From "The Los Angeles Times"
Off the Deep End
Underwater, I gaze at the word deep on the side of the pool. It is a moment of ecstasy. It’s hard to believe it’s really happening. After a lifetime of hydrophobia, I am in the deep end of a swimming pool.
I am here thanks to Paul Lennon, head of the Glendale-based Adult Aquaphobia Swim Centers of Southern California. A former competitive swimmer and agoraphobic, he is the perfect teacher for anyone afraid of the water. "An aquaphobic feels out of control in the water," he says. "Their muscles become flexed, ready for action. This works against them."
It is early one Sunday morning at the Glendale YMCA. My first class. I’m terrified, but as Lennon speaks, my heart and stomach gradually unclench. He tells the 15 of us about his victory over agoraphobia, his love for the water. He speaks of water lyrically, as "silky" and "smooth" and "sensual". He says we, too, will learn the joy of being in the water. He encourages us to describe the root of our fears. We become a little world of people sharing a secret, of being outsiders at pool parties, at the beach, watching others splash and laugh and play.
"Conventional training," Lennon says, "teaches locomotion, how to get from Point A to Point B in a very limited, tense way. I want to make it enjoyable."
Into the water. Lennon keeps the pool at a womb-like 92 degrees, and lessons are two hours long, time enough to adapt to what we all see as a hostile environment. We learn "passive" stroke techniques, "allowing the water to do the work," and use supporting devices Lennon has developed, like grab rails and vertical poles. Fears melt away. I float on my back in my first lesson. A small miracle.
Now, just a few weeks later, I am flipping onto my back, my front, spinning, gliding, floating. In the deep end. Swimming. Unafraid.
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From "Your Health"
Class Buoys Up Confidence
Learning to swim is an important part of overcoming aquaphobia -- but it isn’t always easy. No matter how much an aquaphobic tries to suppress his fear, there is always some anxiety at the thought of being submerged.
Paul Lennon understands the phobic experience, which is why he formed the Adult Aquaphobia Swim Center.
"These are people who have failed at the YMCA, failed at the local community pool, failed whatever swimming course they have tried," Lennon explained in an interview with Your Health .
Based in Seattle, Washington, Lennon offers his unique swimming program to adult aquaphobics throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as Honolulu, San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He is currently planning to expand his program to the East Coast.
Lennon’s program takes only two intense days. During that period, his students spend nearly 20 hours in the water, but by the end they are "deep-water safe."
Lennon’s program differs from traditional swimming courses in many ways. First, the temperature of the pool is kept between 92 and 94 degrees -- skin temperature. "When a person is anxious, blood is diverted from the extremities to more important parts of the body," Lennon explains. "This causes the body to chill. In addition, the warm water enhances one’s ability to relax."
The workshops are also more concentrated -- 10 hours on Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday. The students are in the water the entire time, except for brief restroom and snack breaks. "The key is to stay in an environment that is hostile," Lennon notes. "Once they’re in it for several hours, they start to get comfortable. No one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do. "Even getting into the pool is optional," Lennon states. "It’s a very gentle program. That takes a big burden off the students."
"The main thing is to be at one with the water. Traditional lessons tend to emphasize locomotion, which enables students to swim across the pool, but if they have to stop for any reason, they often get into trouble. My people, by Sunday evening, are able to get into the deep end of the pool and stay there for hours without getting winded or tired."
Lennon -- a former agoraphobic -- says he decided to specialize in helping aquaphobic adults because he was seeing an increasing number unable to participate in enjoyable activities. "Aquaphobia is a social handicap," he states. "Its victims are totally left out of the picture and they want to be a part of it. They want to share in the fun with their family and friends."
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From "Forbes Magazine"
Fear of Floating
by Ellen Paris
Barbara Price, a psychologist, had never ventured past the shallow end of her backyard swimming pool. Ellen Kameya’s fear of water was so great she hadn’t put on a bathing suit in 25 years. I was no better. All my life I was afraid of getting into water over my head; numerous swimming lessons over the years hadn’t helped. I hardly ever ventured into the ocean and, at a pool, always cowered in the shallow end or sat pool side.
