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My Swimming Race
It was a special version of the freestyle, which I had developed over the summer. I touched the water in front of me with my fingertips and swung my arms straight through like a paddlewheel.
That summer I swam over fifty miles in my home team's swimming pool.
The standard technique in the freestyle is to stretch your arm in front of you, pull your hand toward
you a bit and then push hard on the back swing. But my technique had a little quirk to it.
It was really the only serious competition I was ever in, and that was at the team's home pool. At the last minute, they explained to me that I was up against the area champion.
It was a Sprint. We would dive in, do a flip turn on the other side of the pool, and then sprint back. Standing on the edge waiting for the starting gun, I entered into a very strange mindset; I can't really explain it. It has never happened again, at least not yet.
After completing the flip turn, I bumped my arm against the edge the pool. Knowing that may have cost me the race, that mindset kicked in, and I really poured it on. When I touched the other edge of the pool, I noticed the area champion a couple of lanes down, looking at me in a very peculiar manner. Then I realized I had won the race.
Later, the coach, the only one with enough presence of mind not to enter into a state of denial, explained to me what happened. Halfway through the last lap, my body left the water, rising to the surface, and I was literally swimming on top of the water.
Well, how about that? -- I guess I must have picked up that technique from the time I swam away from the man-eating shark!
Copyright (c) 2005 by Paul
A. L. Hall. All rights reserved.
Click here to see the article about my encounter with that man-eating shark.
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