The Devil is in the details.

My total swimming experience is 8 hours long. I have taken eight, 30 minute lessons over the last month. After the first four lessons I had successfully learnt to float on my front and back. The next three lessons were aimed at getting me to

keep floating
kick my legs
move my hands
and
breathe

at the same time.

My last lesson for the series was today. My teacher figured out that while all the individual elements were fine, the combination wasnt working.
Today my teacher figured out something after watching my attempted swimming for the first 10 minutes of our lesson. While I was getting frustrated that one third of the time had passed and she was going under water trying to figure out what was wrong, she was facing a real challenge.

Finally she figured it out and when she explained it to me, I had a revelation. Just by arching my back a little bit and hunching my shoulders forward a few degrees, I was SWIMMING !!

Great teachers are great because they pay attention to detail. Kudos to this one !