Ahem, I mean “Rachel Does a Group Session”.  Actually, I think the former sounds less dodgy!

Thanks to Anita, she alerted me to a regular swim session that Barbara Miller was planning at QEII, with Roly Crichton at the helm – each Monday and Wednesday evening for an hour.  I managed to get myself a slot, and away I went last night.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – it was advertised as being suitable for beginners right through to swimmers who want their technique analysed/tweaked and to learn how to find some speed (pick me!  pick me!).

There was a pretty good turnout for the first night – probably around 20 at a guess.  We were split into three different groups, with a lane for each group.  Anita and I chose the third group, which was the most advanced.  I wasn’t sure whether that was the right move or not, but as it turns out, it was fine.  I knew I could do any distance work that might have been required, but I just wasn’t sure whether my pace was up to it.

I think the numbers were too great for Roly and his sidekick Glenn to effectively manage (in terms of offering stroke advice to each of us), but we did seem to have Roly all to ourselves which was good – no sharing him with the other two groups.  He said we were all doing really well, so I took from that that he would work with what he had, rather than try to change any of our techniques.

To improve (in Roly’s view), it would seem that it’s important to be able to billateral breathe.  I’ve tried it over the past week, but I submerge completely and end up swamping myself!  A few times last night, Roly said he wanted us to billateral breathe if we possibly could – and he looked at me a couple of times when saying this!  I happened to mutter almost under my breath “Awwww, I can’t!”, only to have another woman respond “There’s no such thing as can’t you know - I’ve learnt that!”.  That sort of comment is why I tend not to do group sessions. I felt like saying to her “And who are you, and what have you done?  Don’t talk to me about overcoming things we don’t think are possible!!”.  Actually luvvy, I wouldn’t have been able to billateral breathe last night.  Not satisfactorily enough to have completed what was required of us.  Give me some time to practise the art of billateral breathing, and I’ll be back to kick your arse.  Until then, I’ll be the judge of what I can and cannot do at any point in time.

Rant over.

The session was made up of a number of drills – sighting, kick boards etc.  I have to say that I felt quite hot and bothered at the end of the night – I’d used muscles that hadn’t seen the light of day for a while, particularly whilst breaststroking!  I think my technique is okay (freestyle, not breaststroke!!), I just lack the strength and kick to be faster.  If these sessions can work on that, then I think they will have merit. 

What I found disappointing, was towards the end of the session, Roly announced that he was going to push us, as he believed we were up to being challenged.  To that end, he advised that he wanted us to swim 200m without stopping.  I was almost like WTF!  200m?  Is that being challenged?  Hmmm, I’m now feeling caught between thinking the session might be too rudimentary for me, but then thinking that the drills will be really useful.  The jury is out, however, as to whether I should be spending two hours a week just doing drills!  I’m thinking maybe once a week will suffice, with other sessions for distance work.

Anyhoo, I’ll be back tomorrow night and the pool will be down to 25m in length.  He said he’d push us a little more given it will be a short course and therefore less initimidating.  I’ll make my mind up after that as to whether I think there’ll be a future for me doing these sessions.

PS  I really enjoyed Roly’s approach – obviously he’s more mellow with us old girls.