When I began my swim teaching career, I had an opportunity to teach a class of Adult Petrified Swimmers. The fears that these adults brought to the class were long-founded and intertwined in their personal life histories. Why were they fearful? Several examples are as follows: an ocean eddy (as defined at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eddy a current of air or water running back, or in an opposite direction to the main current. Especially a circular current) had pulled one youngster down and quickly out into the ocean; another’s parents were very afraid of the water so they always used frightened voices and held hands very tightly when their child was around water; finally a little tyke was playing at home when he fell face-down into a bucket of water for several minutes and recalls being rushed to the hospital in a blaring ambulance. Would it be possible for these adults to become comfortable in the water? My answer was, and still is, a resounding “YES”.
In fact, last evening, I taught adults in a “Terrified of Water” class. I am most intrigued by the eye contact that I have with these adults; they have a look that pleads “Do you REALLY think that I can learn to swim?” As an adult comes to the class, he does not know what to expect. He might be okay to put his face in the water, blow bubbles, etc. When he stands in chest-deep water with his feet on the bottom of the pool, everything is fine and he feels “safe”. However, as he tries to learn to float when his feet come off of the ground he soon discovers that everything is NOT fine. Let’s think about that a moment. What happens when one floats? All body parts are off the pool floor and the body lays on the surface like a boat. How can a teacher teach someone to float without first teaching how to get up from a float? There are many teaching techniques that assist the swimmer to do just that. Once the skill of a recovery-from-a-float is mastered then that person is ready to attempt a float.
Because you are reading this in the TUB Swimming area, I want you to be clear that one of the main objectives in writing TUB Swimming is for parents to assist their child in warm bath water using pre-swim techniques. These practice routines are foreign to petrified adult swimmers. Each child who learns these TUB Swimming skills will be all that more prepared for the swimming pool. How about terrified adults? Of course they can benefit from reading TUB Swimming. The only difference is that an adult’s size prevents him from practicing very easily in a bath tub (unless that adult has a huge spa in his home). However, in TUB Swimming each elementary swim technique is broken down into minute parts that children, parents AND petrified swimmers can all discover and use for their personal benefit. As these techniques are learned the child, parent and frightened swimmer all become calm swimmers.
Do you see yourself as a PETRIFIED SWIMMER or a CALM SWIMMER?
TUB Swimming 