OT: Tragedy strikes!!! (Not real tragedy --- just hyperbole). Swimmer sidelined by massive injuries. Full recovery expected...

 

Bandaged extremity.

You get to learn stuff over and over again in life. Such as...pay attention to where you are in the lane when swimming. Or, just pay attention in general. "Situational Awareness 101." 

We were in the middle of swim practice and our coach was having us do drills to improve our butterfly stroke. Butterfly is, without a doubt, the most demanding of the four Olympic strokes. It takes a certain sense of rhythm, good upper body strength, good technique and enough of that ole situational awareness to prevent collisions with fellow swimmers in your lane and also to prevent collisions of your fast moving hands with the unforgiving lane lines. But a good stroke does take some "wingspan." 

I've been swimming butterfly since I was six years old. That's coming on sixty two years of "hands on" experience. You'd think I'd have it all figured out by this time but ... nope. 

We swim in a circular pattern when there are two or more people in the lane. It's just like driving cars on the street. One side of the lane on the way down, flip turn, the other side of the lane going back. You have to be careful not to let your arm stroke get too wide when you are close to someone who is coming in the opposite direction. I over-compensated this morning and moved too close to the lane line and BAM! on the recovery phase of the arms in the stroke (whipping ones hands back to front to repeat the pull) the top of my hand hit the rope with extreme prejudice. The collision with the hard plastic ripped off about an inch of skin from the top of my hand. 

It hurt but no bones were broken and I was ready to keep swimming until my coach noticed "a bit" of blood running across my hand and down my arm. I decided it was a good idea to get out and staunch the bleeding. But first I took a shower to wash off the chlorine. 

The young and attentive lifeguards were ready to treat me with first aid when I exited the locker room. Sterile wipes, bandages, the works. The bleeding stopped and that was about all of the drama. I missed the last twenty minutes of the workout so, of course, I was pissed off. But I figure that after one day out and the purchase of some waterproof bandaids and I should be back in the mix and swimming on Saturday.

I'll try to be a bit more careful. I'm embarrassed since I'm always telling runners and bikers how rare it is to get injured in a swim workout. Now eating my words...

What does this have to do with photography? Well, my first thought went directly to the potential of lasting damage to the hand that clicks the shutter button on my cameras. Would my abilities to work a camera be degraded?

Of course not. It's just a bloody scrape. An actual bloody scrape, but not in the way the UK folks use the word "bloody". Just literally bloody. 

And that's what I did this morning in swim practice. (Apparently, according the the neurosurgeon swimming in the adjacent lane, skin gets thinner and more fragile as one ages. I refuse to accept that this had anything to do with aging..... it was just carelessness).