I'm 27 years old and very afraid of water but I've decided I want to finally get over that fear and learn how to swim. My only previous experience of being in the water was five afternoon swimming lessons through school when I was 11, couple of trips to the lake where I waded in up to my chest and stood around and 2 aquafit classes when I was 24. I recently signed up for lessons at the YMCA that are once a week for an hour, plus I usually go to the pool for a couple of hours on weekends. I've taken 6 weeks of lessons now and I've improved a lot but in some ways I feel like I haven't improved enough. I used to be afraid to even put my face in the water and after about 10 hours of pool time I finally figured out how to blow bubbles out my nose. I still haven't figured out how to blow bubbles out my mouth without inhaling water and I don't feel like I can blow bubbles or hold my breath long enough to even do a short front glide. I'm still afraid to even do a back or front float without assistance of some sort because I'm worried about my head going under. I've bought some nose plugs, but none of them seem to work very well for me. I've figured out how to tread water but of course I'm only comfortable doing that because my feet aren't far from the bottom and my head isn't underwater. I'm getting frustrated because I'm the only one in my adult class who seems to be afraid of the water to such a large degree. I've signed up for an additional set of lessons to the ones I'm taking now, but I'm worried that I'm not going to improve significantly because of my fear. My fiancee's sister is a lifeguard and she says I could be swimming laps by next summer but I'm not so sure. I know a child who isn't afraid can learn quickly but I'm not so sure about myself. I was hoping that someone here might have some advice or encouragement on how I can become more comfortable in the water and give me some idea of how long it should take an afraid adult to learn how to swim. Thanks.
Parents
Former Member
I know several adults who are scared of drowning and won't go near the water, much less take lessons, put their head in and blow bubbles. Facing something you fear takes guts, and you've apparently got them.
I don't think you should be too hard on yourself after 6 lessons. Even kids with no fear sometimes pull up short for awhile on the face in the water thing. I've seen the link that SwimStud recommended, and it's a good one.
I've also seen a different approach to swimming than the Y's which I'll put out here for food for thought. When my daughter was first learning to swim, she learned first to float on her back. At first, the instructor supported her head on their shoulder then eventually just had their hand on the back of her head, then just let go...and she floated on her back, being able to breath the whole time. Only then did the instructors work on dipping below the water, and then being held close, not prone on their fronts. After two weeks (10 one hour lessons with 3 other kids), they all were able to jump off the side, bob up on their backs and scull over to the side. Only when they accomplished this, did they flip on their bellies and start learning forward arm strokes. And the first steps to that were instructor assisted stroke, stroke, stroke then flip on their backs and repeat. Step by step they progressed to a full freestyle. My point is that you might feel more comfortable putting your face under water if you can trust your natural bouyancy and know that you can flip over on your back at your will.
There are other schools of thought on learning to swim as an adult and other more familiar with them will have to comment on them. I know that Total Immersion (I'm pretty sure it's www.totalimmersion.com) works with comfortably introducing a person to water.
Good luck and let me know how you're doing with it. (You can PM me if you like).
I know several adults who are scared of drowning and won't go near the water, much less take lessons, put their head in and blow bubbles. Facing something you fear takes guts, and you've apparently got them.
I don't think you should be too hard on yourself after 6 lessons. Even kids with no fear sometimes pull up short for awhile on the face in the water thing. I've seen the link that SwimStud recommended, and it's a good one.
I've also seen a different approach to swimming than the Y's which I'll put out here for food for thought. When my daughter was first learning to swim, she learned first to float on her back. At first, the instructor supported her head on their shoulder then eventually just had their hand on the back of her head, then just let go...and she floated on her back, being able to breath the whole time. Only then did the instructors work on dipping below the water, and then being held close, not prone on their fronts. After two weeks (10 one hour lessons with 3 other kids), they all were able to jump off the side, bob up on their backs and scull over to the side. Only when they accomplished this, did they flip on their bellies and start learning forward arm strokes. And the first steps to that were instructor assisted stroke, stroke, stroke then flip on their backs and repeat. Step by step they progressed to a full freestyle. My point is that you might feel more comfortable putting your face under water if you can trust your natural bouyancy and know that you can flip over on your back at your will.
There are other schools of thought on learning to swim as an adult and other more familiar with them will have to comment on them. I know that Total Immersion (I'm pretty sure it's www.totalimmersion.com) works with comfortably introducing a person to water.
Good luck and let me know how you're doing with it. (You can PM me if you like).
