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How I Learned to Swim

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Submitted By grexicano
Words 488
Pages 2
Learning how to swim: a real challenge

Learning something new can be a very unnerving experience. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was learn how to swim. I have always been afraid of the water but I believe that swimming is a very important skill for one to develop either for essential or fun reasons. What ever the reason is, swimming is a good exercise and promotes discipline. What I didn’t realize was that learning how to swim would help me become more self-confident.

Luckily, my swimming lessons were not a painful experience because my instructor was a person that I already knew: my girlfriend. She used to be a swimming instructor and I was present in a couple of sessions in the past with previous students she had. Therefore, I knew how she worked. Her smile and patience were motivating enough for any shy student that wished to learn how to swim.

The first emotion I would have expected to feel was embarrassment for being a rookie in something that my own girlfriend was already an expert. However, this didn’t happen at all. In fact, I felt so excited because I was going to experience something new with a person I already knew. That means that I saw the bright side of things. Nevertheless, my biggest concern was that I had to face my biggest fear: the water.

Floating was the very first thing I learned to do. She had me put on water wings on each arm until I was able to float. So half of my fear was gone as soon as I felt I was floating. I managed that in a couple of hours. The next step was to take the water wings off and use a kickboard in order to learn how to kick for the breaststroke. This was a less easy task, so I learned how to kick within two days.

Things turned more complicated when she taught me the arm strokes. It was more difficult for me because I had to concentrate on two things, my limbs. I

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