there are somethings in life i never did it so far and i thought i will never do it ... i was so much so sure about that but the more your resolve is, the more you get pushed to do things that you never did before and never want to do ... there is always someone out there to prove you wrong ... yesterday it was one of those days ...
Yesterday it was for the first time in my life I went inside a swimming pool with my daughter, i had been there earlier as well, motivating her, giving her mental support and was watching her learn swim, from a safe distance through glass sitting in a restaurant watching while having a sip of cup of tea was quite a happy moment to see her doing thing that you never did it and more happy that i don't have to take up that hard task ... yesterday it was a bit different, i had to actually go inside the pool, scary ....uhhhhhhh
i was actually pretty nervous when we decided to go on a swimming lesson...she was behind me to take her to the pool and i was avoiding it for a long time ... not knowing what to do and not knowing swimming and getting inside a pool was a very scary thought ... but nevertheless wanted to give it a try ... she was very excited to realise that we have plans to take her to the pool and looking at her excitement i could not back out and and when she realised i'm getting scared with the thought, she scared me all the more saying i need to also jump into the pool and put my face inside water holding my breath, she wanted me to do all the things she was scared to do but again like her teacher she was a bit motivating too when she said
" look don't be too scared, I can be your teacher and you can hold my finger and I will help you learn ... "
last thing you want to do is disappoint a kid ... we packed our belongings and we left for our swimming lesson. i bought myself a swimming short on the spot, i never had one as i never ever attempted it in my whole life. We then bought ourselves two tickets ... i requested my wife to check if they have any coach so that i can still escape at the last moment... and unfortunately it was holiday and no coach was available and they told us lessons are only available during week days... and my daughter was insisting that I should accompany her ... there we got our two tickets in our hand and we were walking towards the gate...gate to the world of unknowns
i was following my daughter and i just did not know how and what to do next ... we left our valuable belongings with my wife who decided to watch the fun from distance from a restaurant (it was her time, lucky her :-)...as we were about to swipe our cards, i asked my daughter do you know if I can come along with you and she said yes affirmatively ...
"look there you see lots of men and boys in the pool so just follow me i know where i have to go and what we need to do, I come here every week with my school mates and this is where we enter , just swipe my card, i go first and then you follow me"
I said "ok, i just follow, i have really no idea what i shoud be doing really", and as we entered the room, it was very obvious that we ... rather i was in wrong place ... there were lots of girls/women changing ... look Shona i'm sure we are in a wrong place and now that we bought and used our tickets and i dont want to go back and buy another set so lets pray and wait for sometime and i'm sure some one will find us and escort us to right place but for now lets find a place where we can just hide and find a place for two of us to change the clothes ... you find a place and while i just follow you, i mean really blindly this time ... i'm not really watching around ... find a place quickly ... we found a corner where we were about to settle down ...
i heard some female approaching us talking to us in french, i realised i was caught ...
"look i'm sorry, i just don't know where i'm", I started talking even before she started asking me
there are lots of advantages of not knowing a language and this is one of those ... not knowing a language can rescue in such cases... i did not understand a thing she said to feel bad .. while she was talking to me in french i was telling her in english,
"i'm sorry, i just followed my daughter who wants to learn swimming and here i'm ....and you know i did not want to come but she was insisting ... "
she was pretty cool , she realised i dont speak french ... so she started speaking in broken english ... "how old is she"
... i said " she is 5",
"here it is allowed from 8yrs with men, up to 5 yrs you have to go to men's changing place that's the on the other side as you enter the passage ... come with me let me take you there .... "
thanks so much .." i was relieved that she is really kind and helping ... she dropped us in the right place ... we did not really need to buy another set of tickets .... my daughter then guided me on what we should be doing , where to leave our belonging, where to hang our clothes, where to take shower and as she said now follow me and as we washed our legs and we saw 4 pools ,... one was very small I could make it out that its for enfant and another one was for kids ... i did not even want to look further "Shona, this one for kids is pretty cool and lets get in here"
as we enter the pool i was relieved to see that water was not very deep and there is really nothing to worry and i will not get drowned in this one for sure ...
"ok now that we are here, what should i do next ..", i asked my daughter
"now listen to me i like to practise swimming on my back ... you have to hold my head and move backwards while i move my legs and try to float "
... i said ok , "let me try ...."
