Swimming in Dublin

ceoltoir

I'm going to my first swimming lesson in Glenalbyn, Stillorgan tonight. Was looking forward to it until I read a few critical posts here from last year. Does anyone have experience of this pool? I'm almost 50 years old (!!), male, and this will be my first time swimming, so I don't know an awful lot about pools. The budget is fairly tight as well, so I can't spend too much on it.

Thanks.

This was posted by me earlier today in the wrong forum.

I went tonight. It was a bit scary to start off. We were just told to get into the pool, go back about 20 feet, hands together above our heads and 'swim' forward in the water, pushing our legs. Terror! I went down head first in the water and thought I was going to drown. I just felt heavy, sinking in the water.

There were about ten people there. Most of them seemed to have a bit of experience of the water. Four of us were kept to one side; we seemed to be the complete beginners. We were eventually given flotation aids but I think I might get too dependent on them. Why am I going down head first? Maybe I need to keep my head up a bit more? My legs also fall to the bottom of the pool.

Then again, maybe it was too many pints of Guiness in the last six months!

Anyway, I hope I eventually get the hang of it. Any tips?

Killgore Trout

Pushing off and gliding from the edge teaches the student how to go from swimming to standing up in the water, so should you need to stand up you can. It will make you more confident in the water.

Floats are a pretty standard way of teaching beginners - you'll be happy to get rid of it soon enough.

Have some faith in your teacher - don't be a afraid to ask questions (at the appropriate time, you don't want to be disrupting class). Again - your teacher should be in the best position to correct why you're going the way you are. As you get more relaxed in the water - the easier you'll find it to float.

Tips from the internet at this stage could be more hindrance than help for someone starting out. It does take a while to learn to swim.

Is there no deep end class here? If so you could ask them how they progressed from the shallow end.

ceoltoir

Thanks for those very useful tips Killgore Trout! I'll try that the next night.