Starting block phobia!

A couple of summers ago, there was a woman at our pool who was afraid to go off the low diving board...she was an excellent swimmer, but just afraid to dive from the diving board. I watched her working on her fear. She was at the pood during the times I was working with my coach and the pools were closed except for us and the kids in the children's pool taking lessons. This took place over the course of several weeks. The first thing she did was just climbing up onto the board... and immediately got down. She did that several times then next time she got up there she stayed for maybe 30 seconds. Each trip up she stayed a little longer until she felt comfortable enough to walk a little way out onto the board. She repeated waking onto the board trying to go a little further and staying a little longer each time. It seemed to get really rough when she got on the part of the board that was out over the water. She almost ran back off, but got back on and went back out a little further and stayed there a little bit longer. Well she kept that up until she got to the end of the board. Then she just stood, it seemed like forever and finally turned around and walked off. Her next try she sat down on the end of the board and sat and sat and sat and sat, got up walked off. Then got back on, sat on the end of the board, held her nose and slipped into the water. She repeated that numerous times. Her next progression was taking a step off the board. I watched her for about a week trying to get up the courage, she would just walk to the end of the board and stand forever,looking down at the water and then turn and walk off. She finally did take a step one day, but the next she was back to standing on the end of the board. To make a long story short, it took her well over two months to get to the point she could jump off the low dive. By that time my summer vacation was over and I never saw her again. I hope she learned to dive off the board. One day on the way out, she stopped to talk to me and my coach. During our chat she said she had made up her mind that she, not her fear was in control. So my points are. 1) don't rush it, but do work on it in small steps. And 2) don't mentally rehearse your fear of going off the block, but do mentally rehearse yourself going off with confidence, without fear, and with good form. Imagine what you will look like going off the blocks with confidence and good form. 3) start practicing your starts from the wall. Try different starts to find out which one works best for you... track, grab, power all have different aspects to them that people like, maybe you are using one that doesn't fit you.

A couple of summers ago, there was a woman at our pool who was afraid to go off the low diving board...she was an excellent swimmer, but just afraid to dive from the diving board. I watched her working on her fear. She was at the pood during the times I was working with my coach and the pools were closed except for us and the kids in the children's pool taking lessons. This took place over the course of several weeks. The first thing she did was just climbing up onto the board... and immediately got down. She did that several times then next time she got up there she stayed for maybe 30 seconds. Each trip up she stayed a little longer until she felt comfortable enough to walk a little way out onto the board. She repeated waking onto the board trying to go a little further and staying a little longer each time. It seemed to get really rough when she got on the part of the board that was out over the water. She almost ran back off, but got back on and went back out a little further and stayed there a little bit longer. Well she kept that up until she got to the end of the board. Then she just stood, it seemed like forever and finally turned around and walked off. Her next try she sat down on the end of the board and sat and sat and sat and sat, got up walked off. Then got back on, sat on the end of the board, held her nose and slipped into the water. She repeated that numerous times. Her next progression was taking a step off the board. I watched her for about a week trying to get up the courage, she would just walk to the end of the board and stand forever,looking down at the water and then turn and walk off. She finally did take a step one day, but the next she was back to standing on the end of the board. To make a long story short, it took her well over two months to get to the point she could jump off the low dive. By that time my summer vacation was over and I never saw her again. I hope she learned to dive off the board. One day on the way out, she stopped to talk to me and my coach. During our chat she said she had made up her mind that she, not her fear was in control. So my points are. 1) don't rush it, but do work on it in small steps. And 2) don't mentally rehearse your fear of going off the block, but do mentally rehearse yourself going off with confidence, without fear, and with good form. Imagine what you will look like going off the blocks with confidence and good form. 3) start practicing your starts from the wall. Try different starts to find out which one works best for you... track, grab, power all have different aspects to them that people like, maybe you are using one that doesn't fit you.