Are you afraid to learn how to swim?

Hello, Rose. I'm not a good swimmer but i do know how to swim. Same as you have fear of getting drown. I can swim but not to the extent that i let my head under water. I do sometimes try it but i have to make sure that my feet still touches the sand because i often panic and my breathing is so short so i end up drinking drinking it. My fear started when my dad forcefully teach us to swim. He usually bring us to deep area and leave us. So, i was traumatized. It didn't help me though. I learned how to swim by my own. Want to know my secret? I use a floater to hold on(supine position) and started to relax and when i feel my body was relaxed, i started to release the floater and feel that I'm floating. Just enjoy and you'll learn. Don't force your self. Just have fun with your family.

we have the same problem.. i love the beach but i cant really swim.. i would love to learn but too afraid to drown.. one time when me, my neice and my dad went swimming in the beach, early in the morning for exercise.. i tried to practice on how to swim. my dad has been supportive.. but gets frustrated because i would stop.. im afraid that i might end up in deep water..

rosepedal64, Not really knowing how confident you are in the water, I just like to let you in on how to go about gaining water confidence. This confidence is always neglected by novice swimmers and when that happens picking up swimming will always be a daunting task for them. In swimming, you cannot be all tensed up like running on land because if you tense up in the water you will sink. So, whenever you have a situation in the water, try finding a way to breathe and remain relax at all times. For a start, you should have a swim cap on at all times so that you can tuck your hair away and not affect your vision or be too concern to brush away your hair when your head is above the water. I always see students struggling with their hairs when they recover from the water. The next thing you should learn to do is breathing with your mouth, just like when you are on land, you need to breathe to live. So, when you are in the water you must always learn the proper way to breathe when you are swimming or treading water. Also, you must learn to leave some air inside you when you exhale as this air will let you feel comfortable, prevent you from choking if you are unable to catch a breath on a wave lash and most of all it helps you with your flotation. After you have learned how to breathe, you will need to learn how to open your eyes in the water without the aid of goggles. This is to let you get accustomed and comfortable with submerging your head in the water even when you loose your goggles or when your goggles suddenly starts to leak. You have to be able to practice with the above until you can perform them instinctively, like second nature. After that, you will need to learn how to prostrate on the water of a shallow pool and then stand up without any aid or loosing your balance. You may start with the side of the pool to grab hold of the gutter if you loose your balance. You will also need to learn how to lie supine and recover into standing position as well. Breathing in this position should not pose much problems than recovering to standing position. So, practice this as much as you can here. After you have accustomed to it, you may want to do the across the breadth or length of the pool. You may also do it with your breathing exercise, as swimming is really about coordination and movement synchronization. With this exercise, you should be able to learn and feel what it is like to balance, float and most of all glide. Once you are proficient enough, you will then proceed to a slightly deeper end to learn treading which is basically a coordinated movement to stay afloat in the water. Basically, you will need to remain calm and relax at all times as you go about finding the right tempo and rhythm for your body weight. As women have more body fat than men you will find that floating is no mean feat for you and treading water will be easier because of this physiological fact. You will need to remain in a siting position at all times with your upper body leaning slightly forward. Legs are bent around the knees and feet pointing out sideways, which you will kick outwards alternatively and recovering with your knees bent. (see pic attached) Your arms will help you keep your balance by moving around in circles with both palms facing down. The movement will be quite similar to wiping your dinner table with both hands. Practice this at the side of pool, grabbing the wall for confidence and feel. Once you feel comfortable practice from arms distance. Remember to breathe with your mouth and keep some air inside you throughout. I think if you can keep all these in mind, then I am quite sure you should be able to overcome your phobia of deep water. Have a nice day.

Hello rosepedal64! I too, used to be afraid of the water. Do you know how to swim in shallow water? Because it is in shallow water, you will always be able to touch water. I feel that if you learn how to swim in shallow water first, it can help you overcome your fear. The other thing I did to help me stop being afraid of water was bouncing along the bottom of the pool. Now I don't mean going all the way to 8-10 feet just bouncing along, but just far enough that you have to bounce a little in order to keep your head above water. If neither of these work, try wearing some floaties, going as far as you dare, and then just a little bit beyond. However, I recommend that you at least know how to swim in shallow water first. Any further than that though, you can try counseling to help drive out your fear of water. Good Luck!

Don't worry initially u will have many problems like this.....later on u will pick up. Even I had fear before I swim....now I am alright.

i am a swimmer and have taken to the water as a child. I notice that children have greater adaptability to the water. I have tried coaching an adult friend and note that adults have too much fears and inhibitions and refuse to let go of control (i.e. adults often want to be in control of a situation). Perhaps it would be good if the adult learner should learn how to float first to gain some level of confidence - maybe under the guidance of a family or friend (a competent swimmer). Once some level of confidence is attained, further progression with a swimming instructor would be good. I think letting go of one's fears step by step would be a good start to learning how to swim. Begin with the end in mind.

I had that problem too, especially when trying to learn from family members or acquaintances. The solution for me was to take lessons from a professional swimming teacher and after that I loved to swim and had no more fear.

I discovered in 2002 that I have fear of heights. And for some years after that, I was afraid of roller coasters, the especially fast ones with drops. One year I went on California Screaming and Disney's California adventure, and it was miserable. The next year I went on it with a different attitude. I started the ride with a big smile and told myself to just let loose and scream on the scary parts. It was great. So I don't know if this helps any at all, but maybe a change in how you approach it?

