that went swimmingly

Advantages: great fun underwater, and VIP skill

Disadvantages: can be boring if your that kind of person

I never used to like swimming, thought its kind of boring i guess that's because I'm still young. The majority of people I see who take up swimming are older people like 30+.
One of my teachers at college used to get up at 6.00 to go swimming just before school, and found it a great way of socialising with others her age (like 40+).

I go swimming every week from 8.00 to 9.00 in the morning on Sundays as my friends hire out the pool. Its great (except for the fact its so early in the morning!) we play water-polo, water cricket and other ball games in out own way.
(for water cricket we use those floats as bats and bases, and for water polo we use railings on the side of the swimming pool as goal posts)
In a way this isn't really swimming and i noticed i suck at swimming my stamina is really poor, can just go once or twice and I'm already tired. So now I actually practise swimming and its great the improvement in my stamina and swimming skills are evident, i can now swim 1 length faster than anybody else I know, my technique is the forward crawl, but i keep my head underwater and just come up for one breath before finishing. Basically kick and wave your arms wildly, I found that working out at the gym on my shoulder muscles really helped me achieve the speed. I am soon to enter a competition.

----The beginning----

The first swimming method i learnt was the back-stroke. Once you realise you float on water and you can lie on your back you are sorted, all you have to do next it kick and use your arms, you can breath normally, you don't have to hold your breath - this is the only stroke i can use for long distance swimming to stop me drowning (in deep water) This is very useful as its not tiring and can be pretty relaxing.
Next I learnt the forward crawl, I found the technique was similar to how I learnt to ride a bike, once you've got momentum and are going your sorted and moving, you wont drown (till you get tired)
The breast stroke is stroke i still practise as I find the leg movements a little hard, but I dislike this stroke as its extremely frustrating to see yourself moving so slowly (in comparison to the forward crawl or butterfly stroke)

The best thing about swimming is swimming under water; its such a great experience, the feeling of freedom and emptiness surrounding you is great.
Its definitely worth getting goggles if you swim underwater i recently got some great tinted goggles from ebay for £3.00 - definitely worth getting if there is a lot of chlorine in the pool.

If on holiday, or in a hot place there's nothing better than a cool swim the feeling is amazing. When i went to Marseilles on holiday it was boiling but luckily we had our own private pool, that made that holiday my best holiday of all time.

Summary: Takes a great deal of athleticism, swimming underwater is a great feeling