My second swim class

It's all happening at the pool on a Thursday evening. I thought it was all going to be easy, improving my breaststroke. But then Tamzin suggested I might like to learn backstroke, something that I have never tried. It started with just kicking my legs furiously, trying to get movement from the hip and teaching me to relax my ankles. The first two times were hopeless, including getting cramp in my foot and then my thigh. After being ordered to do some stretching poolside, the next time felt so much better. I was actually getting some propulsion out of the leg movement. So I then had to try with my arms, but was stopped immediately and told it was little finger first. A couple of tries and was advised to wait until next week to try again.

On to crawl, and I now know I really need to slow down the stroke. Actually, it did seem a lot better when I did. It was nearing the end of the session, and the other three in my group were off practising diving at the other end. Eventually I decided it was time I joined them. I cannot remember the last time I tried a dive, so I had to start off with sitting on the edge. This was fine until I lost a contact lens. So that was that. But if I can learn backstroke and diving by Christmas, I shall be delighted.