If you have a fear of water or swimming, you are not alone. Even Adam Peaty, who is an Olympic gold medalist had a fear of the water as a child. A good way to overcome any fear is to approach it gradually. Take baby steps to get to the eventual goal which is to get rid of the fear altogether.Here are the first baby steps you should take to overcome your fear.

  1. First thing is first, we need to get in the water. I don’t mean going to the deep and diving in. What you should do is start in the  shallow end of the pool and just get your feet wet. Then make your way through the pool. Stop when you get to the depth of the pool where the water level is in between your waist and chest to work on the next step of the process.
  2. Now that we are a little further in the water, it’s time to get our face wet. All you need to do is cup your hands and splash some water in your face so you can get comfortable getting your face wet. Getting your face wet and being comfortable with that is important because when people are in the water, getting splashed in the face can be a trigger for them to panic, which we want to avoid. 
  3. After you are comfortable getting your face wet by splashing it’s time to practice submerging your face in the water. You can start by just bending over at the waist and placing your face in the water. 
  4. Once we are comfortable with all the previous steps, we need to work on properly breathing while in the water and swimming. Holding your breath is another thing that can cause someone to panic, so a way to avoid holding your breath is to blow bubbles when your face is submerged. Practice blowing bubbles in the water the same way that you practiced getting your face wet, just add exhaling to the exercise. 
  5. Next you need to work on propulsion. Kicking is a great thing to start with. The way toi practice your kick is to hold on to the side of the pull and kick your legs with your body stretched out.

Remember this is a gradual process. Don’t move on to the next step until you are comfortable with the current step that you are on. Work on this at your own pace. This is your fear and you life. It is not a race, so take these baby steps and don’t rush the process.