Conquer Your Fear of Water
An Innovative Self-Discovery Course in Swimming

By Melon Dash
Founder, Miracle Swimming Institute
©2006

Yes, you can learn to swim from this book. It meets you right where you are now and takes you gently by the hand to where you want to be.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................xiii
Preface ...................................................................................................xv
Introduction ...........................................................................................xvii
PART 1: How to Know If You're Afraid in Water ..............................................1
PART 2: The Urgency to Get Started .............................................................2
PART 3: What Happened? ............................................................................4
PART 4: What Didn't Happen? ......................................................................5
PART 5: How to Fix It ..................................................................................9
The Eleven Fronts of Freedom in Water ........................................................11
Step 1: 2+2=4 ...........................................................................................12
Step 2: How to Stay in Control ....................................................................19
Step 3: Permission to Go at Your Own Pace ..................................................28
Step 4: What Is Safety? ..............................................................................29
Step 5: Going Slowly ..................................................................................32
Step 6: Stay True to Yourself ......................................................................33
Step 7: Have Fun .......................................................................................35
Step 8: Your Goals and Wildest Dreams .......................................................38
Step 9: Your Relationship to Your Goals .......................................................39
Step 10: Recognize the Full Impact on Your Life of Being Afraid in Water.
and its Benefits ..........................................................................................41
Step 11: Understanding Self-Consciousness .................................................44
Step 12: Warm Up to Getting In ..................................................................44
Step 13: Set Yourself Up to Succeed ...........................................................45
Step 14: Starting From Calm ......................................................................46
Step 15: Being in Your Body vs. Being in Your Head .....................................47
Step 16: Get the Big Picture ......................................................................50
Step 17: Getting In ...................................................................................51
Step 18: Letter to the Water ......................................................................53
Step 19: Miami to Seattle ..........................................................................59
Step 20: Checking Things Off the List vs. Learning Them ............................. 61
Step 21: Your Beliefs About Water ..............................................................63
Step 22: Being/Doing/Having .................................................................... 67
Step 23: Your Face ...................................................................................73
Step 24: The Necessity of Being in Control ................................................. 77
Step 25: Putting Your Ears In .....................................................................79
Step 26: Comparing Yourself to Others .......................................................83
Step 27: Opening Your Eyes Under Water ....................................................84
Step 28: Make It Simple for Yourself ...........................................................86
Step 29: The Spiritual Side of Learning .......................................................88
Step 30: Putting Your Face In Without Holding Your Nose ............................. 91
Step 31: How to Keep Water Out of Your Nose ............................................ 93
Step 32: Review ....................................................................................... 96
Step 33: Feeling the Water Holding You Up on Your Front: The Front Float ...... 97
Step 34: Becoming Free of the Side in a Regular-Depth Pool: Unfloating ...... 104
Step 35: The Front Float Away from the Wall ............................................. 109
Step 36: Practice While You're Calm ......................................................... 114
Step 37: Review ..................................................................................... 115
Step 38: Which Way Is the Right Way ? .................................................... 115
Step 39: Feeling the Water Hold You Up On Your Back ................................ 116
Step 40: Learning the Back Float at the Wall .............................................. 120
Step 41: Unfloating from a Back Float ....................................................... 123
Step 42: Experiment with Your Back Float After You Own It ......................... 130
Step 43: Games and Toys ........................................................................ 132
Step 44: Learn Steering ........................................................................... 143
Step 45: Find Hand Positions That Work ..................................................... 144
Step 46: Feel, Don't Think ........................................................................ 146
Step 47: Propulsion: Your First "Swimming" ............................................... 148
Step 48: Back Float Practice ..................................................................... 157
Step 49: Learning Time ............................................................................ 158
Step 50: Make the Second Circle Your Red Light ......................................... 160
Step 51: Pushing Yourself: More on "Going Backward Is Going Forward" ....... 161
Step 52: The Learning Meter ..................................................................... 163
Step 53: Learning Path ............................................................................. 164
Step 54: Understanding "Can" ................................................................... 167
Step 55: "Paving New Road" Exercise ......................................................... 168
Step 56: Swimming on Your Back .............................................................. 170
Step 57: How to Know Where You're Going on Your Back ............................. 171
Step 58: Coordination ............................................................................... 175
Step 59: Breath ........................................................................................ 176
Step 60: Water Running Off Your Face ........................................................ 179
Step 61: Breathing .................................................................................... 179
Step 62: Chair Toy .................................................................................... 182
Step 63: Falling Toys, Whale Jumps, Quarters .............................................. 187
Step 64: How Does Fear Heal? .................................................................... 191
Step 65: How Do We Forgive? ..................................................................... 202
Step 66: How to Prevent A New Fear from Sprouting Up ................................ 207
Step 67: Ask Yourself, "Do I Want to Keep This Wedge?" .............................. 209
Step 68: It's Not Your Fault ........................................................................ 210
Step 69: Where We Are Relative to Our Bodies at Stages of Self-Forgiveness . 212
Step 70: Preventing Panic, Preventing Drowning .......................................... 214
Step 71: Pool Etiquette .............................................................................. 216
Step 72: Care and Feeding of Your Swimming Instructor .............................. 216
Step 73: Dispelling the Beliefs You Don't Want Anymore .............................. 218
Step 74: Common Misunderstandings ........................................................ 225
Step 75: Reversals ................................................................................... 227
Step 76: Comparing Yourself to Others-Reminder ...................................... 229
Step 77: When to Proceed with A New Step vs. Practicing More .................... 231
Step 78: Jumping In ................................................................................ 239
Step 79: Getting Out of the Pool ............................................................... 241
Step 80: Deep Water .............................................................................. 242
Step 81: Feeling the Water Hold You Up on Your Front in the Deep End ........ 245
Step 82: Elevator Game .......................................................................... 248
Step 83: Vertical Float ............................................................................. 249
Step 84: Feeling the Water Hold You Up on Your Back in the Deep End ......... 254
Step 85: For Sinkers, There's Sculling ....................................................... 256
Step 86: The Control Meter ...................................................................... 260
Step 87: Play .......................................................................................... 263
Step 88: Check In ................................................................................... 264
Step 89: Remember This If You're Feeling Stuck ........................................ 265
Step 90: Breathing Practice ...................................................................... 267
Step 91: Swim Stop Swim ........................................................................ 268
Step 92: Approaching the Wall .................................................................. 269
Step 93: Skipping Time ............................................................................ 269
Step 94: The Wheel ................................................................................. 271
Step 95: What to Do If You Scare Yourself ................................................. 276
Step 96: You ........................................................................................... 278
Step 97: Reversals in the Deep End .......................................................... 279
Step 98: When You're Buzzing: Your Engine Is Idling Too High .................... 280
Step 99: The Cure for "Too Much": Building Infrastructure .......................... 281
Step 100: Bobbing without Using the Bottom ............................................. 282
Step 101: More Toys .............................................................................. 284
Step 102: Knowing Where the Surface Is ................................................. 289
Step 103: Bouncing Off the Water in the Deep .......................................... 290
Step 104: Inventory ............................................................................... 292
Step 105: Finale ..................................................................................... 297
INDEX ................................................................................................... 301