The fear of water is one thing that keeps people back from learning how to swim. No matter how many times you hear someone assure you that water doesn’t bite, you still feel overwhelmed and panicky once you’re in or anywhere near a pool. If this is you then you’re in the right place. We would like to help you get over your fear of water so that you can actually learn how to swim.
There are a number of reasons why learning how to swim is important. Firstly, you can never really tell when your swimming skills might be called upon to save a life or even to get yourself out of danger. Also, swimming is a great way to get fit and to keep fit so whether you consider yourself to be fit or not, swimming could still have significant benefits for you.
Here are 5 practical ways to overcome your fear of water:
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Understand how water works
This is the first step to overcoming your fear of water. Water can be quite dangerous in certain circumstances but for the most part, you don’t have that much to fear. Do some research, read up and understand buoyancy and the principle of flotation. For many beginners, understanding that water actually works to keep you up on the surface (as opposed to sucking you down and crushing the air out of your lungs), is the first step to overcoming the fear of water.
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Start outside the water
For people with a fear of water, just the sight of a swimming pool might be enough to prime the panic button. For this reason, we suggest that, while you take some time to learn about water and how water works, you stay away from pools and the ocean. Once you’ve learned enough to change the way your mind perceives water, then you might be ready to take the next step.
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Baby steps
Once you’ve started learning about water, it might be quite tempting to just take a leap into the deep end in order to “shock” the fear out. We strongly advise against this. The truth is, even though we want you to learn to love water or at least be comfortable in it, your fear of water is not completely unfounded. Water can be dangerous, so until you’re a very strong swimmer you shouldn’t go off trying any daring stunts. We’ve chosen to call this step baby-steps because you have to take small steps that incrementally introduce you to water and swimming. Eventually, you will be ready to take that final leap.
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Take swimming lessons
By the time you reach this stage, we expect that you should have become quite comfortable in water. The next step for you is actually learning how to swim. You could teach yourself how to swim or have a friend teach you, but we’d recommend that you employ the services of a professional swimming instructor to teach you how to swim properly. Good swimming technique can enable you to swim faster and longer so the benefits would probably surpass the costs.
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Plunge in!
So you’ve conquered your fear of water and actually learnt how to swim. At one stage, we asked you to stay away from water and then we asked you to take baby steps. Once you’ve gone through the previous four steps properly, you should be ready to take this final step: Plunge in. Even after you learn about water and you learn how to swim, there might be a bit of residual fear. Taking a plunge(metaphorically) is the moment of truth–when you face your fear of water and overcome it for good. This doesn’t necessarily mean diving into the deep end of your neighbourhood swimming pool; it really just means going as far out of your comfort zone as possible to force a final confrontation with your fear of water.
Conclusion
Water can be scary, but you have what it takes to overcome your fear of water. Once you have made progress, you should make sure you keep practicing so you do not forget what you have learned.
Contact Trainer.ae: get in touch with a personal trainer who can help create a plan just for you.
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