But Barbara, Ellen and nine other hard-core aquaphobes like me decided to give swimming without fear one last try. We recently attended a week-end workshop on how to overcome deep-water anxiety. What the heck, we had nothing to lose. Paul Lennon, who has been conducting aquatic development clinics for over a decade and claimed success with over 2,000 aquaphobes, promised to teach us to swim comfortably and confidently in deep water in two days, or refund the fee.
Lennon had brought his workshop to the City of Commerce’s Aquatorium, about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The schedule was 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., both Saturday and Sunday.
There were 12 of us in all, 8 women and 4 men ranging in age from around 30 to 64, huddled nervously by the pool swapping horror stories. Why were we torturing ourselves, and at such great expense? After all, aquaphobia doesn’t rank high on the list of disabling fears. And aquaphobia is easy to avoid: Don’t go near the water. But we all had our reasons.
Cathy Warren of Pacific Palisades had almost drowned the previous summer when she got caught in a rip tide while playing with one of her sons. Says Warren: "I had to do it for my kids’ peace of mind." Sy Stuart, a Beverly Hills real estate developer, said that after years of being afraid of water, his big goal was to be able to jump off a diving board. Barbara Price had a pool at home and was embarrassed when people came over to use a pool she never went into. Kathie Lichfield, a computer software writer, goes to the Caribbean every year with her boyfriend. He would pay for the workshop if she could learn enough to join him in the water. Others of us were just sick and tired of being afraid to do something others take for granted.
Saturday morning consisted of an orientation session conducted, mercifully, on dry land. "Everything that we do in this workshop is optional," said Lennon. That reassured us all, particularly Barbara Price, who still shudders when she recalls a former swim teacher who pushed her fully clothed into a swimming pool.
Some of the tips we got during the orientation were surprising. Lennon teaches only in water that is almost womb-warm, usually 94 degrees. "By keeping the water at skin temperature, a person is made much more comfortable," he explained.
The first morning we spent in the shallow end of the pool, learning to play in the water, something we had all missed doing as children. At the same time we learned some simple ways to cope with the water and to deal with that familiar panic. When Lennon told us that by 4 p.m. the next day we would be comfortably splashing around in deep water, however, nobody believed a word of it.
The first lesson Saturday afternoon, still in water no more that 4 1/2 feet deep, was floating, both front and back. We wore goggles and nose clips to help us overcome the fears of sticking our faces in the water and of getting water up our noses. Lennon talked a lot about the physics of swimming. He showed us that if you keep your lungs filled with air, it’s impossible to sink. He also proved to us, by making us get rid of all our air, how difficult it really is to sink. Drowning is not as simple as aquaphobes think.
We spent all Saturday learning different skills, one at a time, until all of us could handle them. For example, after we all had mastered how to swim a simple survival stroke on our stomachs, we learned how to go into a back float. Everything was in very slow motion. By Saturday evening I was actually having fun.
Back at the pool Sunday morning, everyone was very tired, which Lennon said was a good sign. It meant we would be more relaxed. For most of the day we kept practicing what we had learned on Saturday, plus a few new skills, like vertical floating and treading water. To get ready for deep water we simulated deep water in the shallow pool -- doing routines for 15 minutes without touching the pool’s bottom or sides. As long as I relaxed, everything worked nicely.
Then came the moment of truth -- deep water. Our first "confidence builder" was to shimmy down an aluminum pole to the bottom of the 12 foot pool and then back up again. At first I was scared, but once I did it, I was ready to do it again. Other challenges included swimming in the deep end with all our clothes on, so we would know how it felt if we ever fell in.
