the mental preparation no one tells you about

Swimmer and newly qualified swim teacher, Minreet opens up about transitioning from the pool to open water and what mental training she did to be able to take the plunge.

I recently became a qualified swimming teacher and this was tough as it requires a lot of time and practical experience to remember the important parts when teaching. I found this mentally exhausting but what it enabled me to do was challenge myself to do more in my swimming.

I have never swum in open water except for once many years ago where I did a one-mile swim in Dorney Lake for charity. I was quite young, my dad suggested for me to do, I couldn’t say no and I had just had a tooth taken out and wasn’t worried at all about it getting infected! 

This seems like a distant memory for me, so when I was asked to do an outdoor swim in Denham water-ski earlier this year I was scared. My anxiety was on all-time high, I felt stressed, worried and it wasn’t because of the cold water, it was because I kept thinking “what’s in the water?” “What if I swallow some water”, I made myself really sick over constant thoughts about how dirty the water could be. I had to mentally train my mind in the lead up to the swim to say it would be fine.

Finally, the day came and we were looked after by Heather who made my mum and I feel so comfortable. We got our wet suits, got ready and as soon as were ready to get in.

I froze.

I just felt so scared, it was a horrible feeling. I find it so hard to overcome the fear of deep water as well as what’s in the water. With open water, there isn’t the freedom of knowing where you can put your feet down like in a pool and rest. You literally need to be able to know how to stay above the water and it’s then I realised how important water confidence and water safety is.

We got closer to walking down the steps one by one, feeling that cold water on my feet, but I was glad I had a wetsuit on because my other thought had been that I didn’t want to wear just my swim suit. 

When I got in, and took some time to breathe and take it in, used my buoy float to rest on and swam with head above water doing breast stroke, I finally started to feel calm and relaxed. I think having the support of someone there really helped but also to see my mum at her age 71 and not afraid really inspired me. If she can do it, then I definitely can.

It ended up being an amazing experience and I felt so energised after the swim, I wanted to do more and have signed up to NOWCA so I can visit more open water venues including more recently Canary Wharf which was such a memorable experience.

I never thought I could swim in open water, I had to really mentally train myself to be ready and it was exhausting as I felt really anxious but I did it and have faced my fear and want to do more.

I think for everyone out there who like me has the fear of open water, it’s best to go with someone who can help support you and this does reduce the fear and it also helps you to relax and enjoy the experience.

I can happily say this winter as it gets colder and darker my next challenge is to do a night swim – I am scared but I am going to face the fear and do it anyway!