The Swimming Instructor

The instructor is a minor figure in terms of space on the page, but he is essential to Douglas's recovery, and he embodies the practical method the essay recommends. He is patient, systematic and encouraging. Rather than expecting his pupil to plunge in and conquer fear at once, he breaks swimming down into separate skills and builds them up one at a time. He uses a rope-and-pulley arrangement running on an overhead cable to keep the anxious learner safe, teaches him to breathe by putting his face in the water and exhaling and then lifting his nose to inhale, and drills him in kicking before combining everything into a swimming stroke. His calm, step-by-step approach turns a terrified man into a comp …