I can breathe, finally!

This morning, I went to the pool to practice my breathing before my next swim class tomorrow. To my great fortune, one of the life guards came over to give me some one-on-one instruction. He started by telling me to stand in the water, lower myself while blowing bubbles out, then come up and inhale and repeat about 5-6 times. After that I did some drills of pushing off the edge of the pool, and gliding. Next, I used a board to hold on to, with my head up above the water, and practiced my kicks , moving my legs in a scissors-like fashion. As an extension of the previous drill, I then did the leg kicks, while I practiced my breathing with my head going directly down (counting to three), up to breathe and repeat. For the next drill, instead of breathing directly down, I turned my body to the side I wished to breathe on.

Once I had that down, the next step was to use another flotation device around my waist and put all the drills and techniques together. With my palms cupped, I pushed off the edge of the pool, reaching forward with my left hand and bringing the water to my side and back. As my right hand comes up, I turned my head to the right and inhale, then reach forward with my right hand, legs kicking along the way.

With that in practice, I was finally able to breathe! This is tremendous for me. I'm ready for my next swim class now.