after she shouted a few times i think i could get it right ... without knowing "abc" of swimming here i became a coach ... that's like a dramatic turnaround in my fortunes .... i'm sure kids around me must be wanting to learn from me as well ... and especially on weekends when there is hardly any such service available in switzerland ... if i get serious, i can start a decent side business as its about CHF 100 per hour and i can make decent living here ... Thank you Shona, for teaching me how to teach swimming ... next time if someone comes and requests me for a few lessons, i would not be surprised :-)
If you were to watch the video first, everyone would think i know it swimming very well and i'm kind of a coach but then truth is all i know, i was just walking in the water, doing things that my daughter told me to do ... never come to conclusion while looking at things, make sure you understand the context behind it :-)
------ Leaving this aside, note that i'm a good coach, please let me know if you want to learn swimming :-)
Yesterday it was for the first time in my life I went inside a swimming pool with my daughter, i had been there earlier as well, motivating her, giving her mental support and was watching her learn swim, from a safe distance through glass sitting in a restaurant watching while having a sip of cup of tea was quite a happy moment to see her doing thing that you never did it and more happy that i don't have to take up that hard task ... yesterday it was a bit different, i had to actually go inside the pool, scary ....uhhhhhhh
i was actually pretty nervous when we decided to go on a swimming lesson...she was behind me to take her to the pool and i was avoiding it for a long time ... not knowing what to do and not knowing swimming and getting inside a pool was a very scary thought ... but nevertheless wanted to give it a try ... she was very excited to realise that we have plans to take her to the pool and looking at her excitement i could not back out and and when she realised i'm getting scared with the thought, she scared me all the more saying i need to also jump into the pool and put my face inside water holding my breath, she wanted me to do all the things she was scared to do but again like her teacher she was a bit motivating too when she said
" look don't be too scared, I can be your teacher and you can hold my finger and I will help you learn ... "
last thing you want to do is disappoint a kid ... we packed our belongings and we left for our swimming lesson. i bought myself a swimming short on the spot, i never had one as i never ever attempted it in my whole life. We then bought ourselves two tickets ... i requested my wife to check if they have any coach so that i can still escape at the last moment... and unfortunately it was holiday and no coach was available and they told us lessons are only available during week days... and my daughter was insisting that I should accompany her ... there we got our two tickets in our hand and we were walking towards the gate...gate to the world of unknowns
i was following my daughter and i just did not know how and what to do next ... we left our valuable belongings with my wife who decided to watch the fun from distance from a restaurant (it was her time, lucky her :-)...as we were about to swipe our cards, i asked my daughter do you know if I can come along with you and she said yes affirmatively ...
"look there you see lots of men and boys in the pool so just follow me i know where i have to go and what we need to do, I come here every week with my school mates and this is where we enter , just swipe my card, i go first and then you follow me"
I said "ok, i just follow, i have really no idea what i shoud be doing really", and as we entered the room, it was very obvious that we ... rather i was in wrong place ... there were lots of girls/women changing ... look Shona i'm sure we are in a wrong place and now that we bought and used our tickets and i dont want to go back and buy another set so lets pray and wait for sometime and i'm sure some one will find us and escort us to right place but for now lets find a place where we can just hide and find a place for two of us to change the clothes ... you find a place and while i just follow you, i mean really blindly this time ... i'm not really watching around ... find a place quickly ... we found a corner where we were about to settle down ...
i heard some female approaching us talking to us in french, i realised i was caught ...
"look i'm sorry, i just don't know where i'm", I started talking even before she started asking me
there are lots of advantages of not knowing a language and this is one of those ... not knowing a language can rescue in such cases... i did not understand a thing she said to feel bad .. while she was talking to me in french i was telling her in english,
"i'm sorry, i just followed my daughter who wants to learn swimming and here i'm ....and you know i did not want to come but she was insisting ... "
she was pretty cool , she realised i dont speak french ... so she started speaking in broken english ... "how old is she"
... i said " she is 5",
"here it is allowed from 8yrs with men, up to 5 yrs you have to go to men's changing place that's the on the other side as you enter the passage ... come with me let me take you there .... "
thanks so much .." i was relieved that she is really kind and helping ... she dropped us in the right place ... we did not really need to buy another set of tickets .... my daughter then guided me on what we should be doing , where to leave our belonging, where to hang our clothes, where to take shower and as she said now follow me and as we washed our legs and we saw 4 pools ,... one was very small I could make it out that its for enfant and another one was for kids ... i did not even want to look further "Shona, this one for kids is pretty cool and lets get in here"
as we enter the pool i was relieved to see that water was not very deep and there is really nothing to worry and i will not get drowned in this one for sure ...
"ok now that we are here, what should i do next ..", i asked my daughter
"now listen to me i like to practise swimming on my back ... you have to hold my head and move backwards while i move my legs and try to float "
... i said ok , "let me try ...."
after she shouted a few times i think i could get it right ... without knowing "abc" of swimming here i became a coach ... that's like a dramatic turnaround in my fortunes .... i'm sure kids around me must be wanting to learn from me as well ... and especially on weekends when there is hardly any such service available in switzerland ... if i get serious, i can start a decent side business as its about CHF 100 per hour and i can make decent living here ... Thank you Shona, for teaching me how to teach swimming ... next time if someone comes and requests me for a few lessons, i would not be surprised :-)
If you were to watch the video first, everyone would think i know it swimming very well and i'm kind of a coach but then truth is all i know, i was just walking in the water, doing things that my daughter told me to do ... never come to conclusion while looking at things, make sure you understand the context behind it :-)
------ Leaving this aside, note that i'm a good coach, please let me know if you want to learn swimming :-)
