Baby Humans demonstrate an innate swimming or diving reflex when they are born up until the age of approximately 6 months. In other words, babies immersed in water subconsciously hold their breath, slow their heart rate, and reduce blood circulation to the extremities (fingers and toes). They can be able to survive on water instinctively over long periods of time. Through continuous practice and training babies can hone this abilities and develop muscle memory that translates to future superb swimmers. Overtime due to lack of practice for majority of individuals, this trait is lost to the extent that one is unable to even save themselves during life threatening situations. This leads to complications and in extreme cases leading to extreme aquaphobia.
Through my experience and that of most of the cadets that we have trained with throughout the years at this academy, more than 75% of us arrived at the academy as complete non-swimmers; unable to manage ourselves in water. The lack of knowledge and skill inadvertently leads to the lack of self belief and thus fear of the water bodies.
Gaining the courage to go into the swimming pool on the first day during our selection back then as civilians proved a great task in most of our minds and the fact that most of us managed to dive into the pool while fully aware of our inability to swim showed how willing and courageous we were to face our fears even back then.
127 our experts are availableright now
On our second year of training we started the combat swimming lessons with the first couple of months emphasizing on water confidence and the elimination of the fear of water bodies, I must admit that these were trying times for most of us who were complete non-swimmers. Even for the intermediate swimmers at this level, they were not spared the shocks of this new kind of training.
Through courage, endurance and determination, we managed to overcome the mental and physical obstacles that back then seemed impossible to cross. Self motivation and encouragement from fellow cadets and our swimming instructors helped us build courage that translated to all other aspects of our training. I can confidently say that intake KMA 07 is coming out of this academy as the first intake that consists of fully competent and reliable swimmers with skills that will be of much significance both to themselves and to the military at large all thanks to the courage that each individual showed to face their fears in order to emerge victors rather than victims.
