News_
Swimmingly
Friday 28th July 2023
Chris Berry and Dan Allen started swimming with Phoenix about this time last Summer. Both were relative beginners but have been regulars at the club swim sessions ever since. Here they reflect on their swim journeys...
Dan writes...
I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t swim. At primary school, we had lessons with stout Mrs Simpson who bellowed instructions from the side of the local Victorian ‘baths’, a swamp of verrucas and discarded plasters, and I worked my way up through the various badges that signified an ability to fashion a floatation device out of pyjama bottoms or retrieve a brick from the murky depths. But I was duped. I wasn’t swimming, I was merely bobbing about, something that became abundantly clear when I signed up for the regular Phoenix sessions at Pells Pool and, in winter, Roedean school.
Keen to emulate those who glide along the coastline with an effortless front crawl, I thought how hard can it be? Idiot. Swimming – proper swimming – demands a bewildering array of skills, not least of them breathing. I thought I knew how to breathe. But not with my head in the water while simultaneously trying to focus on left arm, right arm, rotation, kick, reach, catch, pull, head position, hand position and a dozen other coordinated actions which collectively result in a smooth and efficient freestyle form. ‘It’ll come,’ they say. ‘Just relax.’ Relax? You’re joking. I last drew breath when Mrs Simpson was a girl and my lungs are about to pop. That said, coaches Sue, Liz and Malcolm have been exemplars of patience, never rushing me when I cling to the end of the pool after a single length, gasping like a landed trout. And under their expert tuition, slowly, very slowly, I am learning to relax and even, in rare sublime moments, manage a few strokes where I fancy I’m part dolphin. It’s hard work and at times frustrating, but I can’t quit now. I’m in too deep.
Chris writes...
Like Dan I learnt to swim in a public baths when I was in primary school in Burnley. Although I could swim, it was never a passion for me. I could manage 25 metres of freestyle at best before I had to revert to a very poor breaststroke. So, when I encountered the Phoenix swim group through running at the track on a Wednesday, I dismissed any thoughts of joining in. I can’t swim like that, I thought, when Sue, Malcolm and Liz encouraged me to come along.
Geoff Pike finally convinced me that I should give it a go. It was last year after the Phoenix 10 km. I remember standing on the beach – I’d just been for a dip in the sea – and him telling me that the club welcomed all abilities, and I should try it out. My first swim session was at Pells and Sue was coaching that evening. I remember barely being able to swim two lengths of something kind of resembling front crawl. I was knackered and reeling from the number of things I had to remember. I persevered and have grown to love Pells. As Geoff predicted, everyone at the swim club has been hugely encouraging and we have our own what we call ‘duffers lane’ (the coaches insist on calling us improvers) which is brilliant as it removes a lot of the stress that comes with being slow. I had a bit of a blip when the swimming shifted to Roedean in November last year with narrow lanes and what felt like more people in the lane impatient to get past, but Sue sorted that out. Now, just over a year on, with loads of encouragement from the club and patient coaching from Liz, Malcolm and Sue, I can manage to swim over 1 km of front crawl – which if my maths is correct is 40 times more than I could manage before I started to learn with the club. It’s still tough and I am incredibly slow, but I am determined to keep at it until I can manage to swim the Wall to Wall relay which Eogan has organised now for the last couple of years.
Thank you to all at the club, and especially our super coaches Liz, sue and Malcolm.
Note from the editor...
Inspriring stuff...
If you fancy coming along whether as an experienced swimmer or, like Dan and Chris, someone who wants to get back into swimming whatever your level, then please do give it a try. There's room for everybody.
Pells Pool, Lewes, 8pm on Thursdays.
