Linda Hall: Forever blowing bubbles

Linda Hall

I don't remember who taught me to swim but it must have been one of the teachers at Mayfair Primary School.

I've always considered myself to be not too bad at swimming.

I like swimming and as a kid, like thousands of other Kiwi kids, I did a lot of it, both at the beach and pools.

I remember swimming at the aquatic centre, and the pool at Windsor Park.

I was confident at breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke, although I could never - and still can't - go in a straight line when backstroking.

Anyway, as I have mentioned in previous columns, my goal is to do a triathlon before the end of the year, hopefully. I've done a couple of little duathlons in the past few months and have been biking, running and swimming whenever I can.

I decided to go along to the Clive Pool a few weeks ago and join in the Swim Fit class run by the lovely Paula.

So, in I got and started swimming a length. When I got to the end, Paula said: "You are holding your breath, aren't you?"

Well yes, I said, thinking to myself, 'Isn't that what you are supposed to do when your head's under water? I can't breathe under water.'

"You should be releasing your breath under water, blowing bubbles. And try not to take a breath every second stroke. If you release your breath under water you won't have to get a breath so often. Count one, two, three, four, breath, blow bubbles as you release your breath again."

My goodness. I don't know what I was doing when the teacher told us to blow bubbles. Probably talking to my friend or doing under water roley-poleys, holding my breath of course.

Have you ever tried to break a lifetime's habit? I can tell you this ... it's not easy.

So I tried and got half way down the length and started breathing every second stroke again and forgot to release my breath, then released it at the wrong time and got a mouthful of water.

I was all afloat, and I must admit a bit deflated.

Here I was thinking I was a slow but confident swimmer and all the time I was doing it all wrong. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Paula also gave me a few other tips about my swimming style and I'm determined to get it right.

I've been practising and even got up at 5.15 one morning to join the swimming group at the Flaxmere pools. I was a little late so was the last one in and I was also the last one out because I wanted to finish the drills.

I've also been back to Swim Fit which is on a Wednesday evening at 6pm at the Clive Pools.

I really enjoy these sessions - swimming length after length by yourself can be a lonely, tedious chore sometimes, but if you have someone organising what you do and changing things every week it's fun and an hour goes by in a flash.

I'm never going to be one of those gun swimmers you see at events that seem to be out of the water and running for their bikes before some people even get wet.

All I want to do is get to the finish of the swim leg with enough energy left to do the next bit.

So it's lots of bubble blowing for me in the next few months.

-Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.