Float, Sink down and Swim!
Summer is here once more in the UAE and I reminded that its been a while since my last blog - so here goes folks!
I guess the most common thing students worry or get nervous about when learning to swim is 'sinking'. This is of course a perfectly natural instinct and again its what keeps us safe on land until we adapt to the water by learning to swim!
So to try and offset this fear I explain to them from lesson one, that to a degree, the body will sink down to its natural floatation level and this varies slightly accordingly to factors such as, bone density and body type.
To demonstrate how difficult it is for most people to actually sink. under supervision, I get my students to retrieve a pair of swimming goggles from the bottom of the pool in waste deep water. This is met with a some surprise difficulty as they try to sink down to get the goggles!
As I mention in my previous blogs once we are in a relax state on our front or back and let the body float but also to a degree, sink down to an effortless floatation level. This then will encourage the new student to slowly embrace this natural aide that will actually helps with learning to swim - this it is an essential first step.
In other words for them not to fight the sinking feeling as its the bodies way of establishing its own floatation level - after all we want to swim in the water not on top which is the initial instinctive tendency leading to a whole range of energy inefficiencies like kicking too hard and lifting the head too high causing the legs/hips to drop.
So keep calm float and feel the water!
