BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS: “What Open Water Swimming Taught Me About Resilience” Bhakti Sharma, World Record Holder 🌊
What an amazingly serendipitous story we have for you today on the “Feel For The Water” Blog by Swim Smooth!
My kid’s favourite bedtime story (by a long way!) - and in many ways an ‘ode’ to the fortunate and exciting life I’ve been lucky enough to live as a coach
Today’s blog is a story I’ve been meaning to tell for a long time, and it’s not really my story to tell!
It is, however, one which perfectly demonstrates the amazing serendipity of life and how we can sometimes find ourselves in the most seemingly ‘bizarre’ scenarios which - at the time - often just feel like a fun experience, but in the fullness of time can reveal themselves to be something much more meaningful.
Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
Upon graduating from the University of Bath in 2001 with my Sport & Exercise Science degree under my belt and a penchant for the biomechanics of swim coaching specifically, I packed my ample backpack and headed off around the world for the adventure of a lifetime. First stop? India.
Long hair and beads - it must be India!
I’d always dreamed of backpacking around the world, and whilst a severe ankle injury had put an end to my triathlon career, I was enthused about the prospect of where I might end up and who I might have the fortune to coach along the way.
After several fun weeks in the hedonistic Goa, I took a train up through Hampi and into Rajasthan. All had been going quite swimmingly. I’d spent a good bit of time getting to grips with my first ever Sony video camera and was excited about the prospect of delivering my very first video analysis and stroke correction session.
Given that, to date, I have now delivered in excess of 15,000 of these sessions over the last 20 years to swimmers of all shapes, sizes and ability levels from those phobic of the water to four Hawaii Ironman World Champions, my first one was always going to be a special one. How special, I wouldn’t realise until many years later:
13 January 2024 - a message between our Squad swimmers here in Perth about a TED Talk they’d seen about an Indian world record holding swimmer, Bhakti Sharma
Upon arriving in Udaipur, Rajasthan on the 6 November 2001, I headed straight down to Pichola Lake to see some water after several days on the wonderful Indian railway system.
Down at the water’s edge, a lady was teaching 4 or 5 children how to swim in the seemingly dirty waters of the lake.
Figuring I could be of service I went down and introduced myself as a newly graduated swim coach from England. Within minutes, the lady, Leena Sharma, had invited me back to her house to meet her family and to spend Diwali with them as their guest.
I told Leena all about my video camera and my passion for video analysis and she immediately asked me to come to the local pool the following day to deliver what would prove to be my very first ever 1-2-1 Video Analysis & Stroke Correction Session with her 11 year old daughter, Bhakti Sharma.
Bhakti Sharma (center) with her two older brothers
Paul coaching Bhakti (blue suit) and her brothers at the pristine 25m pool in Udaipur, Rajasthan on 8 November 2001 - the birth of Swim Smooth’s 1-2-1 Video Analysis service!
When we arrived at the pool we were met by the local TV & Radio station who wanted to do a piece on this slightly hippy-looking swim coach from England and his video analysis equipment. It was all quite surreal, but the whole week went really well and I could see that Bhakti had a spirit and determination about her quite unrivalled by anyone I’d met before and possibly even since.
Notes from my “Captain’s Log”, star date 8 November 2001
Leena shared with me her vision for Bhakti to one day swim the English Channel, which she went on to do so just 5 years after I coached her at the age of 16 (and 5 years before I even attempted it myself!).
There was definitely something very special about young Bhakti and the support of her family, which left me heading to Jodhpur with the singular thought of, “wow - what just happened there!”
Moving Icebergs
Low and behold, a full 23 years later and a group of female swimmers in our Squad were discussing just last week on Messenger the amazing story of a (now) 33 year old superstar swimmer from India who had set all these world records in marathon swimming, especially in the frigid waters for the Antarctic Ocean and was now a famous motivational speaker appearing on her very own Ted Talk, introduced by the King of Bollywood himself, Shah Rukh Khan:
Bhakti has gone on to truly set the world alight, and whilst we haven’t actually met up face to face since, we have remained in contact and I would say that if there’s only one thing you do this weekend with 8 spare minutes that you might have available, it would be to watch this amazingly inspiring video about Bhakti’s journey.
I’m so proud to have had the fortune to have had that “sliding doors” moment with her all those years ago and been a minuscule part of her journey in marathon swimming. Enjoy the video!
Click the image to watch the full 10-minute video - you’ll be very glad you did!
