Openwater Issue 2, Autumn 2016 | Page 6

Swimming Anxiety

As we head out for our weekly open water swim, we see new members coming in to join us on a weekly basis, especially during the warmer months. One thing that seems to be common across a lot of adult swimmers is the anxiety that a lot feel when swimming in open water. I recently wrote a blog post about my struggle with open water swimming, but had a lot of people wanting to know of ways to try and relieve this fear and anxiety.

It seems that this anxiety is more consisten around swimmers who have come into the sport later in life. As for me, I grew up with swimming lessons at primary school, but they were only for five to 8 weeks of the summer months only there to help us survive if we got in trouble. There was no fault, of the instructors, but there was not enough time for use to get the confidence needed to really relieve any fear that we may have had.

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Picture by Alifstyle