foolfillment: the blog

On the invitation of Guinea Pig Mum I went along to see about helping our at Tranent ASC on Thursday and Friday night. I had been meaning to get in touch with my old coach for a while to see about getting involved in swimming at some level but I was waiting for school to settle down then see just how much time I would have to commit.

Going back to the Loch Centre for the first time in about 6 years really made me think back, on two levels. First, the building has barely changed in all the time I’ve been away so I found myself slipping back into what is basically an old habit or routine - taking the stairs in the same way by swinging round the banister at the bend, using the same changing cubicle, standing/sitting in the same old places - it was as though nothing had changed. I even found the swimmers using a kickboard that was covered in doodles and names of people I used to train with.

On another level it made me think about how you teach people. I can only remember how I swam aged 16 not aged 8, likewise I can’t remember what my coaches did to progress my swimming when I was 8, those memories have all been replaced by those of what happened later.

I know I have all this knowledge about how to swim well, but I don’t know how to get it out. I could take a session of swimmers who are at a similar level to me when I stopped, but younger than that I don’t know where to begin.
Yet, this is what I do at school. I switch from teaching 1st years to sketch to teaching 4th years how to draw complicated measured perspective drawings. I go from showing a senior to cut a mortice and tenon joint to showing a 1st year how to hold a saw.

I suppose it is all about breaking everything down into its component parts in my head, going back to first principles then building it up from there. How do I do that in swimming though? It feels like I need to try to forget everything I know and teach myself from scratch.