August 05, 2003: Mind Over Water
Published: Aug 5, 2003
SAFETY HARBOR - At first glance, it looks like the world's laziest swimming class.
The students loll around in the shallow end, dunking their faces, drawing water in their mouths and letting it pour out. They dive for coins. They see who can sit on the bottom.
It's all going according to plan. These five adults fear the water, so before they can learn to swim, they must learn to relax.
They've flown from other cities - one from Italy - to take the $1,340 beginners course held recently at Safety Harbor Resort & Spa. Teacher M. Ellen Dash, founder of the Miracle Swimming Institute, says just about all her students have tried traditional swimming lessons.
``They get frustrated with that. They know that's not the way to go,'' says Dash, of Schenectady, N.Y.
Sylvia Holm-Jensen of New York City has taken plenty of swimming lessons. She just never felt like getting back in the water when they were over.
``If I know that I can't put my feet on the bottom, I panic,'' she says. ``I can fake it for a while, but then the truth comes and gets me.''
Adrienne Love of Atlanta says she can get in a pool but stays glued to the side.
``When I move away from the wall too long, I kind of panic and I have to gravitate back to the wall.''
The Power Of Panic
Dash, 48, who travels around the country to conduct classes, focuses lessons on staying in control. When people panic, she explains, it's as if their consciousness leaves their body.
``So we're learning how to keep yourself right here where your body is. So then you can decide, `I don't think I will inhale underwater after all, thank you very much,' or `I don't think I will thrash right now,' '' she says.
They notice they're floating, or they're close to the surface, or they have more air than they thought, she says.
``But you only notice those things if you're here in your body.''
Classes are held twice a day for four days and a half-day on the fifth day. Dash starts each session with an hour or so of group therapy. Students, assigned reading and exercises from a workbook, sit in a circle and talk about their fears, scary experiences they had, excuses they rely on to avoid the water.
(Two students decline to be named. One of them, suffering a medical problem, drops out during the week.)
Many students had at least one parent who feared the water, Dash says.
``I think you learn it,'' she says, explaining the logic: ``My mother is afraid. My mother is smart; there must be a good reason for her to be afraid. It must not be a safe thing for me to do.''
Water Dreams
On the first day, Holm-Jensen, 60, tells the others her wildest dream is to kayak to the Statue of Liberty. ``I know I'm going to end up in the Hudson.''
Mauricio Lavezzari, 29, from near Milan, Italy - who becomes anxious at the smell of chlorine - envisions diving from a boat in the middle of the sea.
Love, 38, yearns to jump into a pool, swim effortlessly and relax in the deep end.
Some attribute their phobia to something that happened in childhood. Holm-Jensen was startled at age 4 when her father, carrying her on his shoulders as he waded in the surf, stepped in a hole, dunking them both.
She felt incomplete not being able to swim. It apparently is a common feeling.
Love believes she's disappointing her children by not being able to take them to the pool.
``They automatically have in their mind, `Mommy doesn't know how to swim. So we have to depend on Daddy.' ''
The students make timorous moves on the first day. They get familiar with the feeling of water at chest and neck level, of dunking their faces. They learn they can take water into their mouths without swallowing it.
And they learn how hard it is to sink. They try to sit on the bottom in the shallow end, not knowing that the secret is to release the air from their lungs.
``I can't even get close,'' Holm-Jensen says.
They have trouble picking up the fake coins, too. Not enough inspiration, Lavezzari jokes.
``I think we need a thousand dollars,'' he says.
``I got one!'' Love shouts. ``My first coin!''
Soon, she's talking about how good the water feels.
``Standing ovation for that comment,'' says Dash.
`I Love It!'
They learn they can float on their backs and the air in their lungs will keep their upper bodies atop the water. They learn they can hold their breath and float facedown.
At the end of the first day, they hang on the wall in the deep end. With Dash right next to them, they float a few inches from the wall.
On the morning of the fifth day, they're treading water in the deep end. They're kicking their legs to propel their bodies across the pool. They're on the edge of actually swimming.
Holm-Jensen jumps into the deep end, sinking far and bobbing to the surface.
``I love it!'' she shouts.
Love stands on her head in water.
Lavezzari, who stayed at the side of the pool his first day, treads water easily in the deep end. ``I think something changed the second day,'' he says.
A vacationer from Lake City, watching their progress all week, is astounded.
``They have made the biggest improvement. Monday, they were scared to put their faces in the water,'' says Sherri Lee.
``And then today, it's unbelievable. They're getting over that fear and they're really doing well. To see them in the water and all, it's just amazing.''
When he gets home, Lavezzari plans to take swimming lessons from a friend, a professional instructor. Holm-Jensen says she'll visit the new YMCA, just 200 feet from her door. Love plans to go to the pool with her family. She says they'll be pleased.
``I don't have a fear of the water like I used to. I've been jumping in, and I've never done that - ever.''
For more information about the Miracle Swimming Institute, go to
For more information about the Miracle Swimming Institute, go to www.conquerfear.com or call 1-800-723-7946. Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at (813) 259-7609.
