The first stroke I learned as a young child was the breaststroke. I remember my Red Cross Instructor not wanting us to "dog paddle" and instead, taught us how to breaststroke to gain confidence in the water. Once we had that one down, she moved on to the backstroke and the "australian crawl" as it was called then.
Now, all this took place when I was about 8 or 9 years old -- I didn't swim again seriously until I was 15 in high school, and as I've mentioned previously, I experienced another lapse in swimming between 1976 and October of this year.
Now that I am swimming again, I am seriously asking myself "WHY!!!!?" Why did I stop swimming when I love it so much? Yeah, I've been in the water many, many times over the past 33 years, but never did more than 10 laps in a 25-yard pool -- usually after a power walk workout as a cool-down.
But, thanks to Masters Swimming, in only two weeks of coaching, I swam 1400 meters today in one hour. And, my coach told me she wished she could have me on her high school team as a breaststroker. She said I have really good form. Wow, I haven't had a compliment like that in years!
So, big thanks go to the anonymous Red Cross Instructor, who all those years ago, taught a little girl to swim the breaststroke. I'm not sure whether I will pursue competing, but I must say I'm thinking about it a bit more seriously now.
