In your podcast, I had very similar experiences with swimming. I had blocked eustachian tubes which caused hearing and speech problems (plus associated socialising problems as a result) for basically whole childhood, and was as a result irritated by groupthink sports stuff. There was no way I could hear instructions properly in swimming pool! It didn't help that we lived far from the nearest swimming pool.
I loved the idea of swimming, but hated the actual system at school which was useless for me. Dad had been a good swimmer when young, but he had a serious shoulder joint injury which made swimming painful for him and only took me swimming once (but it was really helpful) and mum sent me on a week's summer holidays swimming course (an hour a day) which got me doing doggie paddle for a few metres, but that was all. I had no confidence at all swimming, which made me dodge swimming entirely (although it was something I wanted to do).
Later, in early 30s, I took up windsurfing in Fuerteventura simply for socializing purposes on holiday by myself (completed the German VDWS windsurf basic course), but I had to rely on the buoyancy of the short sleeved wetsuit to help give me confidence (fell in the water a lot even with the smallest kids size sail, due to weak arm muscles!). Then I started scuba diving in Ibiza, again for socializing purposes when travelling solo, which again is very safe with wetsuit, inflatable jacket, etc., and has nothing much to do with swimming fitness.
At 35, I finally invested in some personal swimming instruction lessons at a leisure centre in Essex, by an American born swimming instructor *who had been swimming every day in the great lake Michigan after winter ice cover broke in April!), and she got me treading water in deep end, diving, butterfly, backstroke, etc. However, practicising techniques was not enough to get me swimming in fast lane non-stop for a mile (64 x 25m lengths) like other regular swimmers!
I was able to get fit enough to run 6 miles in a hour within a few week s, but swimming fast was impossible for literally five years. I simply got out of breath plus arm muscle aches/tendon stress, after swimming fast for a few lengths of the pool and had to stop to recover for 5 minutes before doing any more.
In tne end, I stopped driving to the leisure centre and instead ran there (a mile) in the early morning (usually in waterproofs in the rain!), to get ligaments etc warmed up, and then did my swimming, then walked home. There are lots of problems that must all be overcome on the medical side of things. I had to take 75mg aspirin tablet and plenty of water before swimming to reduce blood viscosity and thus keep my pulse and blood pressure acceptable (while still delivering the oxygen needed to muscles), paracetamol for muscle pain, creatine and protein milkshake supplements (to build up arm muscles which were puny at the start), and eat a lot more carbohydrate than I did before to prevent excessive weight loss.
Eventually I did start to get fitter for non-stop fast swimming, but it was incredibly difficult in may ways, and not at all what I hoped for and expected. Like everything in life, no pain no gain. Couldn't swim during the covid thing, so now now back to square one, building up fitness again!
Thank you Sam! I wish I was a good writer! I'm dyslexic but can just about overcome that (some of the time) when writing, at the cost of losing focus on what I'm writing. In the old days, before word processors, I'd write on paper and then completely revise when typing on a slow manual typewriter, which would massively improve the stuff (while removing any personal originality in the process, so the result would look as "edited" as a paragraph taken from Encyclopedia Britannia). I remember a bit of advice given out by the technical editor of Electronics World thirty years ago (Frank Ogden, I think): "less is more!" The more editing, the less digressions and fluff for the reader to wade through before seeing the key facts. Unfortunately, if you're not very careful, you end up filtering all the revolutionary stuff out (for fear of melting some snowflakes and causing offense), and the result is like a speech from a politically correct politician! 100% fluff. ;-)
In your podcast, I had very similar experiences with swimming. I had blocked eustachian tubes which caused hearing and speech problems (plus associated socialising problems as a result) for basically whole childhood, and was as a result irritated by groupthink sports stuff. There was no way I could hear instructions properly in swimming pool! It didn't help that we lived far from the nearest swimming pool.
I loved the idea of swimming, but hated the actual system at school which was useless for me. Dad had been a good swimmer when young, but he had a serious shoulder joint injury which made swimming painful for him and only took me swimming once (but it was really helpful) and mum sent me on a week's summer holidays swimming course (an hour a day) which got me doing doggie paddle for a few metres, but that was all. I had no confidence at all swimming, which made me dodge swimming entirely (although it was something I wanted to do).
Later, in early 30s, I took up windsurfing in Fuerteventura simply for socializing purposes on holiday by myself (completed the German VDWS windsurf basic course), but I had to rely on the buoyancy of the short sleeved wetsuit to help give me confidence (fell in the water a lot even with the smallest kids size sail, due to weak arm muscles!). Then I started scuba diving in Ibiza, again for socializing purposes when travelling solo, which again is very safe with wetsuit, inflatable jacket, etc., and has nothing much to do with swimming fitness.
At 35, I finally invested in some personal swimming instruction lessons at a leisure centre in Essex, by an American born swimming instructor *who had been swimming every day in the great lake Michigan after winter ice cover broke in April!), and she got me treading water in deep end, diving, butterfly, backstroke, etc. However, practicising techniques was not enough to get me swimming in fast lane non-stop for a mile (64 x 25m lengths) like other regular swimmers!
I was able to get fit enough to run 6 miles in a hour within a few week s, but swimming fast was impossible for literally five years. I simply got out of breath plus arm muscle aches/tendon stress, after swimming fast for a few lengths of the pool and had to stop to recover for 5 minutes before doing any more.
In tne end, I stopped driving to the leisure centre and instead ran there (a mile) in the early morning (usually in waterproofs in the rain!), to get ligaments etc warmed up, and then did my swimming, then walked home. There are lots of problems that must all be overcome on the medical side of things. I had to take 75mg aspirin tablet and plenty of water before swimming to reduce blood viscosity and thus keep my pulse and blood pressure acceptable (while still delivering the oxygen needed to muscles), paracetamol for muscle pain, creatine and protein milkshake supplements (to build up arm muscles which were puny at the start), and eat a lot more carbohydrate than I did before to prevent excessive weight loss.
Eventually I did start to get fitter for non-stop fast swimming, but it was incredibly difficult in may ways, and not at all what I hoped for and expected. Like everything in life, no pain no gain. Couldn't swim during the covid thing, so now now back to square one, building up fitness again!
Hi Nige, thanks for sharing this. You’re a very good writer - I can see it all! Read Deborah Levy!
Thank you Sam! I wish I was a good writer! I'm dyslexic but can just about overcome that (some of the time) when writing, at the cost of losing focus on what I'm writing. In the old days, before word processors, I'd write on paper and then completely revise when typing on a slow manual typewriter, which would massively improve the stuff (while removing any personal originality in the process, so the result would look as "edited" as a paragraph taken from Encyclopedia Britannia). I remember a bit of advice given out by the technical editor of Electronics World thirty years ago (Frank Ogden, I think): "less is more!" The more editing, the less digressions and fluff for the reader to wade through before seeing the key facts. Unfortunately, if you're not very careful, you end up filtering all the revolutionary stuff out (for fear of melting some snowflakes and causing offense), and the result is like a speech from a politically correct politician! 100% fluff. ;-)