I’ve done a couple half IM swims between 55 minutes and 1 hour 5 minutes doing backstroke because it’s the only way I could get through it. I’m strong on the bike and run. I want to do a full IM and am trying to get over the anxiety of doing freestyle, which I’m unable to do for more than a length of a pool due to breathing being off and just a ton of anxiety. In fact, I was so anxious at the pool today, I sat on the edge for 15 minutes and never jumped in. Anyone have to work through this recently on their own without hiring a coach? Would just focusing on doing something like a mile freestyle, even if I stop every length of the pool, work the kinks out on their own eventually? Any advice?
There are plenty of fish on this board who can suggest the best way to overcome your anxiety… if you don’t or can’t hire a coach try to find an adult swim class as they are relatively inexpensive and there will be others who are in similar situations. Or if you have a local tri group you may be able to get some help from them. Ours brings in a coach once a week to work with beginner to advanced swimmers. On other days we help each other and provide support and incouragement.
I too could not free style and side stroked my first two tri swims (.5 miles each). I took lessons at the Y, joined a tri club, swam alot and finally was able to freestyle through 2 HIM’s.
There is another challenging difficult multi sport activity called DUATHLON
.
Any advice?
Sure–
1st: do not set a deadline for yourself of like, say, an IM in Sept and right now you still can’t manage to even get in the pool.
2nd: keep on trying to get in the water and get comfortable. even if its just getting in the water to fool around and play with your kids. stuff like that can really help.
3rd: you’ve simply got to get outside help. get instruction from someone who knows what they’re doing. often, new swimmers don’t have anxiety out of thin air. they’re anxious because they’re doing so many things wrong that it is a struggle for them to swim or breathe. hence the anxiety. correct some of the problems and the anxiety disappears, or decreases 95%.
Thank you very much for all of the responses so far. Much appreciated and very helpful.
Here’ a little story: My freestyle is/was horrible. My kids are AAA swimmers, my wife’s a head coach and all they do is laugh at me. They can go for miles and I’m a sinker. We live on a lake! I can breastroke at a decent rate but then fall off.
The biggest change or revelation came last week. I was always breathing to the left, because to the right I’d suck in water. But watching the swim club smoke their practice lengths - they breathe both sides of course. So awkward as it was, I forced myself to go right and kept doing it. Now with right and left breathing my shoulders are rolling properly and boom last week I started to move in the water, putting together lengths with some rhythm. I could feel it - and some confidence. Try to stay relaxed, excess tension will kill you.
Break it down- there are some drills out there that will help you freestyle. You also have to allow your shoulders to work into the task. Tight hips and shoulders is my middle name.
Now I just have to ditch my fins 
The most important thing is to train confidently.
When race day comes you really need to believe that you belong there.
A good swim coach will help you focus on your form/technique so much that you block out your fear = so focused to form that you are not nervous.
Swimming is very technical and you should find a way to focus on technique in such a way that it is the only thing you concentrate on.
If your concentration on technique/form is good enough, you forget about everything around you and you become fearless.
HI,
I’m one of the coaches of a masters club where we have people who literally started swimming in their 40s, 50s and 60s after taking adult lessons, and people from all abilities from international games competitors to more senior beginners. i would really recommend an adult learn to swim class to get you confident in a safe environment where you can do some skills practice without pressuring yourself from one end of the pool to the other.
If that’s not an option you can try a few things on your own such as putting fins on for a while and then that will give you some forward momentum so you can worry about your arms and breathing only, or you can use a kickboard out in front and just practice kicking along and blowing out when your face is in the water and turning your head to the side to breathe in - it does sound like the way little kids learn, and it is, but it should be one thing at a time and always in a safe environment. Also stay in a shallow pool where you know you can always stand up if you need to, and stick to the outter lane so the edge is near if you feel you might need to hold on for a breather.
You might also want to try a freestyle snorkel which will eliminate the breathing issue for a while until you’re comfortable with the arm actions and then you can gradually try without the snorke. (Freestyle snorkel goes up infront of your face not out to the side so it doesn’t fill up with water if you roll your head/body one side). You may want to try a few strokes backstroke, rolll over and do a few strokes freestyle then go back to backstroke etc - that way you’ve got a plan to ensure you can always breathe but still get some freestyle practice in.
Still, the best option is adult swim classes… they’re not embarrassing or there to laugh at you (as your family might), they’re there to be safe and effective and let you learn at your own pace and gain confidence to reduce your anxiety. IM/HIM swims are a daunting open water introduction too so don’t feel the pressure to rush into it but i hope you do get there in the end, it is worth it. Happy swimming 
noodlecat77
I was the same when I started 3 years ago. You need to listen to these guys and get some lessons. Swimming with tension in your body is the exact opposite of what the body should be doing. I started with local Y class, then got some privates, then joined masters.
