Conquer your fear of water the TI way

By Sarah Hill with Kim Kemp

As TI coaches my colleagues and I work with people from all swimming backgrounds including those with different degrees of water phobia or issues around water confidence. Most of us take our confidence in the water for granted but over 13.8 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 life-style 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 –  I’ve been appalled to hear adult clients tell me they’ve been made to wear children’s armbands in a public pool or even being put in a toddler’s beginner session to learn water confidence! Amazingly people are still being pushed in the water or being abandoned in deep water to ‘help them get over their fear’ - tactics that have dramatically changed many thousands of people's lives for the worst.

However, Total Immersion with its unique understanding of human swimming and its Kaizen philosophy of incremental change offers our clients a real alternative to these stressful and totally ineffective approaches. 

Using 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 experiences in just one session – it’s not uncommon to see  someone who was literally shaking in fear at the beginning of the hour shed tears of joy at finally being able to put their face in the water or float without panicking. 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 him realise that he could actually float despite a lifetime believing it was impossible for him was such a privilege.

It's so incredibly rewarding to see somebody change so significantly in such a short space of time simply by using the TI methodology and Kaizen approach. Many TI coaches offer water confidence sessions; fellow coach Kim Kemp shares the sense of pride and privilege that comes with helping a client make such a huge positive change – ‘It required lots of patience, encouragement and praise from me and an enormous amount of determination from her. Using specific focal points is invaluable, we spent the first lesson working on blowing bubbles to encourage her to put her face in the water and understand not to hold her breath. We spent a lot of time just feeling what happens to the body in water and how supportive it can be, focusing on buoyancy and how it is affected by the breathing, learning to trust the water and starting to believe that it is our friend. I am so proud of her!”

Please contact any TI coach for information on water confidence.

Sarah Hill is a TI coach based in Manchester www.swimmingly.co.uk

Kim Kemp is a TI coach based in based in Surrey and Hampshire  kimticoach@gmail.com