| Back in October 2015 I received a last-minute invitation (still not quite sure why or how) to a Total Immersion swimming workshop with TI founder and swimming genius, Terry Laughlin. Total Immersion is the method I use in our lessons at Swimmingly, you can find out more about how it helps us get such great results for our swimmers through this link. I live in Manchester so Windsor is quite a trek and I was worried that my swimming was nowhere near the standard they expected (I was too old, too fat, too slow and all those other things we all tell ourselves….! 😉) so I almost managed to talk myself out of going – but something told me to go for it so I set off well before the crack of dawn and had the most amazing day! That decision to make the nine-hour round trip for just a few hours of coaching with Terry was worth every penny and every mile. Not only did it transform my swimming, it gave me the inspiration to transform my life too – by becoming a Total Immersion coach. Now if anyone had said to me even 10 years ago that I would be a TI coach I would have laughed. I had relearned to swim with a TI coach back in 2008 and was in awe of the skill and knowledge of the coaches I had met and their ability to make something as complex as swimming feel straightforward logical and easy. I had such admiration for the coaches and the TI method and how incredibly transformational it had proved for me and for countless people across the world but it never crossed my mind that such an amazing thing as becoming a coach would be available to the likes of me. I had always been an okay swimmer, not a natural athlete by any means (!) and didn’t have a competitive swimming background like many coaches, in short I just never thought coaching was an option. But Terry changed all that, I arrived that morning feeling like I was going to be the worst swimmer there, that Terry would take one look at my stroke and despair, but of course, he didn’t, it wasn’t like that at all. Everyone was welcomed, everybody was valued no matter at what level they were swimming and I watched as Terry seemed to create magic with every swimmer regardless of their age, fitness level or swimming ability – transforming strokes with just a few changes – and I realised I wanted to be able to do that too. I came away from that day totally inspired – whilst chatting with Terry and the other coaches it was suggested that I’d make a good coach (who me?!) and the seed was sown. Fast forward to today and I feel so grateful for the huge boost in confidence and self-belief that one day gave me, I had arrived full of doubt and more than a little fear and left feeling totally inspired – all because of swimming – and Terry of course! You never know when something will change your life, it would have been so easy to stay at home instead of going to the workshop, to stay firmly within my comfort zone rather than pushing through and taking a leap of faith. And gosh, I’m so very glad I did! Happy swimming! |