…blowing out when your face is in the water…
This was the single most important thing that got me over the hump you are experiencing. I was holding my breath underwater, and breathing both out and in when I rotated my head to breath. Holding your breath makes any anxiety worse. Somewhere I read it is related to CO2 buildup in your lungs.
There are more now, but still only a handful of people who seriously work with adults with swim anxiety around. Literally, a smattering.
First place I’d look would be the conquerfear.com site and see if they have a certified or recommended coach nearby.
2nd thing would be a swim school. One of the places in a strip mall with a warm pool that specializes in kids swim lessons and that’s all they do. If they have adult classes try them.
3rd would be the total immersion video O2 in H2O you might find that one helpful.
I think after that I’d look for a generic learn to swim class.
As for what is going on, you have anxiety. You lift your head WAY up out of the water, either look at the ceiling or back to your feet when you breathe. You kick like a madman or madwoman in reaction to / in addition to / lifting your head all the extra kicking gives off a lot of CO2 which makes you feel like you urgently need to breathe. This in turns ups the anxiety, and in 25 yards you are out of breath and can’t imagine how you will ever swim more than 100 yards without stopping.
ID ing the problem is the easy part, fixing it is hard. Main thing you need to know at thie very moment is that what’s separating you from swimming say 400 yards at a time is all mental. It is not technique, there are people with the most jacked up technique ever who can swim for hours at a time, not fast mind you, but nearly forever. It a mental game right now. I think if you get the conquerfear video it will open your eyes. The book is good as well, but I think the nsippets of the basic drills she does on the video are better.
This might sound silly but here’s what we tell our anxious swimmers. We are land mammals, we don’t like to have our faces underwater for a reason. The adverse reactions to that range from paralyzing anxiety to being nonexistent…but where you fall on that spectrum is a completely individual thing and can be compounded by performance anxiety. Go back to square one. By far, the single biggest problem with anxious swimmers is their breathing. This sounds silly but try it before you knock it - I’ve seen work repeatedly with very, very anxious swimmers.
- get your legs wet by sitting on the side of the pool near a shallow section you can stand it. Work your way into the water so you are standing. Get right in if you are past this point.
- take a deep breath, holding onto the wall and go under. Blow out all your breath, then come up. This can vary from leaning over to put your face in the water, submerging just your mouth at first or going completely under.
- repeat 10 times.
- take a break by floating on your back.
- Do it again 10 times.
- if you are ready to go on, start at the wall, take a deep breath and push off underwater, blowing out all your air just like above. Come up. go back to the wall.
- Repeat 10 times.
Do this 3x a week, even if it’s ALL you do when you get in the pool.
When you can do that with no anxiety and being able to completely exhale underwater, you start on the swimming part by doing the same thing in a different position - always stopping to go back to standing breath control exercises if you find your anxiety growing. For the drills we start with:
A. Kick on your side with your submerged arm reaching out ahead of you and the other folded against your stomach like it was in a sling (gentle tiny flutter kicks - it doesn’t matter if you dont’ really go anywhere, it’s not about your kick or speed at this point) with your face up towards the sky. Take a deep breath and rotate your head so you are looking at the bottom of the pool, chin near your outstretched armpit. Blow out all your air, rotate your head back up to take a deep breath. Repeat for the length of the pool or 10 times (if your kick is such that you don’t really go anywhere). RELAX. RELAX. RELAX. The entire point of this drill is to learn to relax and breath in the position from which you will be swimming. There is no point moving onto technique if this is where your anxiety is rooted.
B. Same drill as above other side. RELAX
C. Start drill A but after 5 breaths rotate to the other side by lifting your tucked arm and taking half a stroke, reaching forward with it and rotating to the other side. Your previously outstretched arm will then be bent and tucked onto your tummy like the first one.
Add this to the first set of exercises above but always start with both of these, until you are totally relaxed and find yourselve not even thinking about being anxious about getting in and swimming.
After that you can add more frequent rotations and start to tune up technique. Give yourself some positive experiences in the pool and build on them. Good luck.
You’ve gotten some really good responses here and I’m sure you’ll get it figured out. Just wanted to add one little overlooked fact that sometimes turns it around for some people.
There is nothing about anxiety or fear that physically prevents you from continuing on your way in the pool in spite of the feeling, so stopping when you feel anxious is not a requirement, but an option.
Let us know how you worked it out in week or two?
