I love the elderly swimmers at my pool. I’m not sure of their ages, but I would guess most are 70-90 years old

They are there every day. They have terrible swim strokes (inefficient, barely moving their arms or legs, or both). Some don’t swim at all. They do aquafit movements and stretches. A few like to do pull-ups using the starting blocks.

But the social aspect is the most important thing. They know all the others, hop around a bit in the shallow water while chatting, or tease and sometimes goof around splashing each other like pre-teens.

I treat every swim like a training swim, trying to get more streamlined, pull and kick stronger, aiming to be as efficient as a shark. But I have learned to love the people who have a grand time every day, while swimming as efficiently as a clownfish or batfish.

Clownfish can swim, but settle into their little plot of anemone and early move more than a few feet from there, so they aren’t particularly efficient swimmers.

According to the Bristol Aquariun, “Batfish aren’t winning any races against their fellow fish anytime soon. In fact, these unusual bottom-dwellers can barely swim at all. Instead, they scamper across the seafloor on their pectoral, pelvic and anal fins, rather like a frog or crustacean.”

Thankfully, my swimmers don’t need to adapt to their surroundings. We have learned to adapt to their needs with things like steps or a ramp into the water, and equipment like flotation belts and aquafit weights available for them to use.

What other equipment and modifications can we make to public facilities to encourage older people to keep active? I would love to hear your ideas.

Just over three months ago I got hired as a part-time lifeguard and swim instructor with the city of Ottawa. At 63, I’m one of the oldest lifeguards in the city. It has been exciting, fun and humbling.

My children are older than almost everyone I work with. I came into the job knowing I would need to put my ego aside because they’re the experts, not me. I think I have mostly succeeded, but I still laugh at myself when I have to call my teenaged supervisor for help. On training nights, when there is a physical fitness component, I’m not above being a little smug when I’m faster or stronger or have better technique than some of them. But most of the time I am listening hard and trying to absorb everything those young people can show me.

The teaching is as satisfying as I had hoped, but more challenging than I expected. I teach five classes of 3-6 year olds, and three of adults. I am building up a repertoire of games and activities, but I still struggle with when to give individual feedback and when to get everyone to do the same drill. This is especially the case for adults, where I can have people fearful of putting their face in the water learning to swim in the same class as folks who are almost ready to tackle swimming a length of the pool.

Lifeguarding is better than I thought it would be. I have a regular morning shift one day a week and I recognize all the regular lane swimmers and aquafit people. The occasional busy public swim is no longer as scary as it was at first. I even did a couple of training shifts at a large pool complex with a wave pool and giant water slide, in preparation for lifeguarding a women-only event next week. I’ll report on that in my next post.

I used to think it would be nice to do some work for a foreign affairs think tank or university when I retired, but I’m really happy I chose to do the goofy fun thing instead. It’s nice to feel like I’m making a difference in a small but tangible way. Former work colleagues who bring their kids to swimming lessons say I look like I’m having a ball. They’re right.