Never Too Old To Learn New Skills
So like many others, I was glued to the Rio 2016 Olympics this summer. I just loved all the action and stories behind the different sporting events. The swimming events were particularly interesting especially with Michael Phelps of course but also with the success of our Canadian women swimmers like Penny Oleksiak.
One of the things that the Olympic swimmers did which caught my eye was how they did their swim flip turns at the end of each lap. It was amazing how they flipped over and pushed off the pool wall each time. Believe it or not, I wanted to learn how to do this even though I’m twice as old as the average Olympic swimmer.
But I wanted to prove that it is never too old to learn new skills including a swim flip turn. I do not expect to do it at an Olympic level but just to be able to do a flip turn which enables me to change direction in the pool would be good enough for me.
Learning How To Do A Swim Flip Turn
At first, I just could not figure out how the swimmers did it as I could never turn around in the pool. So I watched a few YouTube videos on how to do a flip turn and continued to watch the Olympic swimmers. Then I realized that I was trying to turn upright too soon as the swimmers usually pushed off the wall upside down.
During my first week of attempts, I could not flip over right around. I got caught halfway inverted each time and was stranded in the water. After a week, I was finally able to flip all the way around but I lost my sense of direction. I was completely disoriented as I did not know where the pool wall was and therefore failed to push off.
After about two weeks since I did not want to give up and there was still time left in my outdoor pool season, I finally did the flip turn well enough to push off the wall and swim in the other direction.
Here’s the video which is the first Motivational WebTV episode I’ve produced in over a year, which shows my flip turns in the pool.
So my experience learning a swim flip turn proves that you are never too old to learn new skills. Imagine what new things you can learn to do no matter what your age is.
