I’ll stick with breast stroke, thankyouverymuch.
I’ve been thinking of taking swimming lessons to learn how to do the freestyle properly. Something is wrong with the way I twist up to take breaths, which makes me go off-course. The school that Alison is with conducts lessons for adults one hour before her lesson starts, but the thing that has been holding me back (apart from the ungodly start time of 8am on a Saturday morning) is knowing that I will have to put up with the antics of a woman whom K and I have christened Tankinimom.
Tankinimom has a kid in the bronze class. The poor guy (and his poorer coach) have to put up with her coaching from the sidelines, saying things like “You’re not putting in enough effort! Put your arms like this! Come on! Why are you so slack today?” It’s enough to make me want to scream, and I’m just an observer on the sidelines. I don’t know how the coach puts up with it!
Anyway, Tankinimom takes lessons at 8am, but if she’s bad, K has just informed me that the class has a new student, “Indiangirl”, who’s worse. Here’s an extract of his texts to me about her complaints:
The water is so cold. The floor is so slippery. It is not easy to do this you know. How many minutes already? I don’t know what made me sign up for this. – Indiangirl
And apparently, Tankinimom is getting a kick out of being further along in the class than her new classmate even though she can barely keep from drowning herself in the 1.2m warm-up pool.
Legs straighten! Kick harder! Float more! – Tankinimom
Ohmygods I am going to sink! – Indiangirl said while her feet were still on the pool floor
One swim stroke is enough for me!
Edited to add:
K just came home and regaled me with an account of how Tankinimom’s son threw a tantrum at the pool. He hit the coach with his kick board, then used his feet and fists when the coach took the board away from him. And all Tankinimom did was shout from afar, “Cannot hit people! I’ll make a police report then you know!” and went back to playing Bejewelled (who knows?) on her phone. Behold the photographic evidence of useless, ineffective parenting.
February 20, 2010
4 responses to I’ll stick with breast stroke, thankyouverymuch.
And again, the urge to strangle such parents hits me. (this after reading your plane rant as well…)
Ack! Such strange antics.
When I wanted to learn other swim strokes, I learned it at APS swim school. I was enrolled in a small group but because there were no other sign ups, I had the pool and the instructor all to myself. I progressed quickly and managed to correct my other bad habits in Breast Stroke. I managed to learn how to swim more efficiently.
While I can swim all strokes (including the water-drinking-cos-I-can’t-rise-up-enough-all-the-time Butterfly), I still prefer Breast Stroke. Supposedly, Back Stroke is good for my back, but there’s no knowing who I might knock into when swimming. Oh well….
Sigh… all these parents who issue threats but don’t follow up. I had a taste of that during LNY. Jumping twins and a screaming mother. But no follow up and nothing. Urgh…
NUTS!!! I learnt it at yellowfish, coach David is pretty good and I can actually swim it now!