Most of us take our confidence in the water for granted but incredibly, nearly 14 million adults in the UK – that’s about one in four of us – are afraid to take part in any form of swimming.
For some the fear can be so great that it interferes with daily life and has far-reaching effects on the quality of the person’s life, affecting confidence and self-esteem, personal and professional lifestyle choices and relationships with friends and family.
There is no typical client with water confidence issues – it affects people of all ages and backgrounds and has myriad causes; often people have tried and failed many times to overcome their fear through self-help or well-intentioned but often misguided encouragement from family, friends or swimming teachers.
Client stories show clearly that a lack of understanding of the issues behind water phobia and impatience with those affected is still rife. Standard swimming teacher training does not cover how to help someone with water confidence issues; I’ve been appalled to hear adult clients tell me they’ve been made to wear children’s armbands in a public pool or have even been put in a toddler’s beginner session to learn water confidence! Amazingly people are still being pushed into the water or left to struggle in deep water to ‘help them get over their fear’ – tactics that have dramatically changed many thousands of people’s lives for the worse.
It’s such a shame that so many people are missing out on the joys of swimming and are not able to learn an essential life skill simply because they have not found the right help and support. Learning to overcome a fear of water is not difficult and there is no need at all for it to be stressful. We have helped many 100’s of people overcome their fears; by taking the same step-by-step approach that we use when teaching swimming strokes, clients very quickly start to learn how to breathe and relax in the water and importantly, begin to understand how to work with the water rather than fighting against it. It’s no exaggeration to say that I have watched many people go through a life-changing experience in just one session – and it’s not uncommon to see people who were literally shaking in fear at the beginning of the session shed tears of joy at being able to put their face in the water or float without panicking just minutes later. Becoming water confident is hugely significant for so many people, many of whom will have struggled for years – my oldest client to date was 81; watching his joy at realising that he could actually float despite a lifetime believing it was impossible for him was such a privilege.
I’m committed to addressing the lack of access to high-quality effective water confidence lessons and so have drawn on our extensive experience and in-depth understanding of water confidence issues to develop a self-help online course that teaches the key skills needed to help anyone begin to overcome their fears. You can find the course here along with a free mini-course that will help you start to overcome your fear of water without getting your feet wet!
