Swimming / Riding bicycles

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I just had a discussion with my ex and my father about similarities in a lot of things between me and my sons. (I have AS with suspected ADD, My youngest has AS+ADHD and my mid son severe ADHD with suspected HFA)

I went to endless swimming lessons with no result. I sank like a rock. Then one day I just swimmed 800 meters. I just wasn't **trying**, I was busy thinking of something else. Same thing about riding a bicycle. One day I just jumped on the bike and pedalled along like I've never been doing anything else.

This behaviour is very similar to my sons behaviour on the same things, like swimming and riding a bike. As long as they don't concentrate on doing it everything works very well, but as soon as they realize what they're doing it's either sink as a rock or crashing with the bike...

It's like the secret of flying, according to Douglas Adams, the point is to throw yourself on the ground, and miss it.....

Have any of you similar experiences?

I don't know if this has any bearing, but I think there is a big difference between concentrating and focusing. It seems to me that when I concentrate on doing something I am generally setting myself up for failure. I end up thinking about every little step and trying to string them all together I end up losing the bigger picture and therefore not accomplishing what I set out to do. Riding a bike goes from a simple task to a complex series of movements that I have to preform prefectly in order to ride it.

Conversely, when I am focused on doing something it seems to happen without effort. Focus is almost like shutting off that concentration and letting myself just do what I know how to do. I can either focus or I can't depending on the situation, I have no control over it, but once it happens watch out because there is nothing I can't do.

According to my dad, I was more familiar with underwater swimming than surface swimming. I prefered to swim under the water instead of keeping my nose up. I just surfaced to get air. Another peculiar thing is that I'm severly afraid of humus coloured water. I just can't stand it. I have no rational reason for it. It just scares the sh*t out of me.

It took me ages to learn to swim on the surface, although I swam underwater long before it. One day, when my grandma who figured she had the most time on her hands to teach me swimming, left me alone in the children's pool to swim some time herself, I just started to swim. I didn't do anything special, it just worked. Not like I was an expert out of sudden or anything, but I suddenly remained on the surface and didn't sink down the way I had done before.

I know that from dancing too. My teacher claims that everybody is ought to not think in order to dance. Thinking only gets you in trouble and you can't follow at all. I think he's right, because not-thinking and just doing it works wonders for me!

I can't add anything to this idea about the difference between concentration and focus but it is very interesting.

I had a similar experience with the bicycle... when I was a wee lad.

Wasn't even trying. Just took off the training wheels one day and did it.

As for swimming, I still can't do it correctly.

Swimming and bike riding were the two physical things I did best. I learned both pretty quickly and enjoyed them.

This is a fascinating thread. I've always felt as if I'm a better driver when I'm kind of on "auto-pilot", as if I notice more in that situation than when I'm really paying attention and concentrating.

Riding a bike was HARD for my oldest son, as was swimming. Riding a bike was basically a breeze for my younger son (he is a lot less intense than my oldest), but he's had a somewhat hard time swimming as well.

Our theory with both boys is that they have the capability to do most things, but they are very RESISTANT. Once we push them over their line of RESISTANCE, suddenly they have no problem with whatever they are trying to attempt, and they totally enjoy the activity. (well, I may be going overboard on that one -- the oldest boy never has enjoyed swimming that much). We have seen this time and time again -- if we can just get the boys over this line, they lose the stress about the whole situation and can then relax and enjoy life.

Kris

Also took me along time to ride (without stabilizers) & swim. Id never thought of it as a conscious vs unconscious thing before..

Actually i can vaguely remember my dad telling me (in endless cycling lessons) that i *could* ride unaided, despite my instant careering into the nearest tree the moment he let go of the saddle. Then one day he let go without telling me and i went 10m.

Similarly, a lot of people say they learnt to swim by simply being thrown in the deep end with no safety measures. but your not really allowed to do that these days.

Since my kids have a modded xbox to help save the originals (and YES, every game is on a DVD bought with microsoft logo and in a green box. But after buying one game three times it was the end of not modding the box). It was quite astonishing for my ex to find out that my mid son picked up the Xbox on the steel kitchen bench for ESD precaution and simply went and collected the right screwdriver, picked the box apart, adjusted the modchip back into socketing, reassemblied the whole schabang and continued playing Halo.

He had just noticed what I was doing when I was at my ex, and carefully noticed what I was doing. Later I asked "what where you doing with the xbox" and I got the answer that his little brother had kicked the console making the modchip probably slip from the socket. And I wasn't available so he decided to fix it. He knew how to do it, so it wasn't a biggie. He even refuses to do simple work in his computer, so it was a little "What the..."

Normaly his mother would have called me for instructions, but he was so confident with what he was doing so she let him go. And obviously he managed to assemble the xbox back in working condition, and banned his little brother from 2 hours of gameplay because he kicked the Xbox.

Haha, this is very interesting. My dad claims i learned swimming through snorkeling. I remeber floating under the surface watching all the small creatures and rocks, like exploring another universe. Made me comfortable in water probably.
The thing about swimming in that it is a constant struggle against sinking, stop doing it and you'll sink. Not an ideal learning environment, I´m sure you would agree. Under the surface however your body is in near nutral boyancy. Nothing to fight against, all the more to see and explore. With snorkeling equipment you can lie near the surface for hours with no effort at all!

In general i believe that aspies have different learning progression, while others seem to learn gradually. An aspie might fail repeatedly until somehow everything falls into place. But then that theory doesen´t really fit perfectly with above mentioned thoughts on concentration and focus...

Anyhow I have managed to learn to drive safely, ride a snowboard and ride a bike. And doing the difficult stuff really helps your self-confidence like no other thing i know of!