Prathima's Miles & Milestones

Swimming did not come naturally to me, to be honest. While pursuing Gymnastics and professional contemporary & ballet getting injured was quite common in spite of crossfit & strength training. My body felt overtrained & it did drain a lot of energy out of me & one rest day in a week did not really suffice for the efforts I put in during training, though my nutrition & calorie intake was being taken care of.

At this moment, a colleague of mine suggested attempting swimming as I used to walk in the PoP casts to the office as my leaves were exhausted only for my physical injuries & sprains.

Since I had a slightly higher eye power, I was skeptical & under-confident as the bottom of the pool was not clearly visible to me. Another close friend of mine had similar eye power to mine & suggested opt-in for powered swim goggles from Amazon. I was amazed that such things even existed! That was a big game changer for me. I started loving my swimming classes yet I used to panic as the floor started getting a little away from me.

Luckily my colleague & I enrolled in the beginner classes together. We watched a lot of Mouna & Finding Nemo kinds of movies to tackle our minds first before the body. We also made post-it notes & stuck them to the walls both at home & in the office such that we subconsciously read them. This really worked & the entire team kept asking about our learnings post standup & so in a way we narrated the progress & felt accountability partners in them.

There were times when I popped paracetamol just before jumping into the waters as I constantly felt feverish. But I did not give up. The swim coach at Grand Mercure, Koramangala was a luxurious 25 meters pool that we did not want to miss a single class be it rain or sunshine. Every day there were new lessons starting with bubble breathing, touching the floor & coming back and experiencing the water buoyancy, mushroom float, breathing patterns, breathing on the dominant side, back float, doggy pedal, mushroom float, and various drills using the kickboard leading to confident freestyle swimming in laps. We did have a lot of fun with the team & finally graduated with an exam. Names were called out on the last day and we had to perform various strokes in the pool. Marks were allotted behind our completion certificate. Those who passed were moved to intermediate & the rest had to take up beginners again to fine-tune our techniques.

I eventually graduated & moved to a 50 meters Olympic pool — Kensington Pool at Ulsoor. From the first view of it itself, I was head over heels in love with it. It looked like an infinite pool merging with the Ulsoor lake 🙂 Practicing there every day felt like visiting a resort. Also, on certain days Nisha Millet herself visited the venue & checked our progress. The interactions with an Olympic Swimmer regularly motivated us & she answered my silly questions. She is so down to earth & such an inspiration.

I learned many more drills & fine-tuned the strokes & even attempted diving from a 3-feet dive board into the deep end of 16 feet. Initially, it was overwhelming. I felt that there was another Universe every time I looked below. My brain could not digest the fact that I’m watching a 16-feet depth.

There were water relays for 25 meters & gradually gained full-length privileges. I got so used to the ladder that the middle lanes caused panic. That’s when my coach suggested training in different pools whenever I get a chance to overcome the mental block. Even the evening sessions as it was a different ball game, & then gradually open waters.

As I made friends there, each one I knew came for various reasons — Oceanman, Duathlons, Swimathons, Triathlons, State levels, Inter-college competitive swimming & so on. I was the only one who came in to learn a new skill. I was mesmerized & that night I googled what all these actually meant & felt intimidating. I was already into dance and running (as cross training & unlearn the muscle memory from chores) & hence was open to exploring more areas of fitness. The best part of being in various forms of fitness is that we meet the same & like-minded people everywhere you go.

As I became consistent visiting the pool, laps felt much easier. Yes, I was tanned badly. Yet the love of waters did not stop me. Invested in various swimming aids to improve like — fins, a snorkel, a pool buoy, hand paddles, and a smartwatch to track my progress. Though all coaches go the traditional way of a stopwatch for timing & shout “All smartwatches go into the Amazon Dabba in the corner” for the right reasons as we get obsessed with numbers & over-analysis of the data rather than concentrating on the technique.

I’m now counting the days for the command from my Coach that I’m NOW ready to conquer the open waters.

I hope this article inspires someone out there to conquer their fear or love for the waters. Swimming is an important life skill to master. It’s a resistance training & cardio which engages all your senses.

Let me know your story, I’m all ears.

Wish me luck to swim among the jellyfish & the sting rays without panicking!