By NORHASIYATI TAHARIN
A former journalist, a wife and a mother of three daughters
I enjoyed each precious moment I spent in water. Swimming is my favourite hobby, but I can no longer enjoy each swimming moment as my three daughters will cry for my attention at the swimming pool.
They will cling to my body and hug me very tightly. Although they are scared of water, they do want to play with water, so holding tight to me was their only option.
Myself and my husband were seriously thinking about adding their learning skills, so, we hired a swimming coach to teach both my girls, aged 9 and 10 years.
We did it during the long school holiday in December. Each session last for one hour a day and the training was held each day for nearly two weeks continuously.
So, basically, it was just swimming, swimming and swimming, until my girls can really float and swim like fish.
I was so happy after two weeks, knowing that they can now swim independently in the pool, without any assistance from me or my husband.
However, mind you, it was not as easy as what was written here.
Getting them into the 3-ft depth water was not an easy task. They only played in the 6-inch deep wading pool while waiting for their coach!
However, the coach was really helpful and slowly building up confidence to them.
They were taught about safety being in water and how to fight water phobia.
They were taught to bubble many times...inhaling oxygen in the air and exhale CO2 in the water.
Surprisingly, they learned the techniques very fast. Soon enough, they were able to do bubble and being under water for a longer time!
They learned basic activities such as floating, gliding, breathing techniques.
After, two weeks, they were able to swim and have the confidence swimming at 7-ft deep pool! Wow! Another reason for their fast learning ability was because they don't need to read book on how to learn to swim. Swimming lesson is practical learning, it is not learn through book.
The rest is history!
Now, the whole family enjoyed each swimming sessions, my self, my husband my three daughters including my 6-year daughter.
We had enjoyed swimming at many Olympic size public swimming pools in Alor Setar, Seremban, Penang, Kuantan and of course Ipoh, our hometown.
Each time, we holiday elsewhere in Malaysia, we always drop-by at any public swimming pool all over the country, as the cost is cheaper and the pools were long and wide.
Many pools at resort and hotels were small and the room rates were expensive!
My family was watching a swimming competition held at the Ipoh Swimming Complex. During this time, they had just finished their beginners lesson on swimming at Batu Gajah public swimming pool.
Myself and my one-year old youngest daughter on holliday at Cherating, Pahang. We were always on a look-out for an affordable place to stay with swimming pool. We just love water.
This picture was taken during a holiday in Cherating, Pahang. There is a 4ft deep swimming pool, next to the wading pool. But, my two daughters aged 5 and 7 years at that time, just playing with water in the wading pool. They are afraid of the big pool. I had a splasing time at the big pool, minus the children. They just look and look and look. This is one of the motivation for them to take up swimming lession. They want to enjoy being in water just like their mother.
After completing their two-week beginner swimming lession at a public swimming pool at Batu Gajah, Perak, my daughters enrolled into the Ipoh Swimming Academy. They had a three time a week swimming lesson by coaches from the academy from Friday evening to Sunday morning at the Ipoh Public Swimming Pool Complex. They will do some warm-up exercise to strengthen their muscle and flex their joints. Each exercise will last for about 15 minutes. After that, they will be re-grouped into smaller teams, depending on their level of swimming ability.
It is better to learn swimming in small group rather then big group, as the coach can really concentrate on each student. We hired only two coaches for our children. An Indian coach at Batu Gajah Swimming Pool for beginner lesson and a Chinese coach at Ipoh Public Swimming Pool for more advance swimming techniques. My daughters learned how to do breaststroke, freestyle (front crawl), butterfly and backstroke for nearly six months. They had lessons three times a week, Friday night, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Yes, they wake up at 7am on each Sunday morning for the 9am swimming lesson. They were so discipline. I was so happy.
For those adult, who loves water but cannot swim, please enrol yourself in any swimming class. It is never too late, even if you are already 50 years old. If you are shy to learn together with young children, you can get a coach to teach you personnally at any private pool. But with a cost! And do not create scandal! Just learn how to swim and thats all!
Swimming is indeed a life long experience, as it build stamina, reduce stress and the most fun hobby, I think. It can protect ourselves from drowning.