We all jumped off the side into 12 feet of water and swam back to the side. That was quite an incredible event, considering none of us had ever in his life jumped into a pool before. We were euphoric. A few in the group even went further and jumped off the 3-meter diving board. "It was such a safe, controlled environment, I was willing to take chances that I never would have," says Cathy Warren, 38, who went off the diving board three times. "I knew I wasn’t going to drown," echoes Sy Stuart, who did what he came to do -- jump off a diving board.
When we left Sunday night, no one asked for his or her money back. Mind you, I will never jump off a 3-meter board unless someone holds a gun to my head. But I feel comfortable enough in a swimming pool to wish there was one in my apartment building. For me, for all of us, that’s one great accomplishment.
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From "The Los Angeles Times"
Instructor Helps "Aquaphobics" In The Swim
The water at Echo Park Pool was 85 degrees on a chilly Saturday morning when Paul Lennon and his six intrepid swim students strode onto the deck of the enclosed pool. "Let’s get wet," Lennon said. The students, alumni of Lennon’s Aquatic Development Clinic, had come from Seattle for two hours of private swim time at the public pool, and they were eager to dive in.
Lennon, a man who claims he can teach anyone to swim, no matter how discouraging or traumatic the student’s aquatic past, says there is a good reason why he and his students jetted nearly 1,200 miles to take a dip in the 75-by-120 feet Echo Park Pool. "For most of them, this is the largest body of water they have ever swam in," he said. "We have to do the extraordinary to get past their lifetimes of apprehensiveness."
For Lennon and his students, doing the extraordinary means taking 8 to 12 trips a year to Hawaii, the Caribbean and other swim spots. His students are adults who felt socially hamstrung or personally defeated by their inability to swim. Some never learned to swim when they were young. Others suffered from "aquaphobia", a morbid fear of water.
A former competitive swimmer and agoraphobic (a term generally taken to mean a fear of open places, but which Lennon said is more aptly described as a fear of having an anxiety attack in public), Lennon said he began to tinker with the traditional methods of swim instruction about a decade ago. He said the main weakness of traditional swim lessons is that they stress staying afloat by propelling oneself through the water, meaning that when the swimmer gets tired, he or she becomes less safe in the water. Lennon, on the other hand, encourages his students to swim with their heads. He and his disciples talk a lot about the physics of swimming. The emphasis is on the principles of how humans float, tread water and otherwise stay in deep water a long time without drowning or tiring.
During his decade as a swim instructor, Lennon has veered from the mainstream method of beginning swim instruction in several ways. First, he keeps the water temperature in the pool at 92 to 94 degrees fro beginners. "No more, no less," he said. "Having it around skin temperature is crucial to the comfort level." Second, he keeps his students in the water long after their fingertips have begun to wrinkle. "People can’t really relax in the water until they’ve been in it for a couple of hours," he said. His basic one-weekend workshop features two five-hour sessions in the water each day separated by a 10-minute break. Third, he provides equipment to help his students open their eyes and close their nostrils in the water. "Take away the vision from any animal and put it in an alien environment and it will create anxiety," he said.
He gives each student goggles, or prescription goggles if the student wears glasses. He also gives them nose clips until they feel comfortable in the water. "It helps them concentrate on developing skills," he said, "not on mere survival." These three tactics are meant to desensitize his students to the aquatic environment. "It is exposing them to an uncomfortable environment in the most comfortable way," he said. "It is making sure their anxiety level never goes above moderate."
While he urges his students to do the "extraordinary", a cardinal rule of Lennon’s is to never force a student into doing anything he or she fears. Lennon’s clinic has a good reputation in Seattle, according to Bob Regan, aquatics manager of the King County parks and recreation division. "It fills a void," he said. "There are definitely people who are afraid of water and he (Lennon) has apparently done tremendous things with them."
