An Adult, Learning to Swim — Week 1

Fear of water — something I want to conquer.

One of my resolutions for this year 2016 is to learn swimming. I am glad that I started that today.

I signed up for a 8 week program — Adult Intro to Swimming. A very basic class that will teach how to balance, float, and become comfortable in the water. More importantly, how to overcome the fear of water.

Thought I could share my experiences and help other adults who want to learn swimming but have not taken any step yet. So yes, its never too late to learn swimming!

5 Circles Teaching Method

Today was my first class. There were 3 students including me.

I was quite happy that the class was not rushed and the instructor took time to understand our experiences with water, what we fear the most in water and are we ready to learn swimming, before getting into the pool.

Instructor introduced us to the 5 Circles Teaching Method:

The 5 Circles Teaching Method is a model of learning based on the concept that people are spiritual beings who live in a physical world. The 5 Circles Teaching Method builds upon the fact that people need to be “here,” not “gone” — daydreaming or panicking — in order to learn a new skill.

As someone who hasn’t had any previous experiences swimming or even just getting in the water, I thought this made sense — focus on the activity, do not daydream. Something we apply in our work life too.

What did we do today

Feel the water

We got into the pool which was 4 1/2 feet deep and initially walked around the pool to feel the water dashing our bodies and our hands feeling the water as we move.

Remember to be “here” and not “gone”. This helped a lot to focus and keep my mind with me in the present and not think about falling back, drowning or losing control in the water.

Get into the water slowly

We then went to the pool side and holding the rails, we went down into the water first until our shoulders. This was interesting to me as physics came to play. As I went down into the water, I started to feel the pressure and then my heart rate slowly rise. As I inhaled, it felt that I was going under and as I exhaled, it felt that the water was pushing me up, resulting in a feeling that I was floating. I continued this breathing exercise for few times and without even me noticing, I started to feel comfortable in the water.

Again, remember to be “here” and not “gone”.

The next step was to go down deeper, immerse your lips. I am not going to hide it, but this made me nervous and heart racing, as frankly, my face, nose was too close to water and I suddenly felt I could end up inside the water and drown. This time however, I made my mind and body stronger and remembered that I am “here” and not “gone”.

Let the water in and out

Once we were comfortable at that level, instructor talked to us about the problem of swallowing water which leads to panic and then drowning. She related this to the following — if we ever swallow water by mistake, our immediate instinct would be to spit out, and not drink it all. We do this because we know we are not in danger and we are ourselves.

Again, remember to be “here” and not “gone”.

The same technique applies here as well. We slowly tried letting the water in through our lips and then spit out. Boy, that was frightening — I feared I am going to swallow and drink a lot of water!

Again, remember to “here” and not “gone”.

After few tries, I was able to succeed in this activity!

What next

Well, I think week 1 has been good. I didn’t knew I would be comfortable in the water, but I did it!

Next week, I think it is the real test. Getting my head into the water — it is going to be very interesting and I just hope I am not afraid to do so!