Flying over the aquatic landscape to see its features - June 11th 2013

What a stunning view of Poole Harbour with Agglestone rock in the mid foreground. I have so many glorious memories of swimming in Dorset's varied aquatic landscapes. Being able to get inside these landscapes makes you value them deeply and want to protect them for others to enjoy the same way. Where do you sit on your aquatic landscape? It matters to those who come after you in future years because it can determine how much they will be able to enjoy it. If you are unsure about what I mean it is because I am talking about two things. The first is obvious as all beautiful environments need society's active protection from unintended harm but the other is much subtler.What you can see from your viewpoint is personal to you but it can have a bearing on how others you come across form theirs. The full implications of this simple phrase are profound for them and the landscapes they come across.

Aquatic landscapes are places of reward and adventure as well as challenging and changing. It is this double nature of riskiness and high reward that we are attracted to for both recreation and inspiration. To enjoy them properly and safely we need to know what the rules are first and today we have the greatest opportunities to learn in the comfort of our safely controlled conditions inside warm, clean, guarded swimming pools. So why do so many of us fail to do so killing chances of making the beach our domain? The reasons become clear as we look at the "epi-aquatic learning landscape" in very safe conditions and see patterns of fearful disconnection with all water. It comes down to the fact that someone who is afraid of water will want to warn others of it's perils that loom particularly large to them before they do anything else no matter how safe the conditions really are. This is natural but it also has an impact on the person that came without any prior knowledge by heightening their sense of alert in a safe environment.

If someone cannot put aside their fears of water even in the near perfect conditions of a modern pool then what chance do they stand of gaining the greatest fulfilment out of the beach? There is no fault here as it is what it is and no person is the same as anyone else. What matters is that we recognise this and seek to resolve problems when they arise. So have a look at where you sit on the epi-aquatic landscape. Wherever you are you will not be alone even though it may feel like it. There may be someone in an adjacent valley and you cannot see them or their point of view because there is a ridge in the way. This is why there are arguments among aquatic professionals about how to teach / approach learning to swim and why scientists cannot agree whether we had a semi-aquatic phase in our evolutionary past. It is because everyone carries their own beliefs which lead to what they can see from where they are lying.

THE EPI-AQUATIC LANDSCAPE

(By Andrea Andrews - Based on Conrad Waddington’s Epigenetic Landscape 1957)

This diagram is based on Conrad Waddington’s Epigenetic Landscape (1957) and is a metaphor for how the underlying ethos of an aquatic learning environment modulates the development of water confidence. Each person starts off as a baby with the pluripotent ability to learn to swim represented by the ball at the top of the slope. As the ball rolls down the hill the route choices it makes determines which valley it will rest in. The valley to the left with the large ball represents an entrenched state of fear where submergence of the head is not comfortable and is avoided. The valley to the right with the ball poised at a bifurcation represents a state of aquatic confidence where the head can be comfortably submerged and the choice is whether or not to let go of residual fear for replacement with a proportional respect for local conditions. There are resting places across the landscape in cols lying around the chin, mouth and eyes. There are no tunnels in this landscape and proximity does not help those wishing to cross over into adjacent valleys.

This conceptual landscape illustrates the following:

a)      Why it can be perceptually difficult to view how someone else feels about water.

b)      Why it is virtually impossible for very fearful learners to gain water confidence without going back up hill to the beginning due to insurmountable barriers.

c)      The first sensory input to influence the ball’s trajectory is the ear. In other words what a learner 'hears' about the learning landscape determines the speed and direction of travel selected thereafter and can remain that way until first-hand experience overrides it.

d)   Parents, teachers and societal messages control ball speed via the tilt of the landscape.

e)     The nose is the highest destination point and as such can influence the ball’s final trajectory, representing a sensitive balancing point for direction of comfort taken in the water.

f)      We are not totipotent aquatic learners as we need to breathe air. We are therefore pluripotent (born able to learn to swim) relying on prior first hand aquatic knowledge of others for support in order to foster a fruitful usage and respect for the water.

g)       Terrestrial societies can benefit from lowering the landscape to make it less steep and tilted towards the right hand comfortable valley when aquatic learning conditions are safely guarded and controlled. In other words they can allow more time for learners to employ their own learning potential by: avoiding implicit warnings by dictating speedy travel before floating and standing has been felt, fixed schemas for breath control before facial awareness has been experienced and introducing narrowly fixed limb patterns too soon. Instead safe time can be used to build a self supportive team of individuals exploring water and sharing positive implicit knowledge in order to build an aquatic sense; taking advantage of a natural ability to gain resilience through safe enjoyable aquatic play first.