Lennon said that other than a couple of students who just didn’t show up after their first lesson, he has never failed to teach a person to swim, no matter how aquaphobic he or she was at the outset. His students say nothing to contradict that claim. "Friday night, no way would I get in the water," recalled Raymond Martinez, 29. "By Sunday I was going off the three-meter board - feet first. Martinez, a shipyard worker from Seattle, said he had tried and failed to learn to swim in a variety of courses offered by the city. Then he saw an ad for Lennon’s weekend clinic. "Aquatic Development Clinic sounded serious enough to help me," he said. He was 28 and "could do the survival stroke, but only in shallow water." Today he swims and owns a boat.
Kathleen Mahler, 41, a teacher from Seattle, can remember exactly where her rear of water came from. When she was 6, a canoe she was in with her father capsized and they were trapped under a dock. "It is terrifying when you are young to have your father there and realize that he might not be able to save you." After giving water a wide berth for years, she married a ship designer and sailor. She suddenly found herself on the water a lot. "I tried a couple of community programs and was real discouraged," she said. "I was absolutely sure I couldn’t learn to swim." She thinks the most important part of Lennon’s program is his scientific explanation of how humans are able to swim, not just a demonstration of how to kick, paddle and breathe. "Telling you why it works gives you more power, more freedom to develop what works for you," she said.
For Glenn Mills, 33, a Seattle consulting geologist and mining engineer, learning to swim did much to change his life on dry land. When he signed up for swim instruction, he was trapped in an unhappy marriage and a job he didn’t like. "I needed a small personal victory," he said. "I’d always been a very, very weak swimmer," he said. He sailed, but always with the gnawing thought that if the boat overturned or sank he would be unable to save himself. Several years ago, he was at a lakeside outing with friends and followed their lead by jumping off a dock into the water. "A wave of fear hit me," he said. "I grabbed for a boat." He thrashed around with marginal results. "I was getting real tired and all of my strength was no help," he said. Six months ago, he was terrified of being in water over his head or floating on his back; now he is on the verge of becoming a certified scuba diver. His next goal is to swim in the ocean. And in his six month as a swimmer, he has ended his marriage, quit his job and began working as a consultant.
Lennon has plans to bring his unique brand of swim lessons to the Southland. For information, call (800) 200-SWIM. But he does not promise that learning to swim is easy. "We’re dry land mammals," he said. "Our instinct is to look at water and tell ourselves we are not going to survive in it."
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From "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer"
Aquaphobia Takes A Dive At Special Swim Classes
Dr. Diane Jones of West Seattle traces her lifelong fear of water to a close encounter with a swimming frog when she was a little girl. "I’d gone into a creek at summer camp to learn the deadman’s float, but when I opened my eyes, the frog was swimming nearby," Jones, 40, recalls. "I promptly got out of the water and never went back. No, I wasn’t afraid of frogs - I could hold them or play with them, or stick them with pins as a laboratory assistant in college. It was just the idea that there’s something in the water that you can’t see, and heaven only knows what it’s going to do to you. Also, I know I never liked walking in lakes, for example, because the bottom was always squishy and the mud would get between my toes."
She’s not sure, however, if the frog and muddy lake floors were the main reasons for her aquaphobia. "As far back as I can remember, we spent summers in a rented cabin at a lake in upstate Pennsylvania - I was raised in Philadelphia - and although my aunts, uncles and cousins all swam, my parents never did. And my mother was always terrified anytime my brother and I were in the water. She was scared to death we would drown, so she never wanted us to go out very far when we’d take inner tubes into the water. Maybe she taught me to be afraid."
Jones still might be avoiding the water if she hadn’t signed up for classes at Paul R. Lennon’s Aquatic Development Clinic two years ago. Last month, she celebrated getting her diving certificate by taking a scuba diving trip to Hawaii sponsored by the clinic.
