Swimming

I’ve been going swimming a lot lately to improve my fitness and technique, and to also gain more confidence in the pool.  At school, I was never really a quick learner when it came to swimming.  I think the fear of the water was a barrier and impedance towards my progress at the time.  Swimming lessons stopped once I left primary school, as it wasn’t in the curriculum. In hindsight, I wish it was or I wish I continued taking lessons privately, as it’s a very good skill to have and I personally find it very enjoyable.

Between leaving primary school and starting flight school, I hadn’t been to the pool at all or given swimming much thought.  At flight school, I had the opportunity to jump in the pool (and be thrown in).  I remember getting in the pool for the first time – just the height of the water up to my chest made me feel uncomfortable.  I eventually got used to it.  I knew that I could swim, since I managed to swim the width of the pool, unaided at school, so I gave it a go and got back into it.  I didn’t progress much since I still feared the mighty deep end!

Recently, I’ve been visiting my local swimming pool often to gain more confidence and get over the fear of the deep end.  I’ve managed to swim the length of the swimming pool for the first time last week – which is a fantastic achievement for me!  I feel more confident and less anxious about the pool & ditching exercise I’ll be doing in the Ryanair induction week now.  I’m not only wanting to improve my skill at swimming for the pool exercise, but also because I enjoy swimming and have made it my personal goal to improve my technique and fitness.

It really is amazing what you can achieve once you have the motivation though.