I remember when I was a small kid who was shorter than one meter, my parents brought me to train swimming. That swimming complex was located in the center of He Ping district, Tianjin. It was called "the second swimming pool of Tianjin". At that time, the training was tough. I was not a kid with perseverance. I had only trained for one and half years. I quit it when I began my primary school.
Back in the old days, most swimming pool's water was in green color, not blue color. Those old swimming pools were not advanced enough to integrate with water circulation system. As a result, new water was only refilled once per week. To keep the water clean, large amount of bleach was dumped into the pool. Even I stood in front of the gate of the swimming complex, I could still feel the smell of bleach. Usually after a training session, my hair turned yellow a bit. In fact it was a cheaper way for Chinese people to color hair to yellow than going to a hairdressing shop. A chemical compound in swimming pool even worse than bleach is urea. Urea in a pool did not come from fertilizer, because human body does not generate fertilizer but urine. It sound horrible, didn't it? Yes, it was true. Ten years ago, the worst swimming pool in Tianjin was in Tianjin Medical University. The urea level in that pool the urea was reported 25 times more than the minimum standard. Luckily it was closed down and filled by land a few years ago.
When I first saw the green color water, I was scared. I didn't want to jump inside, because I was afraid of choking underwater. I just stood at side and hesitated to take any moves. My coach, Ms Cao, was famous for being strict with kids. She kicked my ass then I fell into the pool. That was how I get into a pool for the first time. Then I stayed on for training for one and half year, but I only learned frog style swimming. Ms Cao's daughter, Q, who was a very cute little girl like my sister's daughter, trained much harder then me. She took swimming as a part of her life and eventually became very successful in back crawl style swimming. Compare to her, I was not that cute and I haven't achieve much in swimming.
After I quit swimming classes at the age of six, I have almost never been to swimming pool again until I began my study in Nanyang Polytechnic. There was a beautiful blue color swimming pool equipped with water circulation system located inside the campus. Sometimes, my friends V, G, and K (also called big Yin3, there also a small Yin3) asked me to join them for swimming. At that point I pretty much forgot all the techniques of frog style, all I did was some kind of "frog style" which looked like "bear style".
My friend A is an expert in swimming, who was also a important team member of NYP swimming team. She could switch flawlessly from one style to another and not reducing her speed. I was shocked. At that time, I thought mastering all the four styles was an extreme difficult task. And to swim fast would be a even more difficult task. Not even compare to her, just comparing with my friend V, G, and K, my speed was as slow as a turtle. But somehow I could still do the "frog style". I was not aware that my movements were quite ugly until my friend C pointed out my mistakes.
C is one of my good friends. And he is a talented swimmer. During secondary school, he represented He Xi district of Tianjin in swimming competition. His coach Mr Wu was the 200m free style swimming national champion of China. His "big brother" LS was the 200m butterfly style swimming national champion of China. One day, only C and I went to swimming in NYP's beautiful blue pool. When C saw how I swam, he rocked with laughter. He said I was indeed a bear struggling in water, because my techniques were all wrong and my speed was slow despite using a lot of strength.
On that day, he taught me the proper techniques of frog style (Breaststroke): Breaststroke seems easy, but most people did it wrong. The leg movements are quite simple, which look like a "frog kick". Most people can master it quickly. However, the arm movements are not easily to be trained. Most people did their arm movements wrong, because their both arms sweep in circular motion. Thus it is hard to get more power to push head out of water to breath. The right way is to sweep arms until they reach the vertical planes of two shoulder. Then sweep elbows back to chest to press water down. As a result, there will be a big power created to push the body out of water.
As C was professional in swimming, he corrected me all my techniques during that training. Now every week C and I go to swimming. In each session he tried to spot my minor mistakes and corrected them. Thanks to his guiding, I have improved a lot in both techniques and speed. For the frog style, I have transformed from a bear to a frog. I am still on the journey of mastering other styles. C also trains me free style every week. For butterfly style, I may have to look for the help from C's "big brother" LS. And I will probably left back crawl style for Q to teach, since she was my childhood friend.
My transformation from bear to frog was just finished while my new journey in swimming has just started. Although I am not going to be as cute and professional as Q; I am not going to be a champion like Mr Wu and LS; I am not going to be an expert like A or C; I am even not going to win any medals, I will continue my learning with C and enjoy my learning experience. I keep in my mind what the founder of the International Olympics Committee Pierre de Coubertin said "The important thing is not to win, but to take part".
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