Jones laughs as she remembers the circumstances that led her to the clinic. "At the time, I was flat in love with a man who’s a fisherman in Alaska. A gillnetter in the Bering Sea, yet. And I was going to go with him. But he didn’t want me coming up there unless I’d been in a survival suit and he knew I could get off the boat, which he wasn’t sure of, since I was afraid of the water." To practice, they headed for a dock in Ballard where they both donned survival suits - the bright orange gear that covers everything but the face. Jones was too frightened to do anything but sit on the dock for two hours crying. "Even when he climbed on every structure in the area and jumped in the water to show me it was totally safe, I wouldn’t go in. It was clear to me that if he’d said I had to jump in the water or give him up, I’d have given him up." She finally went in when he fetched a face mask from the car. "I just don’t like to have water on my face," she says. "I won’t even get my face wet when I’m taking a shower."
Although the romance eventually ended, Jones went ahead with her plans to learn to swim. "But I was still so insecure that I talked my office manager, who also was afraid of water, into trying them first," the surgeon said. "When she told me she’d been in deep water and actually preferred to be there, I immediately signed up."
From the start of classes, Jones felt more secure than in the past because she was in a shallow pool - 5 feet at the deepest point - rather than open waters. "And there were no pressures to go to any certain depth. If you wanted to stay in 2 feet of water, you stayed in 2 feet of water. And Paul (Lennon, founder of the clinic) was so comfortable that you know nothing’s going to happen to you. The water is very warm and you don’t go in the water at all without a mask on your face so you don’t get water in your eyes."
Jones opted for the long course, which over a year’s time led her not only to feeling secure in deep waters, but to learning different strokes and eventually to snorkeling and scuba diving. She’d only been in the class three months when she and a friend went to Hawaii. "I hadn’t learned snorkeling yet, but Paul (Lennon) showed me how to use the equipment and off I went. I ended up spending hours at Hanauma Bay (probably Hawaii’s most popular site for snorkeling), shooting pictures of the fish with an underwater camera. "I was so excited, I even went back one afternoon all by myself and paddled around taking pictures. And on visits before then, all I’d do is sit on the beach. I’d never go in the water."
Her trip to the islands last month showed just how far she has come from being aquaphobic. Jones became a certified diver in April. "But until this trip to Hawaii, I still was having trouble going down below 35 feet, and I couldn’t go backwards off the boat if you paid me. This time, I went off the boat backwards and down to 65 feet. I still have a crutch, the underwater camera. If I find I’m getting anxious, I just dig out the camera, and taking pictures distracts me."
Jones says losing her fear of water has opened many doors. "The diving is incredible, exciting - I’m reaching new levels of freedom that I never believed were possible. It’s enormously liberating not to be afraid of the water anymore."
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From "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer"
Swimming Teacher Is No Stranger To Anxiety And Fear
Paul Lennon understands all too well the suffering of adults who come to his swimming classes practically paralyzed by aquaphobia - the fear of water. From the time he was very young, Lennon has suffered from agoraphobia, loosely translated as fear of open spaces or "of the marketplace."
"For me, it was any situation that wouldn’t allow me to escape to the security of, say home, or someplace familiar and secure," he says. "It was so bad that I’d have anxiety attacks in places like elevators, on a bridge or in the line at a grocery store."
Despite his phobia, Lennon went on to become a 12 year veteran of competitive swimming during his junior high and high school years. But he never forgot just how difficult it was to concentrate on learning something when suffering from anxiety. So about 10 years ago he decided to combine his aquatic background, which included experience as a swimming instructor and coach, with his understanding of what it’s like to suffer anxiety. He started offering lessons for adults who are afraid of the water.
Not all of his students these days are truly aquaphobic, explains the creator of the Aquatic Development Clinic. "Many have just failed so often at learning to swim that they have lost all their confidence," he says. For those like Dr. Diane Jones who really are afraid, Lennon offers a long-term swimming program that emphasizes advancing at a slow pace. "The people who sign up for this are truly unable to do anything in the water except stand there. They can’t remove their feet from the bottom without hanging on to something such as the edge of the pool or me. These are the ones who also fear getting water in their eyes, ears and mouth. Typically, they don’t shower but take baths so they can avoid getting water on their face or head."