Swimming really bonded our family relationship as we shared common interest. We did many activities together such as cycling, fishing, jungle trekking, badminton and others, but these activities cannot beat swimming. Until today, swimming is the only activity that bonded us as family and we continously doing it, each week. For me, aged 40 years plus plus no minus, swimming did wonders to me. It shaped my 84kg body. Although obese, I had no medical problem so far. Thanks to Allah for it. My cholesterol level is yo yo but manageable. I have no diabetes, no hypertension, no high blood pressure, no problem with my joints (body) and psychologically stable. Oh yes, if you see me in the swimming pool, I might look like a giant among my small-sized children, but I swim like elephant! Yes...elephant can also swim. I had witnessed it with my own eyes during a camping trip deep in the forest of Taman Negara Pahang about twenty years ago!
Swimming is a good cardiocvascular exercise, as it provides healthy heart and lung. It also helped to regulate blood circulation throughout the body as it allows more oxygen to flow in with good breathing techniques practised during swimming.
Swimming also has no aftereffects like strained muscles or stress bones and joints, or any injuries.
Swimming is definately a good exercise for sportsman and women, and swimming must be done after a straneous workout, as it can also loosen our muscle.
I personally think that lacking swimming exercise is among the many obstacles faced by our athletes, especially in a rough game like football. Many often, we hear well-paid footballers cannot play or perform just because of muscle tear problem or injuries. If swimming is included as part of training technigues in football, I personally think that Malaysia can produce world-class footballers like Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Through swimming, athletes would learn how to breath better, thus provide more lasting time in competition. And swimming is not just about Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. It is also about Tiger Wood who has to walk long strecth during golfing compotition, and Nicol David and Lim Chong Wei who have to flex their mucles to maintain their no one in world title. A successful chief executive officer also need to swim once a while, as it can relax our mind psychologically. We can vent our anger, stress and frustration by shouting underwater or kicking the water without harming anyone.
Did you see any swimmers quarrel in the swimming pool? But, you often see that at football pitch!
For me, personally swimming provides an avenue for me to dive more into creative thinking, thus writing more provocative topics like this article in my blog. I love to swim front-float or just floating while looking at the blue sky. While floating and not moving, I would straightened both my hand, my abdomen and my legs for a 15 seconds, and then lossen my whole body for another 15 seconds. I will look at the moving sky and that moment was just awesome. It was the most relaxing moment for me, until my youngest daughter splash some water onto my face!
My two girls were taught in improving their strokes in freestyle and breaststroke by their coach Cikgu Hon (in the water on the left side). They spent about one hour and a half for each session with the coach. After that, they will swim on their own, trying to perfected their swimming skills.
The coach is teaching one of my daughters on how to glide in the water.
The coach also teach my daughters on ways to wear goggles. Goggles must be tightly secured to the face. If not, water can come in and disturbed our concentration.
My daughters also learn to jump head first onto the water. They were scared at first, but soon after, they mastered the technique pretty well.
My daughters will swim for about two hours with a length of 2000 metre for each training session. They concentrate mainly in freestyle and breaststroke style. The coach will watch their technique and try to improvise it.
My daughers joined a swimming competition held at the Ipoh Public Swimming Complex a few years ago. Although they are no longer interested in choosing swimming at competitive level as their future career, they love swimming for leisure. I will not push them into doing things that they don't like. Competitive swimming is a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice and a lot of patient and my daughters have other interest in their mind. They are more interested to pursue their interest and knowledge in Agama Islam.
Their Arabic and Jawi skills are excellent, always got A for these subjects. I'm not surprised if they become Ustazah one day. Yes, Ustazah that can swim like a fish. As a Muslim, I prefer my family to do things the Islamic way of life, including swimming. Prophet Muhammad s. a. w. had said, swimming is one of the skills needed to be mastered. For safety reason and protection from any mishap, I always teach my children to read surah from the AlQuran before swimming at any place, pools or rivers or lakes. They were taught to read the surah Al Fatihah, Al-Ikhlas, An-Nas and Al-Insyirah, asking for protection from Allah Taala. Human being got soul and so is water. We have to treat water with dignity and respect. I always say this phrase before each swimming season, "YA ALLAH, PERMUDAHKANLAH PERGERAKAN KAMI SEKELUARGA DI DALAM AIR AND PELIHARALAH KAMI DARI GANGGUAN SYAITAN DAN IBLIS".
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