From Virtually Drowning to the World’s Most-Subscribed Swimming YouTube Channel – Half 1

Hello everybody, My title is Sanuj Srivastava, Today, most individuals know me as Guruji via my Swimming By Sanuj YouTube channel, and my YouTube channel has grown to turn into the world’s most-subscribed swimming channel. But this story isn’t about the place I’m in the present day, it’s about the place I began. There was a time once I was afraid of water, stop swimming after my very top quality, and by no means imagined that at some point swimming would fully change my life. This is the story of my journey, from worry and failure to my first competitors, and all the pieces that occurred alongside the best way.

My swimming journey started in the summertime of 2009, once I noticed a swimming pool for the very first time at a authorities sports activities stadium close to my residence. Ironically, that very same yr was additionally when my journey nearly got here to an finish.

In 2009, I noticed a swimming pool for the very first time in my life. That was the day I made a decision I wished to learn to swim. Watching individuals glide effortlessly via the water made it look really easy. But the second I stepped into the pool, I noticed swimming was nothing prefer it regarded from the surface.

During my very first lesson, I skilled the terrifying feeling of drowning. For a couple of moments, I actually believed I wasn’t going to make it. Thankfully, the lifeguard pulled me out earlier than something severe occurred. But that one expertise planted such a deep worry inside me that I made a decision to stop swimming after only a single class.

About a yr later, in 2010, I made a decision to present myself one other likelihood. This time, I tied a big inflatable tube round my physique earlier than stepping into the water. I used to be nonetheless scared, however with the tube on, I knew I wouldn’t sink. Slowly, I began shifting my palms and legs and managed to maneuver ahead.

My father at all times inspired me to push my limits. One day, he advised me, “You have the tube on, so go to the 6-foot-deep section and start swimming laps.” I used to be nervous, however I trusted him. Within a couple of days, I used to be swimming 30 to 40 laps with the tube.

During these apply classes, I slowly started to grasp how you can pull the water, how you can kick correctly, and how you can transfer my physique ahead. Swimming was lastly beginning to make sense. But there was nonetheless one drawback, I used to be fully depending on the tube.

Then at some point, my coach gathered all the scholars who have been utilizing tubes and mentioned, “Today, everyone is going to jump into the deep water… without the tube.”

The second I heard these phrases, my coronary heart began racing. I felt like this might both be the day I conquered my greatest worry… or the day I gave up swimming ceaselessly.

One by one, the scholars jumped into the deep finish. Out of everybody earlier than me, just one boy one way or the other managed to succeed in the shallow finish on his personal. The relaxation needed to be helped out of the water.

Then it was my flip.

Instead of leaping straight into the deep water, I took a brief run-up, hoping it might cut back the space I needed to swim. But it didn’t assist in any respect.

The second I landed within the deep finish, all I may see was infinite water beneath me. I went into full panic mode. Every time my head got here above the floor, the one factor I may see was my coach standing there with a float in his hand. I stored desperately making an attempt to succeed in it, however irrespective of how arduous I kicked and pulled, it at all times felt simply out of attain.

Slowly, I began swallowing water, and my panic turned even worse.

My coach was standing proper beside me with the float. He may have handed it to me at any second, however he wished me to maintain making an attempt so I might put within the effort to avoid wasting myself as a substitute of giving up.

I turned so terrified that I began crying. Between my cries, I stored screaming, “Please save me! I’m going to die!”

Somehow, whereas crying, kicking, and scuffling with all the pieces I had, I lastly reached the sting of the pool.

That 25-meter swim wasn’t fairly. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t technically right.

But it was the very first 25 meters I had ever swum fully by myself.

I had no concept then that this terrifying second would turn into the muse of all the pieces that adopted.

And what occurred after that fully modified my swimming journey ceaselessly.