Swim Model

"People want to learn to swim and at the same keep one foot on the ground too"

New swimmers often tell me that they can't put their faces in the water, but no one ever has a problem with this when it comes to the lesson. So far, I have not had anyone who hasn't been able to do it within about five minutes. There are simple techniques to overcome this fear and they always seem to work.

Once you can put your face in the water, you can float. More or less everyone floats. Occasionally you do come across someone who is less buoyant than most, but this just means they need a little bit more forward propulsion to actually swim or they may float a little lower down – more under the surface – than most. However, fear and tension mean that people hold themselves stiffly and, by hunching their heads or shoulders, they unintentionally push their feet towards the bottom of the pool.

The biggest fear for many people is taking their feet off the bottom when they have nothing to hold on to. One woman described it as a "fear of gaps" – like when you step from the platform to the train. Another said it was like the moment when you fall asleep and the feeling of falling jerks you awake. Letting go is the hardest part to teach because so much of it is in the mind. Many people are fine as long as they can hold hands. But, as soon as they try to let go, panic sets in and – even though I don't feel it myself – I can see that it is a real, deep-seated fear.

An instructor told me, “Teaching swimming has taught me so much about fear itself. Fear keeps us safe, but it also prevents us from moving forward. If you are frightened and try to hold on to the water, you can't swim. It is only by letting go and trusting that the water will hold you up that you can learn to swim. This is far more important than technique, but it takes time.”

Adding more to me she said, “Occasionally, I have adult pupils who have not learned to swim simply because of circumstances. One woman I taught grew up in a war zone – there was no time for swimming. She was not afraid of the water, she had just never learned. She was swimming lengths of the pool easily after just a few lessons because she had no fear and the process was straightforward.”

Sometimes lessons learned in the water seem to translate into real life. One man who was a total non-swimmer before he came to me told me that, once he conquered his fear of water and learned to swim, he found that he was no longer afraid of dogs.

If its fear which is holding you back to do your best, than you are only blocking your own progress….