Learning How to Breathe

"You must unlearn what you have learned" - Yoda

Have you heard the one about David Beckham going to the hairdressers and refusing to take his headphones off? Eventually the barber seizes the headphones, puts them on and hears the instructions: "breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out"!

Today I had my first ever one-to-one swimming lesson and whilst I was swallowing my umpteenth mouthful of chlorinated water it struck me how difficult swimming is as an exercise. When running or cycling breathing is not a concern. If I get out of breath I might have to slow down but that's all. When I got tired today in swimming I tried breathing on every stroke and even that was not enough. Trying to remember the instructions that I had been given on top of that proved impossible. How can you remember anything when your body is telling you that you can't breathe?

Learning how to exercise whilst essentially holding my breath is going to be a difficult nut to crack. In the words of the Jedi master I will have much to unlearn.

Tomorrow my two daughters have their swimming lessons. I wonder if the swimming teachers ever swap notes and if they do whether I'm being any more attentative than my kids.