This morning was Terry’s first day of swim training. He knows how to swim with a body that functions normally. But he hasn’t tried to swim since returning from Iraq (he was an army medic in Operation Desert Storm). With legs that he can’t control, or feel, and with very little core strength, he has his work cut out for him. After speaking to him briefly last night, I wasn’t really sure he was going to show up at Whitmore Pool this morning. He admitted to having a high level of anxiety about this; I think he is still hoping that I will do the swim portion of the CAF race in La Jolla Cove, in October. Having expressed huge concerns about ocean swimming and sharks to me last month, the death-by-great-white of the Solana Beach triathlete a few weeks back completely buried his confidence.
I got to the pool at 6:30, swam a bit, and was very pleased to see Terry wheel onto the pool deck at 7 as we agreed. He wheeled over to my lane, and I showed him how I thought he should get into the water. He maneuvered out of his chair, and was able to crouch down and then onto his butt with his feet dangling in the water. “Man that’s cold!” were his first words. He’s wearing a tshirt and cut off jeans. I showed him the foam buoy and strap that I’d brought to keep his legs afloat, and after many seconds of looking at it with some consternation, he shook his head in a “yes” fashion, and we strapped it in place. Then he finally began to scoot his butt to the edge of the pool. Balancing his weight on his hands he began straightening his legs until his feet grazed the bottom of the pool. He asked if his feet were touching and when I confirmed that they were touching the side, he slowly lowered himself into the pool. Slowly. Very slowly.
After several minutes, he finally accepted that he was committed, and released his arms so that he was standing in the water. Actually, I’m thinking that his arms just got tired of holding up his body weight, and realizing that he couldn’t really pull himself back up and out from this position, he gave in to the inevitable. Although he was standing, he kept falling over. He said that it seemed like the movement of the water was throwing off his balance, and although he tried to look away, he said “but I’m going to have to be looking at the water when I swim. I didn’t expect this.” I coaxed him into turning toward the edge of the pool so that he could hold on for a bit.
We spent the next several minutes just talking about the “baby steps” nature of our goal. I told him that my goal for him today was just to get comfortable with being in the water. We practiced shuffling out and away from the edge of the pool. I had him practice floating on his back to understand that the buoy between his legs would, indeed, keep his legs at the surface of the water. Then we practiced balance, prone, using a kickboard. He was unable to prevent himself from rolling over in the water and ending up on his back. This will have to be our focus for a long time.
After about 40 minutes, we decided that we’d done enough. Terry hoisted himself out of the pool on his first try and pulled himself back up into his chair. He was smiling, and we talked for a few minutes about what changes we could make for the next time. Today was a great learning day for both of us; both novices at this notion of challenged athlete swimming.
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