Some people are afraid of the dark...some are afraid to go outside....
I'm afraid of the starting blocks!
Yes, sad and pathetic but true - the blocks scare the beejeezus outa me. Why, I don't know. When I swam in high school I had no fear (and no cap and goggles either - we're talkin' WAY back in the day...)
Well...flash forward several years to my now Masters career and my coach talks me in to competing. So we have a start clinic. From then on (and it's gotten worse) I developed a really strange phobia of actually getting on the blocks and jumping off.
Part of it has to do with the fact that my starts are terrible. I have practiced and I cannot seem to get my brain to wrap around the information of what I'm suppose to do, and to get my body to follow.
Lately it just so happens that I've been competing in really long races (i.e., 1650, 1000, etc.) and I start from the wall. But when I compete in the shorter distances I know I cannot get away with that. And, I'd really like to get over the irrational fear of diving into the water...AND I'd really like to have a decent, competitive start.
Suggestions? Thoughts? Therapy of any kind...?
PS: we do have a diving pool where we work out, so I have no excuse!
:(
Parents
Former Member
Wow. I wouldn't recommend having someone actually throw you off the block, Kari (sorry Craig!), but there's some point to that.
If you can get up onto the block (if you went to a start clinic, I'm assuming you can make it that far, and that your actual fear lies in getting off the block the way they want you to), do what everyone else is telling to and GO SLOW.
I used to love doing block starts when I was an age grouper, until i went to a meet when I was 12, and I slipped off the block and landed funny in the water. After that, I was petrified of falling off the block, or going off it at all. It still makes me shudder thinking about it (I'm sure that helped you, but here's my point, promise)
My coach spend an entire two weeks with me working on this. He understood my fear, and suggested that we just work on getting back on the blocks first. Once I spent some time standing on them, looking around, getting comfortable with the height again, we worked on curling my toes around the edge of the block. That was is, just toe curling, for three hours, two days. My coach was a very patient man. He should have gotten a medal.
After the toe curling, he suggested that I literally just jump into the pool. Walk off the block, jump, whatever. Just make the connection from block to water, feet first. Do that until you're tired of doing it. Then do some standing dives. If they freak you out too much, go back to jumping feet first for awhile. Once you get comfortable doing standing dives, lean over and dangle your arms down, just a little, and do the dive thing again. Or the jump thing, whichever. Just slowly get comfortable doing the little motions that turn a dive from the wall into a start off the blocks.
It sounds really tough, but I swear, if you get somebody there with you, to encourage you (and having them hold onto the block helps, if you have the blocks that move, like we do), it will all seem like child's play to you. Promise.
So, to review: Stand. Curl. Jump. Dive. lean and jump. Lean and Dive. You can do it!
Wow. I wouldn't recommend having someone actually throw you off the block, Kari (sorry Craig!), but there's some point to that.
If you can get up onto the block (if you went to a start clinic, I'm assuming you can make it that far, and that your actual fear lies in getting off the block the way they want you to), do what everyone else is telling to and GO SLOW.
I used to love doing block starts when I was an age grouper, until i went to a meet when I was 12, and I slipped off the block and landed funny in the water. After that, I was petrified of falling off the block, or going off it at all. It still makes me shudder thinking about it (I'm sure that helped you, but here's my point, promise)
My coach spend an entire two weeks with me working on this. He understood my fear, and suggested that we just work on getting back on the blocks first. Once I spent some time standing on them, looking around, getting comfortable with the height again, we worked on curling my toes around the edge of the block. That was is, just toe curling, for three hours, two days. My coach was a very patient man. He should have gotten a medal.
After the toe curling, he suggested that I literally just jump into the pool. Walk off the block, jump, whatever. Just make the connection from block to water, feet first. Do that until you're tired of doing it. Then do some standing dives. If they freak you out too much, go back to jumping feet first for awhile. Once you get comfortable doing standing dives, lean over and dangle your arms down, just a little, and do the dive thing again. Or the jump thing, whichever. Just slowly get comfortable doing the little motions that turn a dive from the wall into a start off the blocks.
It sounds really tough, but I swear, if you get somebody there with you, to encourage you (and having them hold onto the block helps, if you have the blocks that move, like we do), it will all seem like child's play to you. Promise.
So, to review: Stand. Curl. Jump. Dive. lean and jump. Lean and Dive. You can do it!
