Confessions of a Wannabe Swimmer

I recently joined the FINS Aquatic Club, which is the Philadelphia's predominantly gay and lesbian masters swim team. As a requirement to join the FINS, I paid a fee to be a member of the United States Masters Swimming (USMS).

While that may sounds like I'm a competitive swimmer, here is the honest truth: I can't swim freestyle from one end of the 25-meter pool to the other. This is my latest personal challenge. My modest goal is to be able to swim freestyle IN GOOD FORM for 25 meters.

While I can do decent breast strokes, I can't seem to swim freestyle to save my life. I've taken lessons several times. I sort of know what to do, but I can't put everything together under water. Everything I do is wrong, including:

• keeping my shouders high, so my feet sink
• my arms don't bend
• my shoulders don't rotate
• my hips don't move
• my arm rotations are not smooth
• my head comes out of the water too high
• my kicks are not wide enough
• my hands stay in the air too long and don't reach to force my body forward

I swim in Lane 6, the slowest lan, and can't even keep up. Sometimes I look over to Lanes 1 and 2 and view competitive swimmers almost as if they were a different species.

I've known the coach and about 10 other swimmers prior to joining the club, so I feel right at home. Everyone is every supportive. If this isn't the perfect environment for me to learn freestyling, nothing else is.

Let's get soaking wet!