The Test in Real Life Swimming

 Today was the first time I went into our condo pool where there were other people in the water.  It is significant because up to this point, I have been swimming in a rather controlled environment with a quiet pool and instructor or a quiet shallow pool with maximum 3 lanes (adults only).

Sitting on water noodle

Because of my new water confidence it was still a challenge to deal with little kids splashing all around me with toys and floating devices and kicks and screams.  Then there were the adults who were splashing around chit chatting.  It's a rather small pool to begin with so when all these bodies were there I found that I needed to strategize my swimming.  I couldn't go in a straight pathway to practice the freestyle.  I wasn't 100% confident yet to just tread water in between all these bodies.  So I ended up just grabbing a noodle or kick board and wove my way around them all.

Later, the crowd thinned out a bit so I headed for the deep end with a crawl and semi-crawl toward some noodles floating in the middle.  A lady was nearby on a floating mattress and she was teasing me and said that she noticed I was heading straight for the noodles and started to push them back out of my reach.  Of course she did not know I was a novice.  I played along and said "mommy, help me".  Everyone laughed and she pushed the noodles back toward me.  It could have been a disaster if the old fear programming kicked in but I played along and she might have recognized that I wasn't a strong swimmer (considering my goggles were on 100% of the time no matter what).

Hubby was nearby watching so I felt safe and later he joined me.  I'm just not quite there yet where I could be totally alone and know I have the skills to be safe by myself.

In all it was a wonderful day of swimming in our own pool at last. The water was very refreshing.  I'm working on the breast stroke but haven't got the coordination yet of lifting my head up for a breath.  Still dealing with the stroke-kick combo.  So next time I use the pool with bodies in it I think I'll be a little bit more confident because I know I can always float on my back.