I’m Arlo The Good Dinosaur (Tri-Training Day 70)
January 19, 2016My biggest weakness is not my stroke nor my kick nor my follow through. My biggest weakness is the panic response that I feel when I am swimming. Last night my family and I went to see The Good Dinosaur and during to scenes Arlo, The Good Dinosaur, falls into the river and the scene shows him thrashing around in the water nearly drowning. The entire scene I had a horrible pit in my stomach and found that I was sweating afterward. I realized that I was acting out the scene with him. I AM Arlo and I need to figure out how to be Michael Phelps. Once I hit the panic response my form falls apart and I turn into a dinosaur with large goofy feet that can’t swim to save his life.
I need help… Anyone that knows a great way to get over the panic response please comment below.
Please help me get over my Arlo-ness.
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3 discusions on this article
You are not alone. Panicking in water is typical, especially for land dwellers. Here is the real scary part, the panic is real and gets more real and more intense the moment you put on goggle in open water and see plants and fish swimming far below you. I will never forget the time I first went snorkeling. Full on panic. I could not control my reaction. Fast breathing led to not breathing at all. It felt like my lungs collapsed inside me.
Another part of panic that you need to prepare for, especially if you are doing open water, is the shotgun start. Even for experienced swimmers, this kind of swim can be overwhelming.
The great news is that there are things you can do to over come panic. Since your panic includes simply being in the pool, I suggest taking baby steps.
Step 1: Go to a Yoga class and learn how to do controlled breathing.
Step 2: Buy some cheap snorkel gear and take it to your pool. Don’t worry about swimming yet. Just hang on to the edge of the deep end, and practice your controlled breathing learned at yoga class, while getting very familiar with looking at the bottom of the pool. When you can control your breathing and the panic goes away, venture off the edge and just float around. Tell your kids to swim underneath you. When that is something you now comfortable with, swim a lot of laps with your snorkel gear on.
This is all about creating familiarity.
Step 3 Part 1: Swim with a water polo team. In Utah, practice begins mid Feb. You are more than welcome to come up and join our club for conditioning. The reason I say this is when a polo team conditions, it is head up, shoulder to shoulder. It is very cramped and a lot of touching. It is just what you need to get used to a shotgun start.
Step 3 Part 2: This can be done before or after part 1, but come second because we live in Utah and I don’t think you want to hop in open water just yet. But basically do Step 2, but in a lake.
Those are my suggestions.
James,
Thank you for your very insightful advice. I love the snorkel idea, I love the Yoga/meditation idea. The Water Polo team will need to come after I don’t think I am going to drown just swimming by myself.
Seriously Thanks James.
[…] fun as always. Just after we made it to Todd’s turn around spot I shared my story of being Arlo The Good Dinosaur and how I was sweating in the theater after watching the drowning scenes. Zach was quite surprised […]