Practicing without a pool

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." Vince Lombardi

In the book "The Inner Game of Tennis", the author Timothy Gallwey explains that it's the verbal instructions that the student finds hardest to follow. He realised that the less he said, the better he coached.

I have never followed instructions well, either as a school child or as an adult, and I am still trying to put into practice what the instructor told me on Friday. This is difficult to do without a pool and so I tried practicing face down on the bed. This reminded me of an episode of Blue Peter when Janel Ellis was learning how to skydive. The team that were jumping tried to practice arranging themselves into formation whilst walking on the ground. Unsurprisingly this proved far easier than moving into formation whilst flying through the air at 120 miles per hour.

I joined Bourn Health and Fitness Club today and I've realised that swimming on a bed is far easier than swimming in a pool. 50 metres is about as far as I can go without stopping. This is a 30th of what I need to do. The equivalent would be running 333 metres when training for a 10k run.

Today I learned that you get nowhere whilst swimming on a bed!