would lounge around the corner, with our baseball hats on backwards, fantasizing. as 18-year old guys are wont to do, about the young ladies walking by.
My friends could make these pink bubbles come out of their mouths. I couldn't and I was envious.
Sorry for the long post. I did want to ask this question. Do your children or grandchildren know how wild and crazy you were in your youth?
Thank you.....realjohnboy
No, actually. Neither did my husband.
Heh.
Not yet. We've discussed this. I'm for full disclosure, when she's a bit older, to be sure, but to answer truthfully whatever she asks. E.G. grimaces and scuffs the ground and says "
Must I?" We'll see.
I can't do the cat call whistle, you know the one with two fingers in your mouth. Try as I might and I had plenty of lessons, I cannot do it.
Ceili
Thank goddess there is someone besides me that cannot swim not matter what. I sink like dead weight. After many years of lesson I have given up.
As I do like the water I still venture in but not often as I only like the ocean and there is none in this part of Tejas.
