Learning To Swim Is Frustrating

Please help, I'm a person in Melbourne Australia that about a year ago finally made a decision to overcome a 40+ year fear of water. I've made some progress and am ok enough to now get into the pool and start learning to swim, however, I'm really finding it frustrating and a struggle. Still, bits of fear creep in. I've been desperately trying to find answers on how to go about things a different way. Is there something I can try to do myself to help things along? The swimming instructors I've had and have I'm sure try to do what they know, but it just seems I'm not making much progress. Swimming is one thing I'd want to learn, even at age 46. Last night I felt like giving up when u went to my usual swimming lesson at the pool.

Many thanks for getting in touch.

Firstly congratulations on getting into the pool and taking some steps to overcome your fear of water. You’ve done something many adults wouldn’t dare do.

I’ve met many like you over the years, and the most frustrating part about learning to swim as an adult is the time it can sometimes take. It’s not like learning as a child – to them it's like riding a bike.

Adults arrive at their swimming lessons with preconceived ideas and feelings about what they need to do. Those thoughts and feelings only serve as psychological barriers, and when you have an added fear of water, those barriers are even higher.

I advise you to put ‘learning to swim’ over to one side for a while and focus on conquering your fear. Sometimes if you set your sights on learning to swim straight off, there will always be those moments of panic that set you back or hold you up.

Your initial goal should be to learn how your body behaves in the water. Get a feel for your level of buoyancy; learn how to control your movements and learn how to control your breathing.

You may already be at a stage where that stuff seems easy, but the key thing here is to do everything in a very slow, relaxed and controlled way, without any sudden movements or moments of panic.

Aim to achieve the following:

• Take a deep breath and completely submerge.
• Push away from the poolside and glide face down.
• Regain a standing position from a face-down floating position.
• Regain a standing position from laying on your back, face up.
• Submerge underwater and slowly exhale.
• Combinations of all of the above.

In effect, you are learning how your body behaves in the water without actually swimming, and I cannot stress enough the importance of performing these tasks in a slow and relaxed way – and not just once, but several times so that gradually over time, they all become second nature.

You can do all of this stuff yourself in your own time. Go to your local pool and just mess about (with a friend if need be) and the more you do it, the sooner you will feel ‘at one' with the water and then your fear will be conquered.

From there, learning to swim is a matter of what to do with your arms and legs and adding some breathing. Apologies if I make it sound like it’s the simplest thing in the world, but if you can perform the tasks above then learning to swim a relaxed breaststroke or front crawl will be much easier.

When you have a fear of water, it's easy to think that the water is something that is trying to pull you down, if you can get your head around the fact that the water is trying to support and hold you up – you need to do your bit to help it keep you up.

A 46-year fear of water will not go away in a few lessons, however, well you think you might be doing. It will be ingrained and will take some time to get rid of.

Whatever you do, do not give up. With determination and patience, and I emphasise the word patience, you will get there. It might take six months, it might take a year, but you will get there. You have done the hard part – that is, getting in the pool in the first place. Now keep going.

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 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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I Cannot Swim On My Front!

I can swim on my back, but I cannot swim on my front. I am 64 years old and have just recently conquered my fear of the pool. I can now float on my back and do a basic swim, but I'm too frightened to lift my feet when facing forward. I tense up and panic.

First of all, congratulations on conquering your fear of the pool. You prove that it can be done and that age means nothing when learning to swim!

Learning to swim on your back is a fine achievement, but the time has come to learn to swim on your front, and there are a few possible reasons why you tense up and panic when facing forward. I suspect it is mainly down to getting your face wet and potentially submerging and not regaining a standing position or combining all of these factors.

Firstly, keep one thing in mind here. You have discovered that your body has some buoyancy and can float. That does not change when your body is in a prone (face down) position, although your feet are more inclined to sink when you are in a prone position but face up.

The first hurdle to overcome is holding your breath and submerging your face. You can practice this with your feet firmly on the pool floor until you get used to it and move on to submerging your face with a swim woggle under your arms and your feet off the pool floor when your feel more confident.

Wearing swim goggles is recommended as it can sometimes be very helpful, as having the ability to see underwater gives a much clearer perception of where you are and what you are doing. For more details and easy step-by-step guidelines for learning how to submerge, click here.

Submerging with your feet up off the pool floor is a completely different sensation from submerging when standing on the pool floor. The pool floor gives a feeling of security, where having the confidence to practice standing from a prone position is vital.

Start once again with a swimming woggle under your arms to give you some extra confidence to get used to the arm and leg movements needed for standing up mid-swim. For more details and a clear diagram of how to stand up mid-swim, click here.

Once you have become comfortable submerging and learning to stand up from prone, you can try it without any floatation aids. Remember that your body position will be slightly lower in the water, and your legs will be lower when you are prone but face out of the water.

By this stage, you will be more confident with floating in a prone position and then regaining a standing position again. This will hopefully lead to lifting your feet and swimming in a forward position with much less panic!

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

The Complete Beginners Guide To Swimming

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