In late October 2008 I was coaching at Hampton pool one afternoon and a lady questioned as to whether I gave lessons. I replied yes and the next thing I knew was that I had a lesson waiting for me at 6 o’clock on a Monday evening after I had finished my regular slot. It turned out to be a man called David. He was a complete terrified non- swimmer of shall we say late middle age, not good omens for my success rate credentials.
I never asked him how he’d managed to avoid learning to swim all his life. I never asked him why he wanted to learn to swim. These are all irrelevant questions as usually older late in life begginers don’t last more than a few lessons, their percieved desire melting quickly with the realisation that it’s tough. David was shaking the first several lessons, I thought he was cold, it was fear. I told him the truth, two years. Two years is how long it will take you to be a comfortable swimmer, if your lucky, if you stick it out. For me the first few weeks were frustrating, I realised Breaststroke was going to be the best path in his development. All I knew of him was his first name, he’d told me his last name but I’d forgotten it, so he was ” David David” in my mobile.
Christmas 2008 came & went and still he persevered, his trembling subsided with the warmth of the approaching Spring. I hadn’t realised how strong his fear was, nor his wish to overcome it. Unbeknown to me he became a regular at the pool practising about three times a week, but never going past where he could stand up. A thirty five metre pool is a daunting task for a non swimmer, although to his credit he was physically in very good shape for a man of his age, lean as a whippet, non smoker, so we had a chance. All through that summer he had his weekly lesson, hardly ever missing but still I couldn’t get him to take the daunting step of swimming past the safety stand up zone. I constantly wrestled with the psychology of this challenge. One day I swam along side him. He couldn’t go from the shallow to the deep, but we made a breakthrough….. he went from the deep to the shallow. This had taken about nine months, so our two years looked even further off.
The year was up in the October of 2009 and still we hadn’t cracked swimming lengths even though his confidence had grown. When I was with him he would swim lengths, not many put together admittidely but he was getting there. The Autumn came and he was still persisting, he was so determined. People who work at the pool have seen his progress, dilligently doing his three swims a week come rain or shine. Were now in February 2010. Three weeks ago I got in the water with him, we swam thirty lengths, not in one go of course, broken down into ones & twos plus a four length stint. Fantastic were nearly there. Last week I got in again. I had told him were going to do a four length warm up and then he’s going to swim up the deep end on his own. I don’t know what came over me but on the very first length I slowed down and hung back. David hadn’t realised and carried on merrily swimming into the fear zone, on reaching the other end he turned around and there was I waving at him from the shallows, he’d cracked it! He swam back equally as confidantly as though he didn’t care if I was there or not. We swam a mixture of breaststroke and front crawl, again over thirty lengths. He almost made it down the whole length on front crawl. Now I feel he’s going to be able to become a swimmer.
Nobody who has swum from an early age could begin to understand the magnitude of his personal achievement, I even gave him a 100 metres badge. He was so proud he sewed it onto his baggy trunks! He was given a new pair of swimming trunks for Christmas in 2009 so he now looks the business. Only he & I know the lifechanging test of character he has put himself through, it’s a fantastic achievement. I try to let him visualise how his summer holidays will change from now on. At last I now feel I can make real progress with his development. I now call him David The Swimmer.
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