Swimming my way to Sponsorhip!

Well, hopefully anyway!

For the sponsorship bit:

I've now created a form that I hope is understandable so that you can choose how to sponsor me - if it doesn't make sense please contact me and let me know so I can try and explain the logic behind it. The form can be found here. It shouldn't take long to fill in!

Once again, I really do appreciate your support - I can't wait to go to Ukraine and take part in the project. It feels like a real opportunity to make a difference, and hopefully the impact will be sustainable and last long into the future.

As for the swimming bit, I completed both my Swimmer and Swimmer Advanced Badges while at Butlins! I'm afraid I don't have any photos as we weren't allowed to take any, but suffice to say, it was a challenge. You can see below what exactly I had to do, and a few years ago this would not have been a problem at all - swimming played a big role in my life for a long time. Now though, while I am comfortable in the water, and can "move" myself successfully with a sort of doggy-paddle for quite a while, I was determined to try and do this properly, meaning that I had to lift my arms out of the water on both my front and my back, and I had to attempt Breaststroke legs too. My mum was assessing this, and she was a County swimming judge back when I used to compete, so I knew I wasn't going to get away without doing it properly.

To add to the challenge, the pool at Butlins was no ordinary pool. We had to ask the lifeguard how we could measure our distances - he was very

keen to help us, so we found a 25m distance and then decided that the way to get 50m was to swim round the edge of the circular pool. I was absolutely knackered by the time I was half way round, but I had 3 Brownies swimming with me also trying to get their badge, so there was no way I was going to give up! Just as I could see the end in sight a massive jet of water and bubbles shot up from the bottom of the pool, completely taking me by surprise. The Brownies and I encouraged each other to keep going, and eventually we all made it. I was seriously aching for the next few days, but I really felt I had achieved something!

Swimmer badge:

1. Do all of the following.

**Safely enter shallow water without using steps.

Well, let's face it - steps were never going to be "my thing" anyway were they?! Sliding into the water wasn't too difficult.

**Submerge yourself in shallow water and blow bubbles for three seconds.

I'm not very good at counting, so I got a sharp tap on the head from a Brownie to tell me to come up to the surface!

**On your front, push and glide from the side or bottom of the pool to a standing position.

This was actually quite hard - I worked out how to push off, but trying to get into a standing position when your legs don't really want to move in air let alone water was hard work and involved some serious core muscle input along with strategic sculling movements to encourage my hips to move from behind me to underneath me - but in the end I was far closer to a standing position than I ever am on land, so I count it as a success!

**Swim ten metres front crawl.

With my arms out of the water on each stroke - there was even some form of kicking too

**Swim ten metres back crawl. 

This was challenging - not only physically, but the pool was full of Brownies and I didn't want to interrupt their fun (after all, this was a Brownie event!) so I had to dodge them - not easy on your back!

**Swim ten metres breaststroke.

I'm not sure quite what my legs looked like doing this, but I put in a lot of effort, and my ankles were certainly creating a circular "whipping" action.

**On either your front or your back, float for 20 seconds.

I could have stayed there for much longer than 20 seconds peacefully floating, but the Brownies had other ideas...

**Swim 25 metres without stopping, using any strokes. 

I used my doggy-paddle stroke for this one - it was hard work but I got there!

2. Do all of the following.

**Know why you should not run on the poolside.
**Know what you should do before getting into the pool.
**Be able to tell which is the shallow end and which is the deep end of a pool.
**Know what to do if you feel unwell in or near the pool, and if another swimmer is having difficulties.

All of number 2 I did slightly differently. I knew all the answers already, having been a qualified pool lifeguard, so I decided to make it challenging I would teach the Brownies (and in turn help them to get their badge too if they were working towards it). As even more of a challenge, I undertook this "teaching" at 10.30pm on a train... I also did other water safety features with them, so for full details see my (yet-to-be-written) post about the Water Safety Badge.

Swimmer Advanced Badge:

1. Do all of the following.

**Jump into deep water and tread water for 30 seconds.

I did this from sitting on the side but I "launched" myself in instead of just sliding! Again, not convinced by my treading water technique, but it served it's purpose - my head was comfortably out of the water the entire time.

**Swim 25 metres front crawl.

Arms out!

**Swim 25 metres back crawl.

Arms out again!

**Swim 25 metres breaststroke.

By this point, I was starting to think attempting the badges in succession was a very bad idea... but I did it!

**Scull head first, using your hands, for ten metres.

This was not nearly as hard as the others - my wrists are actually quite strong!

**In water that is shoulder deep, swim through an underwater hoop.

We didn't have a hoop, so Sprite spent a while with the Brownies and I taking it in turns to go through her legs!

**Demonstrate a mushroom float for ten seconds.

Again, my counting failure resulted in a nudge from the Brownies who wanted to get on with the next bit!

**Pick up an object from the pool floor.

Goggles. My goggles in fact - which in hindsight was a mistake, but I found them!

**Swim ten metres front crawl leg kick using a float.

Possibly my hardest challenge. It took me a while. And my ankles were dying by the end of it BUT I DID IT! It might sound silly, but I was really quite proud of myself for that :)

**Confidently swim 50 metres using any strokes without stopping.

My doggy-paddle was back - I've already told the story of this above!

2.Do both of the following.

**Discuss with the tester the importance of hygiene and safety rules at your regular swimming pool.
**Know where it is safe to dive into a pool and what precautions you should take before diving.

Once again, these were covered in my water safety session

3. Take part in one of the following as a taster session:

**diving
**synchronised swimming
**lifesaving
**water safety
**distance swimming

In addition to my water safety tecahing, Sprite offered to do some synchronised swimming with us - in this case we were doing underwater handstands - but these weren't just any handstands - apparently there is actually a lot of technique involved - the Brownies and I were hearing about the physics of body position relative to hands and all sorts! By the time it came to trying it I felt like there was far too much to remember to do, but my handstand passed the test!

Overall, these two were the hardest badges I've done so far, but I feel a real sense of achievement, and it's so good to know that I can still enjoy an activity that used to be a very important part of me.

The evidence:

Please sponsor me: Sponsorship form