How a swimming lesson showed me that an “old dog can be taught new tricks”!*

Today, I had my first advanced adult swimming lesson. Swimming was one of my sports as a teenager, but I haven’t had a lesson since then. My body, fitness, and capability have changed a lot over the years, and what used to come easily has been becoming harder and harder.

Recently, a friend mentioned she was getting swimming lessons, and I thought it was such a good idea that I, too, sought out some locally. The result was my first lesson today. It was meant to be five of us, but it ended up being just me in the lesson. How lucky am I?

In just 30mins my trainer guided me in breaking down a few simple things in my front crawl, trying out a few exercises to adjust a few individual areas and then pulling it all back together again.

And VOILA, my front crawl was completely different – and this new way of swimming felt so much easier. Now comes the work of practising this weekly and building up my muscle memory, fitness and strength.

Little shifts = Big changes

So often, things can start feeling harder, but we just carry on ploughing through rather than stopping, unpicking what is going on and allowing ourselves to learn new tricks. A little shift in mindset, belief and attitude can create big changes.

This swimming lesson certainly made me curious about how many other areas I can apply this rule.

*Note: I don’t actually think of myself as an old dog, but it is a great phrase regarding new tricks!