Hi, guys, I'm 20 years old and I've decided to take up some swimming classes for my next quarter. I have been out of athletics for a very long time (for seven years). I haven't done any consistent exercise since my sophomore year HS PE class, and that was almost five years ago. On top of that, I am a writer with all the usual cliché ambitions so I spend a lotta time on my ass. I was looking at some writers' bios recently and you know what I noticed? Very many of them have short lifespans! Haha... oh no. So I realized very quickly I needed to develop a "core exercise" for myself. Since it's a bit late to do anything that's a team sport, it obviously has to be individual. I hate running. Lifting is a bore. Golf is... not ideal. Actually, to be honest, the decision was rather quick. I chose swimming. Now this is very odd for one reason... I'm hearing impaired. How will I hear the instructor/coach? Believe it or not, I actually hear better, much better, when I'm in the water. Go figure. Obviously, not as good as when I'm out of the water with my hearing aids in, but there's something about being in a pool or a body of water that just helps me hear better. For example, I did some laps recently. When I checked in with the lifeguards, I had to ask them to repeat themselves. Then I got in a lane and struck up a conversation with a very buoyant, soft-spoken fellow next to me and not once did I say, "What?"
Maybe the soundwaves bounce against the water and, naturally, my head is in the thick of it?
But I digress...
I'm going to swim. Thankfully, I already know how. I'm sure many of the technique junkies are ready to contend this! I took swim lessons when I was a wee lad, loved it all except the springboard. Then I jumped and I loved that too. I can't dive, though... I do the, what is it, the bunny hop? My legs bend when I go into the water. Anyway, hahah, once I remember arguing with a swim instructor at a Water Babies school (and he was an Olympian) about the word "freestyle"... it was my first argument over semantics. He tells me to do some freestyle and then I start swimming backstroke (my favorite back then). I figure, "free... style", right? So I do whatever I want! How did they start calling it "freestyle" anyway?
So my swimming never really got anywhere but then along comes eighth grade and I'm figuring out what I want to do with high school. I let the family know I'm interested in swimming or water polo... something water related, you know? My brothers absolutely hated the idea. They tried to get me interested in football and wrestling, even started teaching me moves... well, of course, I hated that idea. My goal the entire time had been to distinguish myself from the rest of the family, you know? Well that did go somewhere... I ended up joining nothing at all. Not good. But on the flip side, I did write more than I would've, and that's always good.
So for most of high school and the beginning of college, I was extremely inactive. I also gorged myself on sodas and candy. Plus, I all but eliminated breakfast from my diet. I wonder if I stunted myself at all. I know for a fact I measured 6'2 without shoes in my sophomore year and then about a year ago my dad measured me and I was 6'0... oh dear God. At least I put on weight well. In senior year when the homeroom teacher asked us all for our weight, and I said 234, everyone in the classroom was audibly disbelieving. But the scale does not lie.
Now that I'm getting back into things, I've been on a diet. Quite pleased with my results so far. After losing about seven pounds last summer for my brother's wedding, I lost about another four pounds until the week of Thanksgiving last month when I eliminated soda and candy. That hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. I've gone from 223 to 208 where I am now. I also measure 6'1.5 now. Naturally I've been curious about some of my bodily dimensions... I'm quite pleased to have a 6'6 armspan. I wish I had larger feet though (size 12). I don't think there's much I can do about that.
Sorry if this is all very long-winded or totally tl; dr!
I like this forum a lot. I've been lurking here for about a week and looking at threads old and new. It's awesome that you all capitalize the beginning of your sentences and end them with periods.... unlike some other places I could name.
So now... whose bums do I have to kiss? :bow:
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Former Member
lainey, yeah, we got the whole hearing (or lack of it) thing squared away. The funny thing is, it actually gets me more attention than I would if I were a hearing person. At least enough to compensate, anyway. :)
As for waterproof cases, etc... hmm, I don't know, but I doubt it. I am seeing my audiologist soon. I will ask him about it. There's actually a new hearing aid called Lyrica that's worn deep in the ear canal and you don't take out for like eight months at a time... doesn't come out for showers, pool, nothing. Those are a small fortune, though, I bet.
q, I want to work on all the strokes! I'm a renaissance man. My levels of competency: 1.) free, 2.) back, 3.) ***, and way far down... 4.) fly. I'm thinking I should do a lot of butterfly all the time so everything else is way easy by default. At the end of two laps of that stroke, I am the RMS Titanic. :drown:
Thanks for the advice! I'm actually quite good at the whole "head in neutral" thing... I think that has something to do with a built-in tolerance for looking at monotonous, bland things all day (like blank white pages). I didn't literally mean the bubbles were getting in my face, but they were still huge bubbles, you know? I'm trying to get, you know, lots of tiny streamlined bubbles when I exhale.... I probably just have to go faster... :sad:
slom, aren't you afraid you're gonna crack your head open? That's my primary fear with flipturns right now.
For the first time today, I think I went reasonably fast. It was during the "2 easy 1 fast 1 easy 2 fast repeat" drill... of course, like an idiot, I never looked at the clocks to time myself. Meh, I was probably going slow. But it felt fast!
Confession: I still don't know how to dive.
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Former Member
lainey, yeah, we got the whole hearing (or lack of it) thing squared away. The funny thing is, it actually gets me more attention than I would if I were a hearing person. At least enough to compensate, anyway. :)
As for waterproof cases, etc... hmm, I don't know, but I doubt it. I am seeing my audiologist soon. I will ask him about it. There's actually a new hearing aid called Lyrica that's worn deep in the ear canal and you don't take out for like eight months at a time... doesn't come out for showers, pool, nothing. Those are a small fortune, though, I bet.
q, I want to work on all the strokes! I'm a renaissance man. My levels of competency: 1.) free, 2.) back, 3.) ***, and way far down... 4.) fly. I'm thinking I should do a lot of butterfly all the time so everything else is way easy by default. At the end of two laps of that stroke, I am the RMS Titanic. :drown:
Thanks for the advice! I'm actually quite good at the whole "head in neutral" thing... I think that has something to do with a built-in tolerance for looking at monotonous, bland things all day (like blank white pages). I didn't literally mean the bubbles were getting in my face, but they were still huge bubbles, you know? I'm trying to get, you know, lots of tiny streamlined bubbles when I exhale.... I probably just have to go faster... :sad:
slom, aren't you afraid you're gonna crack your head open? That's my primary fear with flipturns right now.
For the first time today, I think I went reasonably fast. It was during the "2 easy 1 fast 1 easy 2 fast repeat" drill... of course, like an idiot, I never looked at the clocks to time myself. Meh, I was probably going slow. But it felt fast!
Confession: I still don't know how to dive.
