Fear of Swimming In Deep Water

How can I overcome my fear of swimming in deep water? My swimming lessons take place in a pool that is 6'6 deep at the deep end, and I feel I cannot swim at that end. Please help.

You can practice a few exercises in the pool that will get you used to deeper water and help you conquer your fear of swimming in deep water.

Floating Is The Same In Any Water Depth

Firstly it is important to understand that the human body behaves the same in deep water as in shallow water. In other words, how your body floats and your ability to swim in deep water is the same as in more shallow water. The actual depth of the water makes no difference.

However, psychologically it can make a huge difference. Fear of swimming in deep water and even just fear of water can cause the body to become nervous and our muscles to become tense. This then makes swimming very difficult. The key to overcoming this initially is to relax.

Relax, It's All In Your Head

How to relax in the water? The first step is to become comfortable with holding your breath and submerging below the water's surface. This has to be practised in the water of standing depth. You can even try it whilst holding on to the poolside for security if you feel you need to.

When you feel comfortable with submerging (which can take anywhere between 10 minutes and ten weeks, depending on your fear), try it without holding the poolside and then try it without your feet on the pool floor. As long as you know you can place your feet back down at any point; your confidence should start to grow. Click here for tips on regaining a standing position.

Becoming comfortable with being underwater will help you relax in all parts of your swimming.

Start To Venture Out

Then comes swimming in deep water. If you know that your body will float and move in the same way in deep water as in shallow water and you are now more confident with submerging underwater, actually swimming in deep water should be a little easier psychologically.

Try swimming in the water of standing depth, swimming away from the poolside for about 5 to 10 meters, then changing direction and swimming back to the poolside again. This is a good test of your swimming strength and confidence. Practice this until you are totally confident and find it easy, then go to the pool's deep end and do exactly the same.

Practice it until you find it easy, and when you do, you have proved to yourself that you can swim away from the poolside, change direction and swim back again and the depth of the water makes no difference whatsoever.

Download The Book With All The Tips

My best-selling book The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming contains everything you need to give you that helping hand with all parts of learning to swim, including learning how to submerge. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming 

Professional guidance and support to help you through every stage of learning how to swim.

Discover everything you need from first entering the pool and building confidence to floating and breathing. Plus, 82 exercises to master the four basic swimming strokes.(click here for an instant preview) 

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Tense Swimming In The Deep End

I get very tense swimming in the deep end...the thing is that I cannot hold my breath for so long, maybe due to fear and when I stop when I'm short of breath, I lose balance.

How do I conduct myself, so I don't feel like I'm sinking or drowning since the water level comes above my head?

How do I take off from the pool wall? What should be the easier technique to float and glide from the wall? Right now, my coach asks me to push off from the pool ladder, and it does not give me enough grip against pushing the pool wall. Please advise and rectify my mistakes.

The best way to conquer your fear of swimming in deep water is firstly to master swimming in water of your depth. The psychological effects of swimming in deep water can sometimes have a damaging effect on learning to swim.

Try swimming in water of about shoulder depth where you can stand if you need. Swim away from the poolside for 5 to 10 meters, then turn around and return to the poolside again, but without touching your feet on the pool floor.

Turning and changing direction whilst swimming can be hard work, especially without touching the pool floor or standing. However, it can be very helpful for deep water confidence.

If you practice it enough and become stronger and more confident in this exercise, the water's depth makes no difference. You can swim with the confidence of knowing that you can change direction and swim to the poolside no matter how deep the water is below you.

Pushing away from the pool wall can differ depending on the type of pool you are swimming in. Some poolsides are easy to hold on to and some are not so.

Either way, it all comes down to your overall confidence level and, more specifically, to your confidence in holding your breath and submerging your face.

You must be confident submerging your face to perform a basic push and glide from the poolside.

If you practice holding your breath and submerging, you will become more relaxed, which will help with floating and gliding.

My ebook The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming contains all the help and support you need, from relaxing, floating and breathing to all the technique tips for learning to swim the four basic strokes. Click here for an instant preview, or click the link below for more information.

The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming

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