Hi, rosepedal64. I am not afraid to swim. Unless someone teaches me, I am not. I could not swim on my own.. I will need someone to guide me. I can't go past 5 feet deep at all. I can only stay into the 3 feet deep water.

hello rosepedal, I remember when i was in the boy scout camping back in my elementary days. i had an opportunity to learn how to swim but unfortunately, i was too scared and got this ear problem already so, when we were practice to float one of my foot was at the pool wall, every one was able to float and swim, except me that was probably the first and the last time i got a chance to swim or even practice to swim.

I am the same as you that I fear of the water. I think the basic reason I should blame on is I have been ever drown once when I was 5 years old. I seems that I would not independently swim away. I have been to the swimming pool more than 20 times. However, every time I went there, I just diving along the swimming pool and never have the courage to swim toward the center of the swimming pool. When my colleage and I go together, they tried to help me overcome the fear. one of them held me in the arm to make me balance and the other one held my feet to correct my movement. I felt what is swimming at that time as my body is tired after a few miles. They tried to let me go, but I screamed and yelled and drank a lot of water. If I never fell down, I don't think I could learn how to ride a bicycle. If you are not ready to drink enough water of swimming pool, you will never learn how to swim.

I learned how to swim when I was in first year college. It was on our Physical Education class. I didn't have choice but to learn how swim. When we had to get our face submerged in the pool to float, that was the part that I was really scared that I was even noticed by my teacher. The next activity, I tried to think that I was just on a pool so I can just stand if I don't feel comfortable so I let my face be in water and I was able to float and move in the water while floating. I was very happy that time cause finally I did it. After that I was able to do the next lessons easily cause I have Faced my fear.

Hi there, I had the same problem before when I still learning how to swim. I was very nervous and really afraid when the water will reach past my head. I just don't like it when I am underwater already. My cousin helped me learn how to swim. The first thing we did was not to be on water immediately, we actually spoke about my fears and we tried to figure out what I was really afraid of, in my case, I was actually afraid of drowning, so before we start a session, I had to remind myself that if I learn how to swim then I will not drown at all and that my cousin is there to help me eventually. He always held my hand to assure me that someone is physically there and that I am not gonna drown. We started off by submerging my whole body in water so I would overcome my fear, it took some time, believe, and it's not easy especially when things would start to get into my mind again like thought of drowning and dying that way. After some time, I eventually got past that and it was actually easier learning to swim after that.. I hope this helps and good luck to you my friend.

When the time I was 10 years old and do not know how to swim there is the fear that I could be drown. I learned how to swim from my friends, all of friends that time know how to swim and they are enjoying it, because of that, it makes me more comfortable to learn how to swim with them because I also enjoyed that time.

Fear is a condition of the mind. When you over rule this condition you can do many things. You can keep telling yourself that you will and can learn to swim! Never say a negative like I can't or even can I...but "I will and can swim". If you tell yourself this over and over before going to sleep it just may help. You will be conditioning your mind to accept that you can swim and you will build more confidence in your abilities. Good luck!

Hello rosepedal64! We're two of a kind! But I can't say I am afraid of the water for I love riding on boats. I do love the waters. It's only that I really don't know why I never succeeded learning how to swim despite all my attempts and efforts. I've already reached the point wherein my relatives and friends have all given up their hopes about seeing me swim. Hahaha I was told that it is a lot easier to learn on seawater because it is easier to float on such. Yet, all my attempts actually failed. So this discussion of yours is truly interesting. I finally might get some tips, too so I can give learning how to swim another try. :-) Thank you very much and good luck to us!

I learnt how to swim as a child so I don’t have a problem but if I hadn’t I am sure I would be facing the same fear as you. Learning things like that as an adult is generally much more difficult than it is for a kid! I know facing the fear is the way to go and I wonder if you have ever attempted going out to deeper water wearing arm floats or something similar; you could have someone go with you and when you are comfortable with the floats you could remove one and eventually the other. I don’t know if it would work but it may be worth a try...

dear rose, floating is the first basic that you should learn and when you are able to, you get the guts to go a little deeper and then deeper as you learn. i did learn in waist deep water. never more than that. i learned to relax (like lying down in bed), not to place the weight on my hips or butt. try floating where the water is calm .. not choppy. i do not swim very well but i am now more confident to go a little deeper like water 3 feet over my head. in open sea, i bring a floater (with two feet long string (something like a cloth rope). i tie the rope in my one hand, and when i feel a little tired, i pull the floater where i can climb on to it, put my weight in the floater and i know i will not sink. and, a must, i do not go alone. always there are people nearby so that when something unthinkable happens, i have life savers nearby. happy swimming. ann

It has been one of my dreams to learn swimming. I want to learn to save my life in times of emergencies. I have fallen in a well once and there were people around to save me at that time.. There may be times when no one is with me....

I'm not aware that I have fear of swimming. I realized it only when someone told me that I'm afraid because I don't swim. Honestly I don't like to swim because I prefer to go to highlands and view from the top. I like to visit beaches only to enjoy nature by walking on shores and stay outside feel the sea breeze. I ones visit a resort to swim and I enjoyed it. I moved on poolside because I remember I don't know how to swim. I guess do not hesitate and think in advance that you're afraid to swim.