Water Confidence and beginner swim programs

Basic Water Skills program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basic water confidence is a pre-requisite, if your end goal is to learn to swim with ease and enjoyment!  Many ‘beginner’ swimmers harbour a water phobia of sorts, where our confidence in the water has been challenged at some point. This can happen through past trauma in and around water, near drowning experience’s, even the over zealous parent who ‘threw the kids in at the deep end’; or for many, never really receiving any formal swimming lessons, hence there is a gap in knowledge around how the human body behaves in water is limited.

Being water confident means:

  • You ‘feel’ comfortable in and around water
  • You can put your face in the water, both with your feet on the ground, and suspended in the water
  • You float, comfortably on  your back and front
  • You can exhale air slowly and with control when your face is in the water
  • You can ‘right’ your body to a safe standing position, from a floating position

All of these skills and many more, are covered in our Water Confidence program and will help you prepare for your first full swim program.

From basics to beginner…… read Noah’s swim journey so far:

“Over one year ago I decided to take swimming lessons for freestyle swim stroke. I started out lacking confidence, with only a very poor breast stroke swimming ability.

I attended lessons for about 1 year, and by the end, was able to swim around 50m without stopping, but still felt my stroke was disconnected and lacking in some way; I still felt some underlying nerves and lacked trust in my stroke. I would get tired very quickly, the breathlessness making me extremely nervous, I also felt that my movement was un-coordinated, and even though I had progressed, I knew I could achieve more.

For that reason, I searched out some new programs at Waverley College pool. The foundation of the program included a lot of water confidence skills that I would not have ordinarily seen as necessary to help my swimming. I began to understand some very different aspects of how to move and control my body in the water.  The material and techniques were very different from what I’ve learned so far in my first swimming classes.

Claire coaches the Total Immersion methodology which for me seemed a more holistic approach;  it’s not so much about ‘pull hard’,  ‘kick more’ and ‘R-E-A-C-H as far a you can with your hand’.  The approach is a calmer, more relaxed approach and a real education;   my movement in the water started to become ‘less’ rather than ‘more’, yet a could swim further and with less effort. I feel I can relate to the water differently and have a sense of co-operation with i,  rather than fighting against it!  It’s still a work in progress but already feel a vast improvement, largely down to the difference in content, delivery and over all approach between SWIMLAB and the previous swimming classes I have tried.”