Pavel Š.: “I Had a Panic Fear of Water, but I Overcame it”

One Beautiful Day I Made a Decision. I Decided to Overcome My Fear of Water. I Decided to Learn how to Swim.

I was never the one who moved through water with the grace of a dolphin. No, I was the one who stood at the edge of the pool, heart racing, with the persistent question “How do I start?” echoing in my head. I’ve always had it, my chest would tighten when we went to the water with friends as a child, then with family to the sea, even when crossing a bridge knowing that one slip could mean drowning. It paralyzed me, and I decided to end this paralysis. And so my journey began – the journey of a non-swimmer gradually transforming into a swimmer.

I started by walking in shallow water, which was meant to build my confidence. I tried gentle hand movements that helped me stay afloat and move forward. I discovered that when I pushed with force, it was actually more effective than taking heavy steps on the bottom. And so I floated more and more, as if I had seven-league boots.

Then came the time for the first big jump – swimming without support. This moment was crucial for me. I overcame my fear, let go of the solid ground and swam for a few seconds. Calmly and without panic, I just felt how the waves carried my body, how they helped me float, knowing that in a moment I could safely stand again. It was a feeling of absolute freedom and confidence.

After a few weeks, I got swimming goggles and looked underwater for the first time. It was beautiful. Completely different colors, reflections, and refractions of light than I had ever seen. At first, I could only hold for about a second, but over time maybe even a minute. I tried to stay as calm as possible and just observe. Underwater, I held my nose closed, but after some time I could slowly release it without water flowing in. Every bit of progress, even the smallest, was like a small victory moment for me – a moment of celebration.

I began to realize that being in water wasn’t so stressful for me anymore; on the contrary, I enjoyed it more and more and used every free moment to run to the pool. I watched all the available videos on the internet because I actually had no idea what proper technique should look like.

It’s been a year, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. There weren’t many people in the pool, the sun was rising, and the water surface was beautifully orange. I submerged my face and slowly swam with my arms and legs about ten meters without breathing. My first ten meters that I managed completely on my own! A routine for some, a life achievement for me. A turning point, you could say, because after that everything went quickly.

I added kicking, as I understood it from videos and articles. My breaststroke kick is definitely wrong, but hey, I’m not preparing for the Olympics. I added exhaling into the water, which surprisingly went quite well for me, even though it’s probably a common problem for beginning swimmers. The key was that I learned it calmly while standing without swimming, otherwise I wouldn’t have coordinated it. Sometimes water got into my nose, which burns like hell, but I knew that you don’t die from it nor drown because of it. I swam in the shallow part of the pool back and forth, submerging my face, exhaling into the water. All of this very slowly. Whenever I started choking, it was always because I was rushing for air, speeding up one stroke after another, so I stopped and tried again, even more slowly.

It wasn’t easy; there were times when I felt like a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea. But I didn’t give up. I trained, dedicated myself to it, and knew I was fulfilling my dream, overcoming my nightmares. And then, one beautiful day, I made it from one end of the pool to the other. I was swimming and saw beneath me the spot where the deep end begins, where I had always stopped and turned back. But now I said to myself, Why not, I feel great, I’ll keep swimming. And that was it.

Of course, every little wave shook me then, every incomplete breath threw me off so I couldn’t continue. Once I even got a cramp in the deep end and panicked, but I managed to solve it by grabbing the lane line and stretching my calf right in the water until the cramp subsided.

For several months, I went to the pool regularly 3 times a week and improved my breaststroke. If I had seen my new swimming self six months earlier, I wouldn’t have believed my eyes. I wouldn’t have believed that the swimmer circling back and forth in the pool in blue trunks and racing goggles was me.

And then, one day, I told myself that since I already feel safe in the water, swimming breaststroke without breaks, it’s time to try something new. I wanted to learn the front crawl. Something I looked up to and admired swimmers who came to the faster lane to train and swam gracefully, as if they weren’t born to walk, but to swim.

I went back to YouTube and discovered Sabina’s online course there. Friends, I learned to swim the front crawl in three months. I’m not yet like a fish in water, more like an elephant in a china shop, I’m not very skilled, but I know how to stay calm, I’m patient, and I don’t give up. When swimming, I alternate between breaststroke and front crawl, and I enjoy the feeling, which is completely different in the water for both. Breaststroke is my excellent companion for longer distances when I want to keep track of where I’m swimming, get into a rhythm, and warm up. The front crawl offers incredible fusion with the water, clearing the mind; you can see great progress with it, but at the same time, so much remains undiscovered where one can still advance. It was like discovering a new world. The feeling of speed, power, and freedom that the front crawl brings is something incredible. Suddenly I understood that swimming isn’t just about mastering technique, but also about understanding water, connecting with it, becoming part of it. Every day I learn something new, discover new exercises, improve myself. But one thing remains the same – my enthusiasm for water, my determination to continue. I recommend to anyone who is afraid of water or thinks swimming is too difficult to try it. It’s not as hard as you think. And I did it. You can too!

Pavel