"Dos" and "Don'ts"

When I was younger my mother had a subscription to the magazine Glamour, in the back of each issue was a "dos" and "don'ts" section. This section was filled with women who were either fashion "dos" or fashion "don'ts," these "don'ts" women usually had black bars across their eyes as to not embarrass them to an entire world of Glamour readers. I always felt bad for those women who were forever branded as “don'ts” among the glossy pages of that fashion rag, worried that one day someone might notice them in a crowd and point accusingly while laughing at the outfit they were wearing. I also cringed at the idea of the moment one of their friends opened to that page and recognized the hideous outfit branded a “don’t.” Awkward next girl’s night out for sure.

Little did I know I was one of those “don'ts,” not in terms of clothes (minus the phase I went through in 8th grade where I wore three Swatch watches hooked together as a headband--I think I may have photographic evidence of it buried deep somewhere in my cedar chest) rather in terms of swim form.

If you are like me you figure swimming is swimming, if you don't drown you are doing it right. I don't remember taking swim lessons, as far as I know my mom and dad taught me to swim by throwing me off the boat while floating on the Snake River, I didn’t sink. Viola! Swimming. However the way I learned to swim apparently wasn't the right way.

Last year the Hot Tamale and I took a swim clinic from our coach Mark Kendall at Speedshot racing. During this clinic each participant was videotaped underwater, once each person was taped we took to the pool deck to "critique" each person's form. As each swimmer came on to the computer screen Mark and other swimmers made comments like, "look at that rotation, good extension, great catch, good head position, great kicking from the hips." When it came to me, the group fell silent, Mark struggled to find the words to describe how terrible my swimming was without completely offending his new client. Apparently I'm just lucky enough not to sink to the bottom of the pool. Mark was a good sport and offered lots of support and suggestions to help me become a better swimmer.

From that moment until yesterday I have been working tirelessly on improving my swimming form. I have taken lessons from Mark, attended swimming clinics with gold medal Olympiads, practiced, practiced and practiced. Each time I get in the pool I feel like something is different, that somehow my form has changed—even though that change in form makes me question the idea that it won’t cause me to sink to the bottom of the pool. This change hasn't made me faster and it hasn't made me such a great swimmer that I am signing up to cross the English Channel.

But yesterday, all that work and practice finally paid off. I was a "do." We went to another swim clinic yesterday trying to brush up on our form and, for what I had expected, some new and major things to work on. But no. Not this time. This time Mark started my video and the first words out of his mouth were, "look at that, she's starting her catch, great form." I couldn’t believe my ears. Hot Tamale and I looked at each other in shock, “Is that you he’s talking about?” HT’s eyes said to me. My eyes responsed, “Holy shit, it can’t be.” But it was. That was me catching the water as my arm broke the surface. That was me holding my arm and moving my body past it. That was me kicking enough but not too much. That was me on that screen.

That was me. I was a do.