Paco once bubbled...
... She has the mask romoval down pat, but needs practice with other skills. What happened here is that the class of four students progressed through all the pool skills in one day and without having planned so, they chose to start part 2 the following day. Too much a little too fast. Right now, after having thought about it, she feels much better and is looking forward to tomorrow's training dives. ....
My wife is in about the same boat. She and my son are ready for their last pool session before OW. There are only 6 student in the class, so it is moving along fairly quickly. My son is doing great.... just like you'd expect from a kid.... and she's doing pretty well considering the first time she put on a mask and snorkle she couldn't breath. I think in her case, a larger class that moved a little slower would be a help.
She really wants to do this, but it has been a slow road to the bottom of the pool. I've been very patient; encouraging her to TAKE HER TIME with every skill and not move on until she's comfortable. This seems to be the key.
The first time she saw me clear my mask, she thought she could never do it. Now, there is no problem. Here is the odd part...
In the last pool session, the instructor had the students play a little game of 'pass the mask'. All students kneeled on the bottom in a circle, and on her instruction, they would remove their mask and pass it to the person on their left. This was to not only provide practice with mask clearing, but dealing with some minor stress of having an unfamiliar piece of equipment. That was just a little to much for my wife. After a brief struggle with trying to clear an unfamiliar mask, she heading for the surface. She didn't bolt, but she didn't stay down either.
Now, after a little time to think about it, I'm sure she will do fine. Today, she and my son will play the same game in our backyard pool to reinforce the skill before the last pool session.
During one of the classroom sessions, the instructor told them that when she first started diving, she was VERY apprehensive and really did it to be with her husband. She went on to explain that it was his patience and understanding and gentle encouragement that got her through the anxiety. She also said that at the beginning, she often felt that she was holding him back, but HE never made her feel that way. He was always delighted with any level of dive that she felt comfortable with.
That was about 15 years ago. Now they run a dive shop, teach the full NAUI cirriculum, and lead groups all over the world.
I don't plan to open a dive shop or lead groups, but I do hope that 15 years from now my wife will be able to have the same encouraging things to say about my behaviour during her training.
I hope the same for you.