The long-term program is similar in content to the weekend workshops that Lennon began offering the first of this year. These are geared for the individual who has repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried traditional lessons. "These people come to me as a last resort." Lennon says. "Their main fear is of deep water, rather than of water as a whole. Most of them can function in some manner on their backs or stomachs, although they may not be very efficient at what they do."
Lennon’s classes begin with a five page questionnaire that is filled out in advance of the lessons. "This is so I can customize the classes to the participants," he explains. "I find out just what their skill level is and then decide whether they belong in the weekend group or need to take the long course." Those selected for a weekend workshop can plan on being in the water for a large part of the weekend. "We start out with a three hour orientation, usually in the bleachers overlooking the pool, but once we get in the water we’re there until 10:00 P.M. each day except for lunch, dinner and bathroom breaks," Lennon says. "The reason is so the participants are in the water long enough to become comfortable with the water as an environment." To make sure class members don’t get chilled during that time, the water temperature at the pools he rents is set at a cozy 93 degrees. Another basic is that students wear equipment such as goggles, nose clips or face masks to keep water out of the eyes and nose.
Water instruction begins with the students exploring the pool’s different depths, "so there won’t be any surprises," Lennon says. "I don’t like to hide anything from people. That way they’ll know that whatever I say is the truth, that I’m not playing psychological games." Next Lennon screens the workshop participants to make sure they can do the simple prerequisites of the class, like floating on their stomachs and backs. "Once I see how they float, then I teach a simple form of locomotion that utilizes the arm action from the breaststroke and backstroke." Following that, students learn three basic body positions - the vertical, stomach and back floats - and transitions so that they can move from the back to the front and so on. "This gives them total control of the body in the weightless environment of the pool," Lennon says. "All of this is done in the shallow water of the pool. We spend hours there making sure they’re comfortable before we move into the deep end, where we do essentially the same things as before, except that I add surface dives and jumps off the diving board and side of the pool." Toward the end of the workshop, participants don street clothes, including shoes, and then go back into the water. "That’s so they can experience what it feels like to be fully clothed in the water. Then they won’t panic if it ever happens to them."
For more information about classes and workshops, call Lennon at (800) 200-SWIM.
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From "The Tacoma News Tribune"
Terrified of Water? This Class Can Help
Nearly all her life Rhonda Wilkerson avoided water sports and outings at the beach because she didn’t know how to swim--and was too afraid of water to learn. Wilkerson, 33, of Seattle, now can swim. And Saturday for the first time, she had enough confidence to jump into 12 feet of water. "It felt great," she said. "If someone had told me six months ago that I’d be able to do this I never would have believed them."
Wilkerson is among a growing number of aquaphobes--people who are terrified of water--to overcome their fears through a program taught by former competitive swimmer Paul Lennon of Seattle. Wilkerson first participated in one of Lennon’s two-day seminars last March. On Saturday, she attended a workshop he conducted to review what she had learned before. At that workshop, she decided to tackle the jump into deep water. Two other students who had participated in the program earlier also came back to brush up on their skills. The workshop was the first time Lennon had brought his program to Tacoma. He hopes to offer a regular seminar here if enough people are interested, he said.
Eight people - three men and five women - enrolled in Saturday’s class were there for the first time. Most were non-swimmers, and all came into the program with debilitating anxieties about being in deep water, Lennon said. The intensive workshop ran from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. Saturday and continued from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. on Sunday. The pace of the class is relaxed and deliberate, participants said, and enables Lennon to work with each person on his or her individual level. Lennon said he always maintains the water temperature at 94 degrees for his classes - about 10 degrees above most pool temperatures - to help students relax and ensure that they do not get chilled during the long stay in the pool.
