It can be an achievement for some merely to get into the water but once in the water, this depth perception does not instantly disappear at any age and is constantly on the mind of the student hence the fear of sinking and subsequently drowning. With the adaption of empathy and sympathy to enable us to tolerate this, we are able to move forward into the practicalities of our pool side practice.
The babies would not venture over the deep side on the visual cliff, meaning that a student will swim or acquire a skill when they are ready for it not when we think they aught to be. Meanwhile, If we take the experiment at face value we can conclude that it is the student who is in complete charge of the learning and not the teacher. However, the experiment is not conclusive in that only thirty-two babies took part, from only one culture and there was no data as to an age when children were able to cross the deep side using the visual cliff. None of the babies ventured over the “deep” side although there was no problem over the shallow side. Approximately thirty-two babies aged between six and fourteen months were called across both sides by their mothers. In the early sixties, two psychologists Gibson & Walk made an apparatus called a visual cliff with a shallow side and a safe deep side. In order to get to the root of this problem we have to look closely at the way they perceive depth.
On the other hand there are students who appear comfortable and happy to enter the water after a number of lessons but still lack both the skill and confidence to gain the impetus to swim. Swimming teachers can present evidence of situations where students are reluctant to get started but by the end of the first or second lesson, they are performing a front paddle. Is learning to swim “natured” or “nurtured?” To simplify, do they swim naturally after adequate water time or does the skill have to be learned? The answer is that the skill has to be learned in an adequate amount of water time so that man can adapt. Synchronized swimmers with the way they perform their routines provides a perfect example of man adapting to water. However, as man is formed in the womb, in a liquid, and the evolution process suggesting that man originated from the sea, can man naturally adapt to being in water? Evidence confirms that he can to an extent although not in an amphibious way. There is evidence that babies can submerge and float just under the water but they cannot stay there for any long periods as man is not amphibious. This tolerance is governed fundamentally with the hard fact that man as an animal does not naturally belong in the water. The starting point is the elimination of fear and reluctance, but it will take patience, understanding and differentiation. There are a variety of reasons as to why which I will endeavor to explore and expand on so as teachers you will have a basis for a practical progression. However, the majority of children and adults adapt and enjoy swimming because the whole journey into the unknown has no doubt been made a pleasant one. Unfortunately for some, a swimming experience has been upsetting, while for others, there can be some form of reluctance towards a journey into the unknown, subsequently leading to a fear of drowning irrespective of any previous experience. You do not have to be an expert psychologist to realize that we are more likely to repeat a pleasant experience than an unpleasant one.
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