I have always been someone who enjoys splashing about in the water but who can't really swim - I mean I can lift my feet off the bottom and thrash about a bit and make some sort of progress but it's not pretty to watch and because of that I've never been happy to go out of my depth either in the sea or in a pool.
Until that is I happened to mention this to one of our neighbours, Wolfgang. Turns out that he was a coach to the German Olympic Team many years ago and is currently writing a book that recommends a radically different approach to teaching people how to swim.
He absolutely loves taking on a challenge and he has taught a whole range of people using this technique, from very young children to 90+ year olds. To begin with I was a bit reticent about being his next challenge but three one hour lessons later I have to say that his tutoring has produced amazing results.
I can now swim a length of the pool using either breast-stroke or crawl and - now this is the most amazing bit because this has always been a "bete noire" for me - I can float and swim on my back!
We've only got another week at this site and I'm hoping to get in a couple more lessons before we go, but even if we don't I now feel confident to take what he has taught me and continue to develop and improve on my own.
He keeps telling me during the lessons that "the water is your friend" and I'm beginning to believe him and it might sound over the top to say this but I think for me this could be one of the most life-changing episodes of our trip away so far - so thanks Wolfgang,
Peter.
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