68 - Ali Meeks and Conquering Your Fear of Open Water

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• 2:15 meet swim and triathlon coach Ali Meeks
• 4:30 the motivation behind Ali’s new book: Conquer Your Fear of the Triathlon Swim
• 6:30 the fear of open water
• 10:30 the two aspects of swimming
  • Safety
  • Choreography 
• 13:15 the ‘not seeing the bottom’ fear and the source of our own safety
• 15:30 the ‘friends in the water’ fear
• 17:45 the 5 circles: 1 - calm, 2 - nervous, 3 - afraid, 4 - terrified, 5 - panicked
  • Awareness of mental state is first step, always trying to come back to that first circle
  • Retain connection to the physical body through mindfulness practice
• 20:45 the ‘non-wetsuit’ fear
• 23:00 sinkers vs floaters 
• 28:00 the discomfort of wetsuits
• 37:00 the role of intensity
  • Warmup is key
• 39:00 the difference between nervousness and excitement is expectation of outcome
• 40:30 the Conquer Your Fear Process
  • Agree not to push your limits in the water
  • Follow the process as slowly as necessary to increase comfort while staying in that first circle
  • Face in water > floating and feeling the buoyancy > propulsion added to floating > back float for safety > open water in the shallows > open water in deeper water with easy access to shallow water 
  • Allow natural curiosity to drive progression
• 47:15 the ‘other people’ factor
• 48:45 the psychological impact of a death in the water on other swimmers 
• 53:00 self-aware risk acceptance

Learn more about Ali at Ready Set Sweat. More info on the book is here. Conquer Your Fear of the Triathlon Swim can be purchased on Amazon.