And it is not the first time I knew that my teacher is really philosophical. Still remember? The first lesson she taught me is about rhythm. She always relate swimming to practising piano to make us understand more about what she said. Today, she even spoke more philosophies than any lesson before. Her philosophy are so...philosophical. haha. Ignore what I said. Just want to jot down some of her philosophies here:
1. In swimming, it is very important that you learn to relax your muscles and not to tense up all your muscles at once. The more you tense up, the harder you'll find to swim in the water. Try to beat the water with your fist, you'll get nothing but pain. Now try to move your hand slowly under the water, you'll feel more strength from the water compared to beat it. As for the hands, if you let them relaxes, they'll slowly float in the water.
2. Why the fish can swim so fast and gracefully through the water, without using lots of energy at any time? The answer is simple, because the water is the fish and the fish is the water. To swim the fastest, you have to blend yourself into the water.
3. Most of the people forget to feel the water when they are swimming. They learn so hard to make themselves swim in the water. It is okay to learn a lot of theories but you can only master a technique by feeling it. It is very important you must feel the movement of the water. Only by feeling you'll get what I teach you.
4. A student asked why it is so hard to balance when swimming in the water. She said," It is impossible to find a balance point when swimming freestyle. That's why ou must keep moving with the water. "
5. I never teach the techniques all at once to you when you're learning freestyle. You have to practise by yourself, and when it comes to a point when I know you can learn to handle the trick a bit more, I'll teach you that step. That's why you improve every time you practise. And you'll slowly come to a point when you're there to learn the right thing.
6. The three styles are vitally linked to each other. Learning breaststroke helps the learning of freestyle while the freestyle helps the learning of butterfly. Thus, one can never learn one style and totally abandon or skip the other one. ( That's the most important thing I have learned from her.)
Aren't the philosophies are so great and inspiring us more to swimming? Teacher Lily has greatly integrated the swimming into her way of living life. And only today I knew that she is actually a Buddhist and she could do few hours of meditation every day! Wow. All that makes me admire her from my heart. A great teacher can influence more than we can imagine. And learning swimming gives me more than what I initially expected. It is, after all, NOT merely about swimming.
