Instructor Helps ‘Aquaphobics’ in the Swim

The water at Echo Park Pool was 85 degrees on a chilly Saturday morning when Paul Lennon and his six intrepid swim students strode onto the deck of the enclosed pool.

“Let’s get wet,” Lennon said.

The students, alumni of Lennon’s Aquatic Development Clinic, had come from Seattle for two hours of private swim time at the public pool, and they were eager to dive in.

Lennon--a man who claims he can teach anyone to swim, no matter how discouraging or traumatic the student’s aquatic past--says there is a good reason why he and his students jetted nearly 1,200 miles to take a dip in the 75-by-120-foot Echo Park Pool.

“For most of them, this is the largest body of water they have ever swum in,” he said. “We have to do the extraordinary to get past their lifetimes of apprehensiveness.”

For Lennon and his students, doing the extraordinary means taking eight to 12 trips a year to Hawaii, the Caribbean and other swim spots.

His students are adults who felt socially hamstrung or personally defeated by their inability to swim. Some never learned to swim when they were young. Others suffered from “aquaphobia,” a morbid fear of water.

Tinkering With Methods

A former competitive swimmer and agoraphobic (a term generally taken to mean a fear of open places, but which Lennon said is more aptly described as a fear of having an anxiety attack in public), Lennon said he began to tinker with the traditional methods of swim instruction about a decade ago.

He said the main weakness of traditional swim lessons is that they stress staying afloat by propelling oneself through the water, meaning that when the swimmer gets tired, he or she becomes less safe in the water.

Lennon, on the other hand, encourages his students to swim with their heads. He and his disciples talk a lot about the physics of swimming. The emphasis is on the principles of how humans float, tread water and otherwise stay in deep water a long time without drowning or tiring.

During his decade as a swim instructor, Lennon has veered from the mainstream method of beginning swim instruction in several ways. First, he keeps the water temperature in the pool at 92 to 94 degrees for beginners.

“No more, no less,” he said. “Having it around skin temperature is crucial to the comfort level.”

Second, he keeps his students in the water long after their fingertips have begun to wrinkle.

“People can’t really relax in the water until they’ve been in it for a couple of hours,” he said. His basic one-weekend workshop features two five-hour sessions in the water each day separated by a 10-minute break.

Third, he provides equipment to help his students open their eyes and close their nostrils in the water.

“Take away the vision from any animal and put it in an alien environment and it will create anxiety,” he said.

Gives Students Goggles

He gives each student goggles, or prescription goggles if the student wears glasses. He also gives them nose clips until they feel comfortable in the water.

“It helps them concentrate on developing skills,” he said, “not on mere survival.”

These three tactics are meant to desensitize his students to the aquatic environment.

“It is exposing them to an uncomfortable environment in the most comfortable way,” he said. “It is making sure their anxiety level never goes above moderate.”

While he urges his students to do the “extraordinary,” a cardinal rule of Lennon’s is to never force a student into doing anything he or she fears.

Lennon’s clinic has a good reputation in Seattle, according to Bob Regan, aquatics manager of the King County parks and recreation division.

“It fills a void,” he said. “There are definitely people who are afraid of water and he (Lennon) has apparently done tremendous things with them.”

Lennon said that, other than a couple of students who just didn’t show up after their first lesson, he has never failed to teach a person to swim, no matter how aquaphobic he or she was at the outset. His students say nothing to contradict that claim.

“Friday night, no way would I get in the water,” recalled Raymond Martinez, 29. “By Sunday I was going off the three-meter board--feet first.”

Martinez, a shipyard worker from Seattle, said he had tried and failed to learn to swim in a variety of courses offered by the city. Then he saw an ad for Lennon’s weekend clinic.

“Aquatic Development Clinic sounded serious enough to help me,” he said.

He was 28 and “could do the survival stroke, but only in shallow water.”

Today, he swims and owns a boat.

Kathleen Mahler, 41, a teacher from Seattle, can remember exactly where her fear of water came from. When she was 6, a canoe she was in with her father capsized and they were trapped under a dock.

“It is terrifying when you are young to have your father there and realize that he might not be able to save you.”

After giving water a wide berth for years, she married a ship designer and sailor. She suddenly found herself on the water a lot.

Scientific Explanation

“I tried a couple of community programs and was real discouraged,” she said. “I was absolutely sure I couldn’t learn to swim.”

She thinks the most important part of Lennon’s program is his scientific explanation of how humans are able to swim, not just a demonstration of how to kick, paddle and breathe.

“Telling you why it works gives you more power, more freedom to develop what works for you,” she said.

For Glenn Mills, 33, a Seattle consulting geologist and mining engineer, learning to swim did much to change his life on dry land. When he signed up for swim instruction, he was trapped in an unhappy marriage and a job he didn’t like.

“I needed a small personal victory,” he said.

“I’d always been a very, very weak swimmer,” he said. He sailed, but always with the gnawing thought that if the boat overturned or sank he would be unable to save himself.

Several years ago, he was at a lakeside outing with friends and followed their lead by jumping off a dock into the water.

“A wave of fear hit me,” he said. “I grabbed for a boat.”

He thrashed around with marginal results.

“I was getting real tired and all of my strength was no help,” he said.

Six months ago, he was terrified of being in water over his head or floating on his back; now he is on the verge of becoming a certified scuba diver. His next goal is to swim in the ocean.

And in his six months as a swimmer, he has ended his marriage, quit his job and begun working as a consultant.

Lennon has plans to bring his unique brand of swim lessons to the Southland this spring for a weekend workshop. For information, call (206) BE-A-FISH.

But he does not promise that learning to swim is easy.

“We’re dry-land mammals,” he said. “Our instinct is to look at water and tell ourselves we are not going to survive in it.”