It is easy to diminish any achievement by comparing it to the end goal. We are trying to dissect the fear of deep water in open water swimming in a similar, tangible, and simple way so that you can make those steps forwards, recognise you have made progress, and reward yourself. Unlike open water swimming, there are clear steps (literal ones) that you can make to progress forwards to the goal of getting up to the 10m point. Down the line, it may be to get to the 3m springboard until, eventually, you can stand on the edge of the 10m diving platform. On day one, you may only aim to put one foot on the ladder on day two, the idea would be to get both feet off the ground. The best example is a 10m diving platform and being scared of heights. How to develop your confidence in deep water Over time, you are shifting where your comfort zone lies. However, each time you persist in your fear, you are exploring the envelope of where that line between courage and terror is, and the limit of comfort and courage. It may mean that it could take a long time before the swimmer can swim to the first buoy 100m away, or it could be one session. These two steps provide you with an endpoint and a starting point.Įveryone is unique and how each person will respond to facing these fears and the severity of the fear itself will be different. If the ultimate aim is to be able to swim a point-to-point race between two islands, and you currently can’t swim in your lake further than 50m as you can’t see the bottom, then there will be a lot of steps you will need to take to get to that point. For example, can you swim in deep water with your head up rather than submerged? What about swimming in clear water? does the fear typically surface only when it is the first time that you swim somewhere? Secondly, you need to define where your comfort level is and where the limit is of what you are comfortable being challenged. The first thing to do is to break down the fear as much as possible. How can you breakdown this fear into tiny steps that you can achieve, see progress and ultimately trust? How can I become a more confident swimmer in deep water? Taking baby steps forward is a lot better than taking giant leaps oscillating between a step forward and a step backwards. All these methods identify two key points firstly, you need to accept that you have that fear and secondly, they work on bringing control to it by normalising the experience.įurthermore, you must recognise that this takes a lot of time. Guidelines about overcoming fear usually talk about facing it, breathing through it, looking at it logically (ask yourself 'how many people have safely swum over that deep bit?'), and explore the worst possible outcome. The obvious question you have to ask yourself is, how will any of the above responses to fear help you? And if your response is none of them, then what would help you? How can you work on things that are more likely to help, than hinder you? If we take breathing as an example, it is hard to focus on deep, controlled breathing to calm you down when your head is submerged or when exercising. If any of those happen in an open water environment, you will likely find that the reaction exacerbates the fear. Because the reality is that anxiety or fear elicits a response that in water makes everything seem worse: Do not expect to go out and swim in deep water and be ok with it the first time after reading this. How do you overcome any fear? The first thing to understand is that you can't overcome fear when it has gripped you tight. How do you overcome the fear of deep water, so you can swim confidently? This may mean you need to put yourself in safe but fear-inducing positions to find out, or it may be you already know. So if you find yourself fearful of deep water, then you need to start with dissecting that fear and understanding what it is and what actually spooks you. The truth is that everyone is different, for some seeing the bottom is terrifying and for others, not knowing what is underneath you is the concern.
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