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Sunday, January 22, 2006

Swimming Lessons

Omigosh! Its been more than a month since my last update... wonder what I've been doing... hmmmm... Anyway, remember my last entry abt me being a turtle coming from a swimmers' school, there was a whole page article today in the Straits Times titled 'ACSians Controlling Sports', and in the the second last paragraph was an acronym for ACS saying 'All Can Swim'... muahahahahaha.. yes, all certainly can swim...! Just a matter of how fast or slow you are, and whether you sink or not! I still remember those days when we had our weekly swimming lessons, if I remember correctly, it was on Tuesdays, and it was the day of the week which I hated most. First of all, I was a damn skinny bloke and I hated... I hated wearing nothing but skimpy swimming trunks! Secondly, I was afraid of the water. I had this mental attitude in me saying that I couldn't swim and so I never tried jumping into the big pool, when in reality (in my primary school days) I went for swimming lessons every Sunday at River Valley swimming pool and dived into the deepest end of the pool like nobody's business. And to think that alongside this little boy afraid of the water were classmates representing S'pore at the national level...what was I thinking...

And so life went on to my poly days during which I started (not regularly but occassionally) to swim at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic swimming complex. Only difference is, this time it was for fun, and not lessons anymore. Here's a riddle: What can you expect when a bunch of Mats go swimming???? Answer: Someone to drown la!!! Being heroes that we were, abang abang cool decided to throw G-shock watch into the bottom of the pool and then try to retrieve it la. The rule is simple, if you can't swim well, dont try to be a lifeguard and selam here there and everywhere! But it was a funny sight. It took another abang cool of ours to pull abang jenggo to the side of the pool! And here's another funny story, if you're big and fat (ni cerita dulu so no hard feelings ya, I know now you're very slim!) and shy, don't... wait, readers pls take advice and don't, never ever try this at a public pool... pls, once you come out of the changing room, pls pls pls, pls la don't run and jump in straight into the pool. Dari pool tu tenang macam kat Maldives terus jadi tsunami kat Sri Lanka! Mak datuk orang kudut macam I terus terapung-apung di bawa arus dan ombak buatan orang! Haaaa, tulisan pun mesti mat pasal ni cerita mat. Ok! Itu lah moral of the story.

Tapi when it comes to swimming lesson tak serik serik. I still remember the first swimming lesson during my NS at the Police Academy. We were instructed to dive into the pool and swim across the breadth of the pool... nervous gilerrr... First of all, I've never knew how to dive head first into the pool, I always jump feet first. So being the athlete that I was in school, I mentally prepared myself... focus... pictured myself diving into the pool. So my turn came and I had one of the most painful experiences of my life. I dived in, but my head did not go in first. Instead I dived flat into the water and 'it was so painful!!!', macam kena sepak right across my whole chest... there was no turning back, I've never dived into a pool ever since, its always feet first... dah lah sakit, dah masuk air, terus action struggle, didn't even put in any effort to try and swim, maklum lah, kan takut air! I was so happy like bird that the instructors categorized me into C band, which meant every swimming lesson I learnt how to stroke my hands, my legs, used that floating board and play ball games in the pool, yeayyy!!! Like small kids! But then I took an interest in swimming coz it was the only pool where I could swim on a Sunday with no one else around and I've loved swimming eversince... haaa, kan macam fairy tale ending gitu!

Wah, panjang nyer swimming lesson! I started off with nothing in mind and its already three paragraphs, if only I had ideas like this for my primary school compositions and university essays, then I would be a scholar by now! Hahah, dream on! Anyway, back to that Straits Times article, three of the faces were my track & field coaches while in secondary school. It was always a dream of mine to be like them, to be involved in sports as a career but unfortunately it was not meant to be. That dream still remains, at least I have a close buddy who is a PE teacher...

Ok last week I had one of the best moments in my life. Had the StanChart Ironman 06 going on and it was wild! It was funny to see people who I presume never exercise for ages push their limits in the IronMan. It was a memorable event, the lifeguards had to jump into the pool to save the drowning competitors, the runners who sprint like mad at the start of the run and then pancit by the 200 metre mark and then fall and crawl at the finishing line. Those cyclists and their cramped faces at the end of the races. It was awesome! And on Sunday we had a motivational talk by Brent Sheldrake, a triathlon world and Olympic champion who was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease at the peak of his career at a young age of 22, and how he overcame his battle and is now among the top ten IronMan athletes in the world. Just fyi, a triathlon is only a fraction of an Ironman event. An Ironman is, if I remember correctly, a 3.8km swim, a 180km cycle followed by a 42.2km run. And the whole atmosphere was just exhilirating, even the Anthony Robbins seminar was no fight, it was noisy and it was all StanChart staff. Ok I'm losing my steam, need to do other stuff... Have a good week ahead my friends!

¶ 10:52 AM

Posted by Wakatepebabun Kukuye