Learning to Swim
My decision to learn how to swim had nothing to do with the fact that the earth is more than two-thirds water. The point is had my dad, in his wisdom, not lifted me out of the water when I tried to swim to shore after climbing off a tyre tube when I was no more than a lad of 4 years old, you would not be reading this post, and I would be pushing up the daisies. It is this which drove my desire to teach myself how to swim.
I decided the best approach was to go to a pool observe and then in the safety of the shallow end of the pool I would attempt to teach myself to swim. Since this was the late sixties, 1960's for those who are not in the know, the one thing that was difficult to come by was a swimming pool. They were as scarce as hen's teeth.
A private swimming pool in an Indian area was unheard off, and a public pool was not very high on the list of priorities of the municipal authorities, and I would be surprised if it did make it to the list in the first place considering that the roads were not tarred and there were no public parks.
This left me with a dilemma! Where would I find a sufficiently safe body of water where I could begin the journey of teaching myself to swim. The answer presented itself at bath time. Being the only child meant that I bathed alone, no sharing the tub with any siblings for me, and I could fill the bath with enough water that would allow me to begin my training. After I filled the bathtub and adding the required bath oils, which would let my body slice through the water, and the more important bubble bath, so that the suds would be able to cleanse my body, I proceeded with my training.
I soon realised that while the bathtub was the perfect place to train it had a serious disadvantage, it was small. A single paddle crawl was sufficient to propel me from one end of the bathtub to the other end with no room to even contemplate a second stroke. As with all things life you have to make the most of what you have. This is probably the first unrecorded case of virtual reality as I proceeded to visualise a big pool and, being careful not to execute a real paddle crawl, began to swim lengths across my imaginary swimming pool that would have been the envy of any Olympic gold medalist.
It was many years later that they finally, to my great surprise, built a public pool in our area. That year while vacationing at my gran, I made my way to the public pools. I had been practising for a long time, and it was time to reap what I had sown.
It was beautiful just as I imagined it, crystal clear blue water, white-walled sides and a paved area around the pool. There were lockers, showers and change rooms. I was excited. I changed into my Superman swimming trunks and with great anticipation proceeded to the edge of the swimming pool and jumped in with a big splash.
I discovered then what it must have been like to jump into the arctic ocean clad in nothing more than a Superman swimming trunk. My body went into immediate shock, and I involuntary stood straight up as my body tried to minimise the surface area that was in contact with the cold water. Goosebumps covered every inch of my body. My teeth would not stop chattering as my mouth feebly tried to generate the heat that had been sapped so suddenly from my body. I slowly walked towards the stairway and got out of the pool, got dressed and left. This was this defining moment that laid the way for my continued virtual training.
It was many years later, in my teens when I dared venture to a swimming pool with only my Superman swimming trunks for protection to continue my training in the real world.
I decided the best approach was to go to a pool observe and then in the safety of the shallow end of the pool I would attempt to teach myself to swim. Since this was the late sixties, 1960's for those who are not in the know, the one thing that was difficult to come by was a swimming pool. They were as scarce as hen's teeth.
A private swimming pool in an Indian area was unheard off, and a public pool was not very high on the list of priorities of the municipal authorities, and I would be surprised if it did make it to the list in the first place considering that the roads were not tarred and there were no public parks.
This left me with a dilemma! Where would I find a sufficiently safe body of water where I could begin the journey of teaching myself to swim. The answer presented itself at bath time. Being the only child meant that I bathed alone, no sharing the tub with any siblings for me, and I could fill the bath with enough water that would allow me to begin my training. After I filled the bathtub and adding the required bath oils, which would let my body slice through the water, and the more important bubble bath, so that the suds would be able to cleanse my body, I proceeded with my training.
I soon realised that while the bathtub was the perfect place to train it had a serious disadvantage, it was small. A single paddle crawl was sufficient to propel me from one end of the bathtub to the other end with no room to even contemplate a second stroke. As with all things life you have to make the most of what you have. This is probably the first unrecorded case of virtual reality as I proceeded to visualise a big pool and, being careful not to execute a real paddle crawl, began to swim lengths across my imaginary swimming pool that would have been the envy of any Olympic gold medalist.
It was many years later that they finally, to my great surprise, built a public pool in our area. That year while vacationing at my gran, I made my way to the public pools. I had been practising for a long time, and it was time to reap what I had sown.
It was beautiful just as I imagined it, crystal clear blue water, white-walled sides and a paved area around the pool. There were lockers, showers and change rooms. I was excited. I changed into my Superman swimming trunks and with great anticipation proceeded to the edge of the swimming pool and jumped in with a big splash.
I discovered then what it must have been like to jump into the arctic ocean clad in nothing more than a Superman swimming trunk. My body went into immediate shock, and I involuntary stood straight up as my body tried to minimise the surface area that was in contact with the cold water. Goosebumps covered every inch of my body. My teeth would not stop chattering as my mouth feebly tried to generate the heat that had been sapped so suddenly from my body. I slowly walked towards the stairway and got out of the pool, got dressed and left. This was this defining moment that laid the way for my continued virtual training.
It was many years later, in my teens when I dared venture to a swimming pool with only my Superman swimming trunks for protection to continue my training in the real world.
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