The class begins with a three-hour orientation during which Lennon tells his students about his own personal reasons for wanting to teach such a program. "I was a talented swimmer," Lennon told the News Tribune. "I was working toward the Olympics. But I was just a horrible competitor. And I didn’t find out until years later that I suffered from agoraphobia." While agoraphobia usually is defined as a fear of open spaces, Lennon said, for him it really amounted to a fear of losing control. "I would suffer anxiety attacks standing in line at the grocery store, or going to classes in college, or walking across a parking lot," he said. "I went through life avoiding things, and suffered for at least 25 years." Finally, Lennon came across literature on agoraphobia, and to his relief, identified himself as one of its sufferers. "I was so relived to learn that other people suffered from this kind of anxiety - that I was not a freak."
In researching his own fears, Lennon said, he began to realize that anxiety can interfere seriously with a person’s ability to learn. Combining relaxation techniques with a low-carbohydrate diet helped him to overcome much of the disabling fear he had experienced and learn new skills and information with much less difficulty. "Even now, if I binge on refined carbohydrates I start having severe anxiety," Lennon said.
Lennon said about 10 years ago he began applying his own experiences to working with adult non-swimmers and was surprised at the quick positive results. "Traditional swimming instruction emphasized locomotion," he said, "getting from point A to point B. But I begin with helping people feel relaxed and at home in a weightless, aquatic environment. And swimming skills are broken down into very basic movements. In here, people succeed immediately."
Raymond Martinez, 29, who also took the course last March, agreed. "Before the class I could swim a little, as long as the water was no more than 4 feet deep," he said. "The first night of the class I wouldn’t even get close to the deep end." Martinez said that a few weeks after he completed the course, he traveled to the Caribbean on vacation and went snorkeling in the ocean for the first time in his life. He has since bought a boat and is learning to water ski.
Laurie Schultz, 30, said the program has opened up many activities in life that had previously been closed to her. "I was missing out on a lot. I’ve sailed all my life, but many times everyone else would be diving off the boat and swimming and I could never do that. Once I was on a sailboat in the middle of the Columbia River and everybody was off the boat," she said. "Finally I made myself jump in, but I was terrified. I don’t know how I made it to the bank. I had no confidence at all." Schultz said she recently traveled to Barbados and went swimming off a catamaran there. "It was beautiful," she said. "I was so glad I’d learned to swim."
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From "The Seattle Times"
Conquering Their Fear of the Deep
Living in a city surrounded by water, Paul Lennon is amazed at how many aquaphobics he has encountered. Lennon, a certified Red Cross and YMCA swim instructor, defines an aquaphobic as one who fears water. In some cases, swimmers fall into that category too. "Some can swim in water five to six feet deep, but put them in the deep end of a pool and they become instantly afraid," he explained.
Warm water is crucial to relaxation and consequently the pool is heated to 90 degrees. Part of each beginner’s class is spent in a shallow pool which is heated to 91 degrees. To help students overcome their fears, Lennon utilizes a wide assortment of equipment, including fins, face masks, nose plugs, goggles, Styrofoam paddleboards and hand paddles. The goggles and masks are highly important, since students enter the alien underwater world with little visibility otherwise. "Their sight would be 20/4000 without goggles, and this state declares you legally blind at 20/200," he said.
The success of his class, students claim, can be attributed to the non-pressure atmosphere. Individuals proceed strictly at their own pace. But Lennon stressed that by the end of each session all he has instructed have been able to move on to the next plateau. "Some need more work than others," he said, "and for those I try to give quite a bit of individual attention."
The students, most of whom are women, range in age from 25 to 60. "They are basically career women," he said. "But I’d like to get more housewives interested so we could have a daytime class, too." Only 15 percent of the students are men. "Few men like to admit they have a fear of water," Lennon explained. "Swimming seems to be low on their priority list."
Asked if he has met a student he couldn’t teach to overcome a fear of water, Lennon replied, "I don’t think so. I’ve had a few dropouts for various reasons, but of all those who have stuck with the program everyone has eventually conquered his or her fear of the deep."
