Swim Boulder | Beth Davis - Overcoming Fear of Water, Boulder Colorado


Highlights

Getting Children Started

Stroke Development for the Young Competitive Swimmer

Stroke Improvement for the Triathlete

Learning to Swim as an Adult

Overcoming Fear of the Water

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Overcoming Fear of the Water

When a student comes to me afraid of water, whether he or she is an adult or a child, I tend to start them out the same way — SLOW! I teach in a step by step fashion.

Comfort, relaxation, elimination of the panic
reflex are my highest priority. Once someone trusts me and the water, then I begin to teach them how to swim.

Beth Davis is an extraordinary teacher who specializes in, among other things, extraordinary (some would say ‘difficult’) students. She knows that cookie-cutter methods for teaching swimming don’t work for everybody, so she tailors her instruction to each swimmer. My experience with her has been awesome.

Afraid of deep water as a child, I never learned to swim at all. Plus, I had been deeply affected—though I didn’t realize until I started lessons just how much so—by a fall into a pool at a summer camp when I was eleven. At age 32, though, I had an epiphany about my relationship to water and the benefits it might have for me, so I decided it was time to learn. I deliberately sought out a private swimming instructor who would be a step or two more ‘Boulder’ than the kind I expected to find at an ordinary YMCA or rec center, and from the info on Beth’s web site, I suspected she’d be a good teacher. My hunch was right. Beth has been amazing!

It seems every lesson has been a tremendous experience in personal growth for me, and for Beth as a teacher. From day one, we’ve identified strange disconnects between my mind and body, yet we’ve been overcoming every one of them. It actually didn’t take us very long at all to conquer most of my initial apprehensions about water; Beth is incredibly patient, and when something isn’t working, she figures out a new approach (sometimes not even involving pool time at all) or a way to break down swimming into components that can be worked on through drills that are immediately productive.

In just the first season of weekly half-hour lessons, augmented with 2 of 3 practices a week, I had several breakthroughs: within the first few weeks I was able to put my head underwater, could float and kick on my back, and could propel myself through the water as we set about learning my first stroke. I made steady progress, though sometimes it was two-steps-forward, one-step-back, as my body and mind came to terms with the water and with each other. Eventually I was doing a mile of breaststroke at a stretch and was moving with confidence and relative grace through the water. I steadily improved my freestyle and backstroke as I set about learning how to do flip turns and (soon, hopefully) diving.

Swimming has been such a transformative and fulfilling experience for me that I’ve continued my lessons for two years without a break. There’s always more to learn, more ways to improve, and I just can’t recommend Beth highly enough, no matter what your age, skill level, or experience in or out of the water.

—Mike Brown

My son John was terrified of the water. When he was six years old I began enrolling him in swimming programs, from groups of 2 to 4 children. Two years and three different programs later, he was still afraid, and would not put his head under the water.

After a few months of lessons with Beth, he told me he loved swimming, and now after a year of lessons, he is swimming across the pool with his head under water.

Beth is a wonderful instructor: patient, kind, and an excellent athlete. I feel very blessed that she is teaching my son.

— Mary Wallace

When I started swimming with Beth five years ago, I could not swim a stroke. I had bad swimming experiences as a child and never took to the sport. As time progressed, my fears of the water and swimming grew, and I thought that I may never be a swimmer.

Starting to swim at age 33 was a big challenge. I had never been able to get my face in the water without holding my nose, nor was I comfortable in water I could not stand in. We started off slowly and by the end of the first lesson I was able to swim underwater without holding my nose. After this we took it one week at a time, gradually building my skills.

I continued to take private lessons with Beth for three years. During this time we worked on my technique and skills in learning the crawl, breaststroke and backstroke. I have particularly enjoyed Beth's attention to detail and emphasis on learning proper technique as the method to become a faster and more confident swimmer.

During the summer after my second year of lessons I did my first open water swim. It was a 1 mile swim across the lower section of Lake George in the Adirondack Park in New York State. It was a great accomplishment, particularly when I never could have conceived of such a thing only two years before. I now train five days a week, incorporating many of Beth's drills into my workouts. I am training for marathon swimming competition: these are open water races of three or more miles.

When I think of what I have accomplished in the past five years due to Beth's instruction and coaching I can hardly believe it. To have gone from zero skills and fear, to complete comfort and excitement to go swimming every day, this really is beyond words. I would never have gotten there had it not been for Beth.

— Colin Fraser

My son started lessons with Beth when he was 6. He was not born with a natural affinity for water, and his memory of earlier group lessons at the city pool was of a scary instructor who made them do things even if they were afraid.

Beth spent quite a bit of time helping him learn to feel safe in the water. Her approach is empowering: first she listened to his concerns, and then she told him that she would always check with him before he tried something new. As he accomplished each new skill, his confidence grew and the water became a more comfortable place.

When a particular new skill seemed especially daunting and fear crept back in, Beth was encouraging but firm. They talked about the things he had already accomplished, how good he felt about them and how important it was to try something that seemed scary so he could get past it and go on.

He was the one who decided when he would try, but it was Beth who helped him find the strength within himself to push beyhond his fear so he could experience that sense of exhiliration and accomplishment. Beth was teaching not only a specific swimming skill but, more importantly, a life skill of finding the strength within to push past adversity.

From a technical perspective Beth is an excellent swimming instructor, but what I value even more is her ability to empower kids so when they face a challenge they know they can draw on their inner strength, face the challenge and in so doing, succeed. That is a universal skill they will benefit from for the rest of their lives.

— Mary Horsey, mother of Ry

Beth has helped me a great deal in overcoming my fiercely bad relationship with the water. I used to practically hyperventilate at the thought of swimming a lap in the pool, and now I approach the task with a sense of ease and confidence.

Beth has helped me obtain this new relationship by breaking down all the elements of the swimming stroke. She puts things in easily understandable and accessible terms. She led me through the study and practice of each basic stroke element and allowed me to understand that I was indeed capable of doing this work. We then began to put the elements together – celebrating the little triumphs along the way, which instilled great confidence.

Beth makes my time in the water incredibly challenging and enjoyable. I now feel that my swimming goals are not as far-fetched as they once seemed.

— Lisa Albright, age 31

When I first started swim lessons from Beth Davis, I was skeptical whether it was even possible for me to learn to swim, because my natural fear of water prevented me from relaxing enough to breathe while swimming.

With Beth's patience and excellent analytical and teaching skills, she has step-by-step analyzed what needed to be corrected, taught me the proper skills, and helped me to relax and breathe while swimming. I can actually swim multiple laps. My progress almost seems miraculous!

— Keith Wilhoit

Highlights | Getting Children Started | Stroke Development for the Young Competitive Swimmer

Stroke Development for the Triathlete | Learning to Swim as an Adult | Overcoming Fear of the Water