I’ve done a couple half IM swims between 55 minutes and 1 hour 5 minutes doing backstroke because it’s the only way I could get through it. I’m strong on the bike and run. I want to do a full IM and am trying to get over the anxiety of doing freestyle, which I’m unable to do for more than a length of a pool due to breathing being off and just a ton of anxiety. In fact, I was so anxious at the pool today, I sat on the edge for 15 minutes and never jumped in. Anyone have to work through this recently on their own without hiring a coach? Would just focusing on doing something like a mile freestyle, even if I stop every length of the pool, work the kinks out on their own eventually? Any advice?
I didn’t read any of the other responses…so I apologize if I reiterate anything.
Forget about the coach. This is between you and the water; and forget the pool. Go out to a pond/lake when it is warm enough; bring your westuit and just put your face in the water and swim. People say HTFU all the time in silly ways…but HTFU.
This might sound silly but here’s what we tell our anxious swimmers. We are land mammals, we don’t like to have our faces underwater for a reason. The adverse reactions to that range from paralyzing anxiety to being nonexistent…but where you fall on that spectrum is a completely individual thing and can be compounded by performance anxiety. Go back to square one. By far, the single biggest problem with anxious swimmers is their breathing. This sounds silly but try it before you knock it - I’ve seen work repeatedly with very, very anxious swimmers. …
IMO this is the best advice to your situation. I trained people for scuba diving and the breathing underwater/anxiety combo is a regular issue.
This issue is totally trainable. You just have to debilitate the feeling/reaction/impulse/insert your preferred word here that is causing the anxiety by building confidence in the inhale through mouth exhale through nose mechanic.
As mentioned before you start doing that either standing on the shallow end of the pool or hanging next to the wall (totally depends on your comfort level).
Inhale through mouth, head underwater, slowly blow through the nose. Rinse and repeat. Eventually it’ll become second nature, something you’ll do without thinking.
Good luck
AQ
You have gotten some GREAT advice here (and some not so great) but I hear what you are saying. I backstroked my first olympic distance. I got tired of telling the nice kayakers that I was ok and would get there.
The thing that really helped me the most with OWS anxiety was having my husband get a kayak and paddle along side me while I swam in the lake EVERY Sunday afternoon from August to October.
Learning how to mentally think through and deal with the anxiety, reassuring myself I was OK…paid off. Went out to the lake last weekend and it was COLD (62) and I got in, dunked my face underwater a few times and blew my bubbles out then proceeded to swim out and catch my friends that were out swimming in the lake already. The water was choppy and I had to stop a couple of times but the lake levels were low and I am tall, so I just stood up and took a good deep breath and started again.
You will get to that point, but it may require getting the help of others to allow you to hit your goal. That’s OK to do.
Anxiety Swimming Freestyle
Then swim it butterfly.
Join a masters swim club.
I had good results with a 2-day Total Immersion camp. There were swimmers there of every ability - including a couple people who couldn’t complete a lap before the camp. Check out the website, you can learn quite a bit just from the videos.
I definitely had swim anxiety. My first few tri’s I could not get it together to swim free, I wound up doing some breaststroke sort of thing and coming in last. I used to get physically sick to my stomach thinking about it. It never happened, but I can relate to the image of retreating from the pool.
I did eventually get to Iron distance and more, several times. Mid pack for my AG.
Even better, I grew to enjoy swimming and find it relaxing now. I joined up with a Masters program. I forced myself to push the envelope and learn all 4 strokes and even compete in swim meets, which horrified me. However the power of the group to diminish anxiety was huge. Also, another key factor in reversing the anxiety was totally getting beaten up in practice with really sick sets. (examples, large yardage of fly, treading water without using arms, hypoxic drills). These kind of sets physically simulated the kind of brain-pounding anxiety I felt in OW, but in a controlled environment. Huge confidence builder. Also a solid masters practice is more yards than an IM. IM swim was easy compared to masters but I built up slowly. I think I started Masters in Feb for a Nov IM.
Obviously the best advice would be deconstruct, buy one on one coaching, learn to do everything perfectly…I didn’t have the $$ for that kind of personnel, the above method worked for me. It is such a relief to be free of that anxiety and swimming is a joy in my life. You can too. Good luck.
Try this exercise with a kickboard- Grasp the kickboard with one hand arm extended, the other arm beside your body and work on breathing twards the free hand. Expell air smoothly under water and when you rotate for a breath only bring air in . Try one pool length right arm, one length left. If you learn to breath on both sides this will become useful for open water swimming so you don´t swallow gallons of surf. Good luck and hang in there!