cleaning out my system

On my first, actual day of swim class, the Swim Coach, a salt and peppered haired, medium build man in his 50s, wearing a grungy shirt and jeans, ran down a list of swim drills (freestyle, side kick swim, back stroke, etc) that he had planned for us to do. This is an intermediate swim class and Coach had certain expectations of us, such as having a general idea on how to swim all the strokes and not flail about in the water and drown.

While he walked back and forth along the pool yelling out the strokes like a drill Sargent, the pool filter system turned on and drowned out his voice. My fellow swimmers and I bobbed up and down in the water, clutching onto the pool edge with worry etched on our faces.

Every time Coach turned and walked by, it was difficult to hear what he was saying.
"And when you move your arms in a windmill motion, make sure you...mumble mumble mumble..so pay attention to your form when...mumble mumble mumble...you got that?"

"What did he say?" I asked the woman sharing my lane. She shrugged. "I can barely hear a thing either."

No one had the courage to request repeat instructions.

The coach started us off with the freestyle swim. He began at the deepest end of the pool where we assumed the faster, more experienced swimmers were and yelled out "Go!" as he walked past each lane. Then he walked around to the other side of the pool to meet us and went down the lanes yelling "Go" for us to swim back. This went on for each swim drill we did interspersed with comments on what we did wrong.

During the backstroke drills, I kept starting out with a back flop (opposite of a belly flop) and water kept splashing into my mouth and nose. I failed to exhale it out every time. I tried but my lungs wouldn't work. After 200 yards of backstroke, I could feel the chlorine killing the bacteria inside me. Physically, I wanted to throw up right then and there but I held it in until my burping managed to draw attention. I started breathing deeply which sounded like I was hyperventilating and the coach kept checking to see if I was still alive. "Are you tired? Take a break and rest." I just nodded and worked on keeping the chlorine down.

first day of swim class

My first day of intermediate swim class at CCSF and I arrived over prepared. It's swim class. I expected the first day would involve jumping in the pool, being tested the basics and go right into learning new swim strokes.

This wasn't the case. I arrived early, changed into swim gear, and showered before entering the pool area. I walked out and stood there dripping wet with a tower over my shoulders staring at my classmates sitting on the bleachers, fully clothed and staring at me. I turned right back into the locker room, quickly dried myself off, changed into street clothes and joined the class on the bleachers.

Unfortunately, I didn't dry off well enough and my pants absorbed the water from my damp swimsuit which left a nice wet spot that appeared as though I failed to make it to the restroom in time. That's two embarrassing strikes against me.