5/100 - a small splashy step towards smashing another barrier

This evening I started my new winter evening class. Beginners swimming.

I haven't really tried swimming for over 20 years. It has been (and still is) a HUGE mental barrier for me, the past few years - I'm not going to go into the various reasons and issues to me, here, but needless to say I've put some big, big walls up. I've been afraid and panicky at the thought of swimming, put it off and put it off and put it off (sometimes tearfully so), and finally decided a few weeks back to sign up for complete beginner classes.

Tonight was the first class, and I have to admit to not only being nervous all day, but to also sitting in the car outside the venue for about 10 minutes when I arrived. But eventually I plucked up the nerve and went inside.

Sooooo glad I did. The course teacher is really friendly, but with very much a "let's just get on with it" approach - and we were standing in the water, with our faces submerged, within about 6 or 7 minutes of the beginning of the class!! Bear in mind there were 7 of us, complete beginners, with various types of 'issue' and anxiety.

The hour long class covered various floating positions, and pushing off from the side and floating (both front and back), then pushing off from the side, face down, and kicking feet to see how far we could get. This last one, I was one of the best in the group at doing (I got high fives, hehehehe), and I reached the opposite side of the pool (by which I mean widths in the shallow end of a school swimming pool, obviously) - but I absolutely sucked at trying to float, both on my front (stretched out straight or the 'mushroom' curled up position) and on my back, but especially on my back. Just waaay too nervous, and I kept panicking and putting my feet down.

That said, I'm hugely proud of myself, and I know that over the full 10 weeks of the course, my confidence will build and I'll be able to float. Doing actual swimming is another matter, but I do feel 100% more confident I'll get there. The group is really mixed, there were 3 girls and 4 boys, of all different ages, but we seemed to get on well, and I feel sure we can all make some progress over the next 9 weeks! Scary times. :)