In essence, Lennon’s classes have opened a new horizon in the lifestyles of many and he’s hopeful of expanding the program even more in the months ahead. One former student is now a certified scuba diver and another swims three-quarters of a mile daily. "The key to teaching aquaphobics," Lennon says, "is getting their trust. If you can do that and let them proceed at their own pace, you’re on the way. Many are embarrassed to admit they’re scared of deep water. But they don’t realize how may others have the same fear too. That is usually overcome quickly once they’re all in class together."
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From "The Everett Herald"
An Aquaphobic Takes The Plunge
W-A-T-E-R spells fear to many Puget Sounders. And that fear - called aquaphobia - can be a social handicap in a land bounded by Sound, sea and stream and filled with water sports enthusiasts.
Mary Ann Hasselbring admits feeling left out when fear kept her out of the water. The Seattle woman even felt qualms on her job. An airline attendant on inter-continental flights, Ms. Hasselbring was uncomfortably aware of the water 20,000 feet below - aware of not being able to swim. She’s not alone. Nearly eight out of 10 people have some fear of water, said Paul Lennon, who is helping Ms. Hasselbring overcome her fear.
Lennon swam competitively for 15 years, taught YMCA swim classes and directed aquatic programs at Edmonds Community College. A former agoraphobic, Lennon combined his knowledge of swimming with his understanding of fear to build a business in introducing aquaphobics to watery environments. He uses the work "anxiety" a lot. Many people would deny being afraid of water but cannot relax and have fun in it. Others are fine in the shallow, but panic if they cannot touch bottom.
Ms. Hasselbring was a total non-swimmer. "I’m nervous around water," she confided. "I’ve always been afraid to get my face wet. Even in the shower I avoid splashing water on my face." Growing up in the Midwest with few pools and fewer beaches, Ms. Hasselbring spent little time in the water. She took swimming lessons as a child, but never got over her apprehension in water. A bad dunking while water skiing in high school left her choking and determined to say high and dry in the future.
A bad experience is often the cause of aquaphobia, Lennon said. Near drowning and being dunked by big brothers as children are common stories among students of his classes at the Maplewood School in Edmonds. Fear can also be picked up from others who are afraid of water, he added. But the fear is not abnormal, he said. Fear of water is the instinctive recognition of a foreign environment. Introducing aquaphobics to that environment should be a gradual, positive process, Lennon said. The old sink-or-swim approach to swimming will only increase the panic an aquaphobic feels. The key is to reduce tension and anxiety, allowing students to relax in the water, Lennon said. The Maplewood pool is ideal, he said. The warm water prevents chills and the shallow pool adds reassurance for the uncomfortable beginner.
Ms. Hasselbring liked Lennon’s approach. She had signed up for a swimming class before, but worried so much that she became ill and had to miss the first lesson. Lennon’s explanation of the class and his promise that students are not pressured to try anything before they feel ready, tempted her back into the water.
Though not ready for the Olympics, Ms. Hasselbring has become increasingly at ease in the environment she so long avoided. "Each step has been a hurdle," she said. Bobbing - learning to breath rhythmically by exhaling underwater - was tough since she didn’t like to get her face wet. She still keeps her face dry in the shower - "out of habit," Ms. Hasselbring said. But bobbing has become easy and the backfloat enjoyable. "One of the hardest things to do is to jump into water, especially deep water. I’m still not comfortable, but I’m getting there," she said. "Once I was confident with bobbing, floating on my face became easy." Bobbing is a key to the whole program, Lennon said. Bobbing prevents fatigue and keeps water out of the nose - an unpleasant experience that reinforces fear, he said.
Relapses and moments of panic are common, Lennon tells his classes. But talking about them helps students to progress. "I stayed out in deep water for about five minutes, and even turned my back to the edge, which was a big step," Ms. Hasselbring said. "It felt good, and I felt that I could get from point A to point B." Eventually, she said, she would like to feel comfortable in a lake and be able to swim for some distance. "Right now, I’m just thinking about getting these air cuffs off my arms." That is a big step for an aquaphobic. |