The TLC Approach to Swimming
This is a technique I have designed myself over a period of 35 years, through things I have personally experienced and have seen and learnt.
Learning at your own pace
Everyone around the world is different and unique and we all learn at our own pace, right from the moment we are born, to learning to roll over as babies, crawl, walk, talk, ride bikes, learn to read and write and it goes on and on, as we never stop learning as we go through life. A lot of the time we don’t even realise that we are absorbing new knowledge on a day to day basis.
Our 5 Senses
Our Senses play a big part in this too, from liking or disliking, what we See, Hear, Taste, Touch and Smell. We don’t always know why we like things or dislike things, we just know if we do or don’t.
All our senses have a big impact on swimming without us even thinking about it until we are asked. For example what we Hear, a busy pool, splashing. shouting, noise echoing around us. The Smell of chemicals that can linger in our nose and throat. The Taste of the water in our mouths or in the air. The Touch and feel of the air and water around us, cold or warm, right from feeling it from the souls of our feet, up through our bodies to the top of our head. What we See around us, the water, peoples behaviour, different colours, all these things can impact the way we think and feel towards learning to swim, and in particular if you have had some form of trauma to do with water, whether you remember it or not, can heighten all your senses.
The psychological side to fear of water.
This plays a big part especially if you have a fear or have anxiety in or around water. The psychological aspect of FEAR of water, also known as Aquaphobia, is very REAL and can significantly impact an individuals life, leading to anxiety, panic attacks, and avoidance behaviour related to water. This fear can stem from an experience of past trauma, fear of the unknown, fear of not being able to breathe or even fear learnt from others.
It order to overcome this fear, nothing must be forced. The individual must above all feel SAFE and in CONTROL of the situation. For adults, they must themselves want to overcome their fear. This is key to conquering that fear.
Tender Loving Care
The TLC approach is a method which I use with all my swimmers, whether they have a fear of water or not. Nothing should ever be forced on any individual, only ever gently encouraged. This way the individual will never put up a barrier to learning, and if the learning is made fun/enjoyable, they will want to learn and will usually pickup things faster.
Practice is also the key, the more you do the easier it gets, like learning to read, if you only pickup and book for half an hour a week it will take you forever to learn to read. It’s the same with anything. Practice makes perfect.
Supporting the individual so that they feel SAFE, especially for those that are anxious or afraid, is very important and giving them time to adjust to their surrounds. This starts before you even put on a swimming costume. Reassure them that you will take care of them, that you won’t make them do anything they are not happy or comfortable with. Don’t force them to get into the water, just stand and watch, then encourage them to put just their feet in. Sit and chat and slowly when they are ready, get into the water. Hold their hands or cuddle them, let them hold onto you in a safe way. Every step should be gently gently.
Repetition is also key to learning as the individual will start to remember the order of what is being taught and what comes next, just like teaching children their ABC’s.
If you are supporting a nervous child or adult, take a moment to think about your own fears and how you would feel if someone forced you to confront that fear, especially if it was done without any empathy at all. FEAR is very REAL, it’s a bit like an iceberg, you need to not only chip away slowly at the surface but also need to remember you can’t see all of it at once, as a lot lays underneath the surface that maybe hidden. A bit of TLC (tender loving care) goes a long way and will help an individual to grow and flourish, and in doing so will create a bond between two people, a bond of trust that can last a life time.
This is why all my lessons are created around this concept, as everyone is a unique individual and should be treated with a bit of TLC when learning to do anything in life.
Author & creator of the TLC Approach to Swimming: Andrea M F Douglas