Gentleness of teacher eases fears of water
About a year ago, Joyce Estes stood in a doorway leading to an indoor swimming pool and battled waves of panic.
Swim instructor Pam Jackson saw her, escorted her inside, listened to her fears for 10 minutes and then eased her onto the pool deck and into the water.
Within an hour, Estes was swimming.
“I tell her God put her here,” said Estes, a 78-yearold psychologist.
Jackson, 76, teaches a class called Beating the Fear of Water at the Eldon and Elsie Ward Family YMCA on the Near East Side. She speaks softly, plays comforting music and encourages her students — mostly women in their 60s and 70s — to float with relaxed limbs.
“Like cooked spaghetti, not boxed spaghetti,” she reminds them.
The approach worked for Estes and several other members of her class.
Jackson is leaving the Ward YMCA soon to teach at other facilities, but her grateful students didn’t want her to get away without testifying to what she did for them.
“She’s just so patient,” said retired nurse Evelyn Lewis, 69. “My heart isn’t pounding like it used to.”
Jackson, a Toledo native, has been teaching swimming since she was 18, so she has seen a lot of water phobia in 58 years. In her class at the Y, several students said their anxiety began in childhood when they were dunked, pushed or otherwise forcefully submerged.
Jackson addresses the fear using a method called the Water Magic Aquatic Trust Program, which slowly builds confidence. (People wanting information on her teaching schedule can email her at pamjaqua@gmail.com.)
Students start with the back float, which they learn by resting their heads on the shoulders of partners
standing behind them. The students eventually gain enough confidence to dispense with the supporting shoulder and lean back into the water.
Jackson also deviates from standard swimming techniques to accommodate the arthritic knees and balky shoulders that come with age.
Several women said
finally learning to swim was a “bucket list” item for them.
“I said, ‘I’m going to learn how to swim before I die,’” said Amy Mills, 74. “She just took me by the hand and led me.”
Jacqueline Tshaka, 74, said a stern swim instructor who pushed her head underwater at age 12 sparked a fear that she overcame when she connected with Jackson, who is anything but stern.
Asked how it feels to know that she achieved her goal of moving through the water with confidence, she replied with one word: “Glorious.”