Doing Less: Anna Neubert-Wood in Interview (with herself)
Anna, you have been swimming in the sea for many years now, and ever since taking it up you have been avoiding swimming pools, yes? Tell me more.
Yes, since discovering the freedom of wild swimming, I liked the natural light so much, the space, the freedom, and the sense of adventure. What had put me off pools was the articifial light, the lanes, the chlorine smell, hygiene and the rigidity of it. I preferred the thrill of the wild, the changeability of the sea, the lessons I learnt about myself, and so on.
Why did you take up swimming lessons at the age of 42 and where did you go for lessons?
The urge to improve my swimming technique has been there for many years, ever since my children took their swimming lessons, really.
The swim qualification German children do (which I did), is called “Seahorse”, and my current sea swim style is very similar to the swim style of a seahorse – upright, old lady style, bobble hat, and ineffective.
Nevertheless swimming has always been part of my life, and I was still able to swim one kilometer in the pool on my first child’s due date, so endurance and enjoyment was never impacted by the swim technique of a seahorse. However, with the wrong technique I always left the pool with a cranky neck.
Basically, I struggled putting my head under water without holding my nose. I didnt get my head around the breathing, I panicked easily. But I was quite used to my swimming style and swimming was never a form of exercise to me. In the sea, it is more about cold water immersion, and about mind power, pain and joy.
Post Lockdown, I really fancied learning a new skill, and improving my swimming technique was going to be it, so I signed myself up to adult coaching classes at Edinburgh Leisure. Every Monday lunchtime I’d cycle up to the Royal Commonwealth Pool, to be a student again and learn a new skill!
Who is your biggest inspiration when it comes to swimming?
I don’t follow sports closely enough to know names, but in fact it was animals I found the biggest inspiration in – penguins, seals, dolphins. But mainly penguins: the alignment, smooth movements and glide in the water, despite their big and sometimes round bodies – definitely penguins.
You mention your breathing struggles – what else did you struggle with ?
Breathing and slowing down.
In the work I do with WanderWomen, I facilitate slowing down and deep breathing, but wow, do I struggle with that myself, especially when it comes to swimming.
The breathing took me 7 weeks to crack, and I still occasionally inhale the pool and use a nose clip to simply focus on mouth breathing.
Because swimming is such a multitasking sport, it is even more important to slow down, break everything down, and put it all together again slowly…arms, flexibility, mobility, legs, shoulders, rotation, hand entry, kicks and effectively pushing the water away to propel yourself forward…it’s a complex challenge to be well coordinated!
And when faced with a challenge like that it helps to slow down. I find that hard.
The lessons were a great reminder to keep things slow. Rushing only makes the quality of the swimming skills drop, it feels really counter productive – but slowing down is beautiful!
What was the most embarrassing moment?
I signed up for Adult Swimming Coaching lessons – there are three tiers. Beginners, Improvers, and Stroke Development.
Signing up online, I went for the latter, thinking I simply wanted to improve my stroke.
However when I arrived at my first lesson and told the coach that I couldn’t put my face in the water without holding my nose he said I should really be in the beginners class…that was a little embarrassing.
However there was no space in the beginners class, so I got parallel tuition in the stroke development class.
Despite the embarrassing drills to start off with – simply breathing out underwater at the pool side while everyone was already at the crawling stage, I caught up quite quickly…but yes, no learning journey is without its embarrassing moments…
What did you enjoy about your swimming lessons, and what came easy?
I really enjoyed learning a new skill and overcoming fears. It was 8 weeks of growth. No one can take that from me. I worked hard for it and sometimes I felt like giving up, but looking back, I feel proud and like I have achieved something huge, going from the panicked fear of drowning to some semi-smooth crawl swim technique.
What came easy to me was mobility, flexibility and endurance. I didn’t find that hard.
I enjoyed putting all the different swimming drills together, to work towards the goal of swimming as smoothly as a penguin.
Occupying my brain with a mental and physical challenge was a nice distraction from all the overwhelm we are going through in the bigger world picture right now. I love that all other worries and anxieties in life temporarily disappear, by simply focussing on one thing – swimming.
The exhaustion after an hour of exercise, the groundedness, the happy hormones – what’s not to love.
Also, I enjoyed my coach’s wiggles and dances, demonstrating the drills at the poolside. Thank you, Lewis!
Splashing also makes me happy.
Learning together with other people, the shared vulnerability, working towards a common goal with varying sets of motivators, each struggling with different things, each determined to fix or improve something – there is beauty and good bonding in that, too.
What has been stopping you all these years? What was your biggest fear?
The fact that I believed that I would never be able to learn how to get the breathing right. The sheer panic when I put my head under water – the synchronized movements of my body, with the snatches of breath to the side, the fear of breathing in and swallowing water – it all seemed beyond my capabilities. It showed me that anyone can learn anything. It’s never too late. My inner critic was my biggest enemy.
What was the most surprising thing you learnt about yourself during the swim lessons?
I couldn’t stop thinking how ironic it was that in the pool I was struggling so much with the breathing, when I practice breathing and deep brathing daily, on my own, and with countless women in my business:
Breathing, the slow and relaxed ebb and flow of our bodies that supports our wellbeing, the natural rhythm sustaining our whole being, tool against stress, anxiety, overwhelm and pain.
The one fundamental function of our body that makes everything easier.
Yet, we forget how to do it properly.
We shallow-breathe our way through our stressful, fast-paced lives, to get to the bottom of our endless to-do lists… Practising breathing, proper breathing, on land or in the water, is so important!
Hm, any other learnings? Anyone can learn anything. At anytime! I am so pleased I did this! Learning new skills is so good for the brain, the soul, the mind and the body.
The other thought my swim teacher left me with was to thing how I can get the same results be doing less.
It’s a constant life reminder, when it comes to work, etc.
How can we do things more focussed and effective, but also take more time to slow down.
In the case of swimming it was about working less hard and exhausting oneself, and achieving the same by slowing down.
Lastly, it’s nice to be able to swim (actively), and not just to float (passively). Sometimes life asks that of us.
So many life lessons in trying something new!
What’s next for you?
For now, I will stop lessons, and practice on my own, working towards the relaxed, rythmic and meditative flow of front crawl. I might re-start lessons in the autumn/winter to keep working on improving my swim skills with a coach.
Until then, I will explore under the water in the sea, and keep enjoying my mindful sea swimming and the weightless, star shaped floating in the waves – I won’t ever want to do anything else than that in nature, I don’t think, accompanied by silence and deep listening when on my own, or when in a group, child-like screams and belly laughter.
And yet I will remember that if I wanted to use my swimming skills for the purpose of exercise – I can!
