learning to swim

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Courage

IMG_1792Last summer a young woman contacted me saying that although she could swim she had a fear of deep water. She longed to be able not only to swim out of her depth but also to jump and dive into deep water. We arranged to meet at the local pool that has a deep end, a luxury these days when the cost of heating a large body of water means that so many pools now are a uniform 1.2 metres deep.

She was nervous at first but she was brave and we did a little bit of work on treading water and finally after watching me do it, she plucked up the courage to jump into the three metre part of the pool.

Jumping into deep water is wonderful. After hitting the water, your body travels downwards until the water catches you and sends you back up to the surface with a surprising force. Thousands or maybe millions of tiny bubbles burst on your skin and you can watch them sparkling around you as you travel with them towards the air and the light.

We only had one session at the pool. She was off travelling and didn’t have time for more. I wished her a good journey and that was that I thought. Then a few weeks ago I had a message from her.

I just wanted to write and tell you that- thanks to you: I abseiled down waterfalls and canoed in Vietnam, snorkeled, scuba dived and dark cave swam in Thailand, and even went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia! I’ve included pictures for you below. Just wanted to thank you again. Without you I wouldn’t have been able to do any of these amazing things!

We only met once, so although she very sweetly says she wouldn’t have been able to do these things without me, in fact she was already brave and full of courage and I just helped her to see it. She has kindly given me permission to post the photos she sent me here.

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Fear and Success

fear

Today has been a good day. Two of my pupils, both of whom, for different reasons, have been very fearful of the water, swam a few strokes unaided. Separately each one has asked me if I think they will ever be able to swim. Both desperately want to be able to feel happy and free in the water but it is fear that is holding them both back. I know that if they continue they will be able to swim but it is not always easy to convince them of this. Both of them can propel themselves through the water but only if they are holding on to either a float or another person. This is quite common. It is swimming alone with nothing to hold on to that is frightening for many people.

It is so great to see them start to overcome their irrational but very deep seated fear. Although I am not afraid of the water at all, I am afraid of lots of other, more nameless things, but when I see their fear gently leaving them I realise that maybe I can overcome my own.

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Guest blog

Me swimming (look carefully)

Me swimming (look carefully)

Lapidus, the writing for well being organisation asked me to write a guest blog about the link between writing and swimming.

Here it is.

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Talents

karateA little  boy in my class told me today that he had four talents; swimming, scouts, karate and art. The lucky thing is his best friend, who is also in my swimming class, shares three of these talents (the friend it seems is not that good at art). It is amazing how well life works out sometimes.

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Floating

floating bear 2I have a recurring problem when I am teaching children to swim. I know that to learn to swim they have to first learn to feel completely comfortable and confident in the water. They have to not mind if their faces are totally submerged and they have to understand and enjoy the sensation of floating in the water. This can take quite some time, especially if for whatever reason, they are a bit frightened to begin with. This is fine, but the parents, who are paying for the lessons, often want the children to learn ‘proper’ swimming strokes as soon as possible. I believe that the strokes themselves don’t matter to begin with, and in fact the more you try to teach the children the proper strokes the more you interrupt the natural learning process. This means that I have to make it look like I am teaching them to kick their legs or whatever, when in fact I am letting them discover for themselves the sensation of moving through the water.

I have two children in one of my classes, a brother and sister, aged about 3 and 4, who are doing really well. They can swim under the water, jump in, float etc etc. Luckily I have not had to teach them any formal strokes yet and their mother seems to accept my methods. The other day the little boy was floating on his back, totally relaxed, just lying there for ages, pretending to be an astronaut. After some time he allowed his body to tip over very gently until he rolled over in the water like a little puppy falling out of it’s basket. He was completely out of his depth but he trusted me to pick him up if he needed help. In fact he gently steered himself towards the side of the pool that was about a metre away. He was totally at ease with himself and his body and in the water. I know that as long as no one disturbs the process he will be a swimmer all his life.

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The inner swimmer and rolling over

I often teach people who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s even 80s and are learning to swim for the first time. It has made me re-examine my own ideas about learning things or discovering things later in life and also what it is possible to acheive. Learning to swim can open up a whole new world and just because you haven’t done it earlier, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing. It is so easy to close down options and believe it is too late, but I have seen that this is just not true. Some people learn so quickly that I feel there was a swimmer lurking inside them all along, they just didn’t know it.

the-underwater-project-mark-tipple-29The interesting thing is that every person I teach seems to teach me something. For example I often tell people that it is impossible to flip from floating on your front to floating on your back without using either hands or feet to roll you over. You can’t do it by just rolling because there is nothing to push against. I usually tell people this because they are afraid of rolling over so I tell them it is impossible. But the other day met a woman who astounded me by doing it. But she could only roll one way. Turned out she has spina bifida. She compensated so well that I could hardly tell, but one side is shorter than the other. Her disability allows her to do something that no-one else I have met can do, that I thought was impossible.

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Ocean Walker

adamwalker_swimmerRI am very excited and just a little bit nervous to be going on a one day workshop with Adam Walker next Saturday.

This is from his website

‘Adam Walker is the first British person to swim the Oceans 7, the toughest 7 channel swims in the World. He is the 5th person in the World to complete this incredible feat. It is the ultimate endurance challenge, the Oceans equivalent to the “Seven Summits” and he is the 2nd person in history to complete all seven on first attempt.’

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Swimming Times

I’m very pleased to have another article published in Swimming Times. This one is about teaching adult learners. It is quite timely as a report has come out this week showing that 9 million adults in Britain can’t swim. That is about one in five people. swimming times article

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New tricks

margaretMy newest, oldest pupil Margaret, who is 89, had her second swimming lesson with me today. I usually get people to put their faces in the water at the very beginning of working with them as being able to do this is key to good swimming. Last week Margaret told me that she didn’t like to put her face in the water. A teacher pushed her into deep water as a child and she has never forgotten the fear she felt as she was under the water.  I decided that perhaps at 89 she was too old to overcome this fear and so I decided not to ask her to put her face in the water. I thought we would just gently swim up and down for a few minutes with Margaret swimming on her back, as she prefers, and me walking along beside her in the water, to offer reassurance. I thought that would be enough.

I had underestimated her.

About 15 minutes into the lesson Margaret told me that in fact she used to be able to put her face in the water and had even taken part in the school swimming gala. I said to her ‘Why don’t you try putting just your nose and mouth into the water?’ She did that with no trouble. Then I suggested she close her eyes and submerge her whole head. She did it without a murmur. ‘Well I didn’t expect you to do that.’ I said. ‘You told me to!’ ‘Yes but I didn’t think you would actually do it.’ The lesson was more or less at an end and so I guided Margaret towards the steps. I was about to lift up the lane rope for her to walk under it. ‘Don’t do that.’ She said ‘I’ll go under’ and she dipped down and swooped under the rope with her whole head submerged.

After that she wanted to try to glide into the side with her head in the water as she had done as a child.  In fact she lost her nerve and couldn’t quite do it. ‘But next week’ she told me.

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Fears that stay with us

© Bah69 | Dreamstime.com - The Deep End Photo

© Bah69 | Dreamstime.com – The Deep End Photo

Today I gave a swimming lesson to my oldest pupil to date. She is eighty nine. After a cautious start she performed a careful and graceful backstroke. She told me that although she has always enjoyed swimming she doesn’t  like to put her face in the water. She said that when she was a child a swimming teacher pushed her into the water because she didn’t want to jump in. The fear that she may never reach the surface stayed with her.  I wonder if that unkind and thoughtless teacher realised the damage she was causing all those years ago.