I personally have always enjoyed swimming.
One early memory was of diving into a swimming pool in the final leg of a gala with all the other swimmers well on their way, swimming with my head down all the way, and touching first! This was when I was still at primary school and I suspect some of the reality was not as I remember it, but I clearly got such a kick out of the competition for the memory to stay with me. Other than initially learning to swim and that gala, I did not receive any coaching or training, but a friend on a course with me was a great swimmer and pointed out some corrections to my breaststroke which I found very helpful when I was in my 20’s.
I took my children swimming, even before they were born! Liam used to sit in his car seat at the side of Portland pool when I was in swimming, with my older child at ‘Notts Totts’.
I joined the club as a parent approximately 1999 and started to stand at poolside to help out from 2002. I had enrolled in an assistant teacher’s course but got my husband to do it, because the first day, Liam (my son) was swimming in the final day of the Counties, and he was near to being placed in the top ten BAGCAT. I wanted to see him swim! He did not finish in the top ten that year, but my husband got the swimming bug from doing that course, started helping at poolside too, did more courses … and he now coaches regularly for Nova!
