Here is my story:
I am a 63-year old male who is looking to started swimming instruction. I was very afraid of the water growing up and avoided swimming lessons througout childhood and adolescence, although my two younger siblings learned without trouble. I was the typical shy, glasses-wearing nerd-type, tall and thin, with mostly intellectual interests. I did try several sports when young but didn't do well at any of them. I gave those up by tenth grade and have only walked for exercise since. I had zero water experience exxcept for some summertime wading in lakes.
I didn't learn to swim in high school, since none of the local high schools then required it. I often wonder what I would have done if they had.
After watching the 1972 Olympics, I finally decided to face my fear and, at age 27, enroll in an adult swimming class. Despite a humiliating experience in the first session ("OK, let's everyone swim down to the end of the pool and back.") I persevered and kept coming. That first session I submerged for the first time, simple but very scary. We worked on very basic skills. It took some courage just to open my eyes underwater.
I worked on the basic stuff, but never enjoyed it. There was minimal emphasis on building confidence and relaxation before moving on to stroke mechanics. We were introduced to deep-water adjustment skills, which I was not really ready for. They included descending the ladder to the bottom in the deep end, deep-water entry, and jumping off the diving board. The last two were terrifying. All I could think of was to get back and grab the side as soon as I could.
I never got totally comfortable with my face in the water. Every time I was in a prone in the water I thought of what it was like to drown.
Being in the prone position in the deep was especially scary. I just couldn't do it.
I took swimming classes off and on for about ten years with only modest success. I did learn the elementary back stroke and back crawl, but couldn't do any storkes on the front. I was given a kick board to practice the flutter kick but, despite much trying, couldn't move an inch. Strangely enough, I could kick across the pool, slowly, without using a board.
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Former Member
Thanks for all the good advice. The idea that going one-on-one for instruction is an excellent one. For a fearful or anxious learner, it makes great sense to be taught that way rather than in a semiprivate or group environment, since such a person requires a great deal of attention in order to meet his special needs. He would need to very gradually learn relaxation and confidence-building skills, ideally taught by a patient, specially trained instructor. You just can't get that in a situation where the instructor must divide his time among several students.
It is also important, I think, to find an instructor you personally can click with, a point I have never seen made in the various books and comments I have seen about swimming. Nothing can turn you off about swimming faster than having a bad personal experience with someone teaching you when you're learning to swim. I have had such experiences with several such people in the past. Instructors, when confronted with an anxious or slow learner, seem either to become indifferent or openly hostile to such an individual. Not a very good situation.
I happen to be quite thin and can't tolerate colder pools, especially in a learning situation. I have found that the ideal temperature for me would be around 90 degrees or higher. When you are trying to learn elementary aquatic skills, you must have warm water in order to relax--cold water would interfere with that process and would also make learning very unpleasant. I would be standing around a lot and not generating much heat, as I would when swimming steadily in the pool. Doing windmills, etc., before entering the pool would not work, as you would immediately lose body heat upon entering the water. Last year I was in a pool whose water was around 86 degrees--I felt cold and, within an hour, I actually started to shiver--the first stage of hypothermia.
It doesn't make sense to learn swimming skills in shallow water and then expect to suddenly transfer them to deep water. You can learn to swim across the pool well enough in the shallow end, but do not expect to do the swim the same way in the deep end. I have found that that indeed doesn't work.
Yes, of course, the physical properties of H2O are the same regardless of depth, but as the innovative Berkeley swim school founder Melon Dash has said, deep water doesn't feel the same as shallow water. I can float like a cork--there is no problem with that--yet I do not feel confident when crossing over into deep water. It is absolutely necessary to build confidence in both shallow and deep before starting to learn swim mechanics. I don't mind it at all if that process takes a long time--in fact that would make it a lot more enjoyable.
Once the deep emotive part of the brain is thoroughly trained to learn that water holds nothing to fear, it can then absorb the needed swimming skills rather quickly. Learning swim techniques alone does not lead to loss of fear, rather, the reverse is true. You can learn to have a darn good time in deep water without having to move around in it a lot.
I'd like an instructor who would see it that way.
Thanks for all the good advice. The idea that going one-on-one for instruction is an excellent one. For a fearful or anxious learner, it makes great sense to be taught that way rather than in a semiprivate or group environment, since such a person requires a great deal of attention in order to meet his special needs. He would need to very gradually learn relaxation and confidence-building skills, ideally taught by a patient, specially trained instructor. You just can't get that in a situation where the instructor must divide his time among several students.
It is also important, I think, to find an instructor you personally can click with, a point I have never seen made in the various books and comments I have seen about swimming. Nothing can turn you off about swimming faster than having a bad personal experience with someone teaching you when you're learning to swim. I have had such experiences with several such people in the past. Instructors, when confronted with an anxious or slow learner, seem either to become indifferent or openly hostile to such an individual. Not a very good situation.
I happen to be quite thin and can't tolerate colder pools, especially in a learning situation. I have found that the ideal temperature for me would be around 90 degrees or higher. When you are trying to learn elementary aquatic skills, you must have warm water in order to relax--cold water would interfere with that process and would also make learning very unpleasant. I would be standing around a lot and not generating much heat, as I would when swimming steadily in the pool. Doing windmills, etc., before entering the pool would not work, as you would immediately lose body heat upon entering the water. Last year I was in a pool whose water was around 86 degrees--I felt cold and, within an hour, I actually started to shiver--the first stage of hypothermia.
It doesn't make sense to learn swimming skills in shallow water and then expect to suddenly transfer them to deep water. You can learn to swim across the pool well enough in the shallow end, but do not expect to do the swim the same way in the deep end. I have found that that indeed doesn't work.
Yes, of course, the physical properties of H2O are the same regardless of depth, but as the innovative Berkeley swim school founder Melon Dash has said, deep water doesn't feel the same as shallow water. I can float like a cork--there is no problem with that--yet I do not feel confident when crossing over into deep water. It is absolutely necessary to build confidence in both shallow and deep before starting to learn swim mechanics. I don't mind it at all if that process takes a long time--in fact that would make it a lot more enjoyable.
Once the deep emotive part of the brain is thoroughly trained to learn that water holds nothing to fear, it can then absorb the needed swimming skills rather quickly. Learning swim techniques alone does not lead to loss of fear, rather, the reverse is true. You can learn to have a darn good time in deep water without having to move around in it a lot.
I'd like an instructor who would see it that way.
