13 July 2026

It’s getting late. I have to wake up early tomorrow since I’m heading to the office and I want to run first thing in the morning, but here I am.

Writing has always been one of my most “productive” ways to procrastinate, and it also happens to be pretty good for my mental health, so I’ll take it.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I last posted here. There’s so much I want to talk about, but for now, I just want to rant a little about my swimming lessons.

I had my fourth lesson today. A part of me wishes that I documented each session, but it is what it is.

Today’s routine

• Warm-up: 10 sets of flutter kicks across the shorter side of the pool while holding my breath (no arm pulls, just streamline); repeat twice

• 4 sets of freestyle across the entire length of the pool while holding my breath; repeat as needed until I reach the other side

• 4 sets of freestyle while using a kickboard

• 4 sets of freestyle without a kickboard

• 4 sets of closed fists drill to improve form

• 4 sets of breaststroke with flutter kicks

• Cooldown: 8 sets of flutter kicks across the shorter side of the pool while holding my breath (no arm pulls, just streamline)

Post-lesson reflections

• I’m still struggling with freestyle, especially when moving my right. I need to be extra conscious when twisting my body, and make sure I’m including my hips. Oh, and apparently, I have this habit of looking in front after getting some air instead of immediately staring straight down. At least I no longer get mouthfuls of water after twisting to the right.

• When twisting my right side, one trick is to extend and reach as far as I can with my left arm.

• I drank a bit of water for the first time since my swimming lessons started… and it just so happened after I finally did an incredible right arm pull during freestyle (it just felt so right, I knew that that was it).

• My coach said I have a nice swimming form, and that I’m very graceful in the water. From the start, he’s also emphasized that my flutter kicks are great. It’s nice to get some validation!

• My kicks are great, sure, but I need to remember to keep kicking while I take in breath. Otherwise, I’m going to sink.

• When my coach was demonstrating the breaststroke arm pulls, it looked… so strange and unnecessarily complicated. But when I finally tried, it somehow felt natural, and I was able to do 6 strokes and 3 breaths the first time—it took me such a long time to do that in freestyle; in fact, I’m still struggling!

Random thoughts

• I’ve been tracking my swimming lessons with my smartwatch, but I never really paid attention to the workout data. I still struggle with freestyle so much that my watch detects my strokes as butterfly. But today, my “main style” suddenly changed to “medley”. And when I checked the breakdown, I learned that towards the end, my watch finally detected my strokes as freestyle! More importantly, the breaststrokes were recorded, too! It’s such a small thing, but it made me feel really good about my progress.

• I have a 2-hour lesson on Friday to make up for the missed class last week. I seriously don’t know if I can last 2 hours, but I have to.

• I have 6 sessions left. We’ve only been focusing on freestyle and haven’t gotten to survival swimming yet. I wonder if we’ll end up tackling breaststroke properly, too? I’d like that, but I also want to be realistic. I can’t even swim the entire length of the pool with freestyle just yet. It still hasn’t clicked, and a part of me is scared I won’t have it figured out by the last session.

• Sometimes I get discouraged and think that my progress is too slow. But I have to remind myself that it’s not a race and we all learn at different paces.

• Swimming is hard, and it doesn’t come naturally to me, but I love it. And I know that I’ll continue taking lessons after this package is done, probably until I become advanced. I want to make swimming one of my main—if not my main—sports.

See you on Friday!