RE: [Paddlewise] Anxiety, Wet Exits and Rolling

In a message dated 3/8/01 11:43:21 AM, wiestn_at_tamug.tamu.edu writes:

<< rather than feed the panic reflex that many of us have, teach to a
solution rather than set up for failure (panic). >>

Hi Natalie,

    I'm not sure I understand you. With regard to wet exits, the only
approach I know is to work to desensitize the student to the anxiety
associated with being upside down in an enclosed kayak. I work with various
students in a variety of ways depending on their relative anxiety level.

 major snip
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Jed,

The technique that Natalie described worked for me.  I started getting
panicky just watching the film on rolling and could feel the anxiety
escalating as I entered the water in a doughboy pool.  Lucky for me the
instructor was totally low key, no pressure.  I told him that I was starting
to freak but didn't want to go home.  He asked if I was comfortable with my
head underwater, and when I said yes he had me swim underwater for awhile
and then he had me put my head into an overturned kayak and breathe, then I
graduated to a reentry and roll.  I won't repeat everything Natalie said,
but if he had forced me to stay in the kayak and try it from there, my
anxiety would have grown to a level impossible to overcome.  Different
techniques work for different people.  I don't know if gender enters into
this at all but it seems that giving me the suggestion to do things familiar
to me (swimming underwater etc.) then graduating to the more usual teaching
method was far less stressful and *doable* than insisting I fit into a
pattern that the instructor had determined was less stressful.  I found that
I trusted him far more than I would have had he insisted that I do it his
way.  This was truly "teaching to a solution".  I don't believe that finding
alternatives "set up for failure (panic)".

Your approach seems to work for many people and it is clear that you are
sensitive to people's fears and try to adjust your technique.
I think had I been your student I would have felt the way a kid having
problems with a math concept would have felt when a teacher says the same
thing over and over but slower - frustrated, anxious and wanting to walk
away from the problem forever.

Again, maybe it's a gender thing, I don't know.  Thanks for your input.
Alice

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