One incident of bullying lead to me being scared to swim for 30 years

As a personal trainer you would think I could swim a length of a swimming pool with no real problem but you would be wrong.

It’s safe to say I am capable of doing many things with regards to fitness and strength however none of them could ever take place in a swimming pool.

In Junior School (Lincewood) they had their own swimming pool which is quite unusual for a junior school. Anyway one day when swimming a group of kids grabbed me and held my head under water and I don’t know how long I was under for but I know I started to panic and I felt like I was drowning, I remember the teachers shouting and having a go at the other kids but it scared me for the rest of my life, even today about 30 years on I hate putting my head under water. I don’t mind swimming anymore but I won’t swim with good technique as I just panic if I am under water for more than a few seconds.

This is one of two incidents which have made me scared of drowning though. The other took place on my 1st PE lesson at Mayflower. Now when at Lincewood the deep end was 3 feet, I didn’t need to be able to swim really as I could touch the floor and because of the above I never tried to swim at Lincewood, I would simply walk along the pool floor from one end to the next. Anyway back to Mayflower and the swimming pool had a deep-end of 7 feet I believe, being rather naive I started to swim and when I started to struggle thought that’s ok I will stand in the pool and walk to the other side but of course I could not touch the floor and I panicked again, a guy or girl who was a sixth former at the timer and was helping out jumped and got me out of the pool, I was scared but also embarrassed. I never went swimming again at Mayflower, I always had a sick note. In fact after that I didn’t go in a swimming pool for a very long time, about 10 years.

Now I will get in a swimming pool, I don’t like swimming but I will do so, I have had a few people help me overcome this fear, Danielle and my friends Simon and Natalie.

To show I am only human and have anxiety’s though, very rarely do I go swimming at the Sporting Village for no other reason other than I think it looks bad that I can’t swim very well even though I am a personal trainer. It may seem stupid but it’s the honest truth.

As a personal trainer maybe it’s only me who thinks this way but you are almost expected to good at everything with regards to fitness from the general public but the end of the day I am only human and while I may be very fit in the grand scheme of things there are things I can’t do which to most people seem quite easy and swimming is one of them.

Sometimes it’s hard not to compere yourself to other people but really you should only compare yourself to yourself if. I don’t like Swimming but 30 years ago I would not even get in a swimming pool now I will, I might struggle but I will. That is success is my eyes.