Hey Blog! Today it’s all about a watery sport I do every week!
Swimming is an exercise, very enjoyable, useful training, and a key to higher sports such as sailing. It’s the oldest aquatic sport, though wasn’t considered a sport until very recently. Essential for all budding mariners, swimming is awesome!
What is swimming? Basically, swimming is moving through the water using your own body’s energy while in it. So doggy-paddle, front crawl, breast stroke, or any other style works – even if you’ve only just invented it! I started swimming in Barbados, which is an island in the Caribbean, so the beach is never very far away and the water is warmer – ideal conditions for wanting to swim! I apparently didn’t like putting my head under water when I first swam, but I was only three at the time.
After leaving Barbados, we lived in Ghana, west Africa, for a year, but we didn’t swim in the sea as, unlike Barbados, the sea was dirty. Swimming lessons did not continue very long, so the next time I was part of a proper swimming group was in Derbyshire, where I live now. I go to the Arc, Matlock, and am currently learning with the best teacher I have met there. If you go or have gone swimming, you’ll probably remember there are several stages in this country. I started in Swim England Stage Four, and am now in Stage Nine/Ten. This is partly because I was seven when I started here, and am now twelve, which both enhances my strength for kicking and pulling, and also means larger lungs, so I can go underwater for longer.
My favourite stroke is and was always breast stroke (the frog-kick stroke) but I have got far better in back crawl and front crawl. The latter was my least favourite stroke but is not anymore, partly because I tried out flippers (the best swimming invention EVER) and partly because I learnt butterfly (in my opinion the worst stroke ever). My bag (Details of making in post ‘The Great Bailey Sewing Bee’) shows how many awards I have done and shows my journey from shallow to deep water:
Though pool swimming is good to learn with, it’s not what I’m aiming at. Nor, probably, is the Olympics. More like going back to the Caribbean, where the journey started, and go and dive off my favourite catamaran – Cool Runnings*!
*Cool Runnings Barbados – I totaly recomend them if ever visiting the isle! Website https://www.coolrunningsbarbados.com/ .