56% of the world's population cannot swim in fact many are actually petrified of the water it's a genuine fear one that we are planning to tackle today with Harry I'm Harry I'm 30 years old uh I had a bit of a bad experience when I was a kid I was like 10 or 11 um the instructor said yeah get into the pool and I just sort of went for it and didn't I sort of went all the way to the bottom and came back up again a lot of water inside me and sort of felt like I drowned a bit and then the instructor just told me off so I don't know like ever since then it just got worse and worse during the lessons and then after I left Junior School went to high school and there wasn't a swimming pool so we never I never just had the opportunity to carry on getting over it I want to learn to swim now because my wife's always been into it and for the last like 10 12 years she's been at me to get swim in I'm 30 now so it feels like quite a good Milestone um and we've had a baby and she loves the water so I don't really want to miss out on all the fun that they're having because uh I'm too scared again yeah so it's like the smell the warmth and like you can't see the bottom yeah it's not nice how are you feeling right now cuz obviously we're just beside the swimming pool we're about to uh embark on this journey together nervous yeah quite nervous um yeah just yeah a little bit like how it's going a bit all right well we'll we'll take it very very steadily thanks would you give it a go yeah defit all right what Harry is attempting today should not be taking Lightly for that reason I'll be joining Harry in the water to guide and for safety it's really that Harry takes his time and only does as much as he's comfortable okay you might want your gos on office here okay what we're going to do holding on to the side yeah we're just going to go down oh it's a little bit cold actually we're going to go down and we're just going to try and cut our mouth into the water yeah all right just a mouth then put your nose and we're just going to start blowing little bubbles so just a second or two go come back up take a few breaths then we're just going to go down I'm just going to try and build a bit of confidence doing that okay all right ready good piece we going to get [Music] done there we go blowing bubbles it was just horrible at first like all the things had all the like sensory things that get me like the chokey feeling and it going through your nose and your mouth that was all there oh yeah good that this this time we're going like out for your mouth try and bring your nose down into the water as well cuz actually what you're doing in the moment is you're like blowing bubbles off your nose so that's good yeah nice that was good they go up your nose a little bit there that's that's the that that was really good that was really good is up to you we can try now see if we can like just even just like so we can we we're getting the bottom of the doggles into the wall to a tiny bit so like yeah just to there like whatever you're comfortable with that's it that's good brilant come on up we good you're right doing right I think so yeah I'm like but tempt an yeah yeah but I feel like I mean you're already PR that's amazing try try and also just stay relaxed like obviously I know you want to put thing on but try and just stay nice and relaxed through your shoulders and even through your mouth and you're blowing just feel like the lips kind of like really Floy just all of that will help you wow yeah how far was that that was it you were like f with the goggles okay yeah brilant you nice and controller yeah that feels like I'm getting more used to it like just feel it all you can't scop the water from going in but what it it it's a psychological thing you got to learn that yeah the water's going to flow into map it's going to blow out you're going to feel it in and around your nose and your ears but it's not necessarily going to go down the back of your throw unless you start golfing yeah yeah yeah okay so you the water won't natur go down yeah nice brilliant further good who yeah smash it that's like that's a huge that's massive I wasn't expecting sitting up perfect that's I feel like it could go all the way yeah you want to go all the way just keep calling your or just remind you I've got a hold of the edge I have any issues I pull myself out all Mark right there me nothing to worry about that was WR that amazing yeah but don't that's really cool [Laughter] you amazing do you want to time out for a sec or you it's a lot of like that anxiety and then lot of emotion you just kind of achieve something amazing really cool but I'm really proud like even if that's all we do today that's massive massive a weird feeling like that's not there anymore yeah for Harry the thought of putting his head in the water has been a huge block to swimming now that he's more comfortable breathing out under the water we're now going to try and see if he can drop his head down further and I know you feel like there's a bit of confidence there and let's not get yeah like I let's pick up where we left up yeah all right so or even if you want to take a step back and just build back up again we'll build up to just putting your your eyes Under again that'ss of forehead and then if we can all right and only if you happy we'll try and see if we can get further up and trying to get like all your head under or as much of your head under as you can that'll be that'll be the ultimate goal but I think it's like it's quite funny like every time when me and frone like spars and stuff and just been in the water you like sat few I've always felt really embarrassed going out with right hair so like like I'm going to go for itra yeah do my head or everyone else got wet hair well let's let's get a wet hair Harry Nice you've got wet hair [Music] har that was that was good that was really good the idea of doing that without your hands on the wall would that that BR you out I'll I'll be here you don't have to go way that's weird yeah it's weird isn't it don't feel like you got like you do it with one hand one hand and I'm hand you can grab all the head Harry is making incredible progress The Next Step is to try and take his feet off the floor to help with this we're gonna start by using some floats try and put forward and up yeah that's good that's good that's good I forgot to push I I wasn't holding on there all okay what up is that right yeah it's just a bit like scary I feel like I'm I'm definitely suppored but it's that like like lack of control or something yeah yeah and he's making it hard I know I think you're happy they're there I think I'm happy they're there I'm not happy about the world but that's why they he that's it hey yeah so Harry has nailed the glide into the wall with his feet off the floor now we're going to introduce a little leg kick so that he can Propel himself through the water still keeping the wles around the waist but now just going to that felt better in a way yeah go have some control over it or maybe that's all very well for doing a meter or two into the wall but if I suddenly you know as we hopefully over time and not today of course if I tried to do a length of the FL that would be incredibly tiring for you to you went you went very rigid and like panicked kit trying like knowing that this is keeping you a float just the more fluid slower K like nice long legs taking my feet off the floor it was one of the other things like it's the uncontrolled feeling like I don't know you don't know where your body is in space it's just an odd one and I always just feel like I was going to sink but that's not the case it turns out so yeah that felt good it felt good to get over that now bit by bit we're going to try removing the floats gradually getting used to a normal level of buoyancy without them we're going to start from here now though all right so we're not going to start by that and all I want you to do is just push off take feet off the flooor and just push off like that not don't worry about cing just push off and glide on does feel a bit different now yeah it was doing something that's good also cuz like I saw you went into kind of your uh previous reaction don't put your head in the water which is fine I don't want to put your head in water it's just don't forget Bree out that's it you're doing it you're doing it you're doing it yeah it's like there's so many things to think about like legs breathing yeah yeah that's it I don't know seems like a lot more than do you think you achiev this much well I felt didn't feel I didn't feel very confident the minute Harry is doing really well taking his feet off the floor so far this has always been with the goal of covering a short distance and getting to the safety of the wall now I would like to help and show Harry that he can simply float in the water with no movement something that will hopefully help a lot with his confidence what we've been doing to this point is a lot of kind of moving there's been a goal you grabbing hold of the wall a meter or two but I know having spoken to you one of your kind of fears or worries just that ability to float or just be out in the the water so we're not going to move necessarily for this but what we're going to do is getting you to try and do a star Miss and float in the middle of the pool I'm going to give you all your wle back we start with the wles so have them underneath here to obviously you should be able to flat out just getting used to kind of yourself out you okay being water and we'll take them away bit by bit now reason we do a starfish we just spreading your surface area and the amount of pressure you're pting on um the water therefore trying to keep yourself a float everyone floats the differ in De bre due to physiology differences so like if you've got more muscle that is going to weigh more than fat and therefore you'll be find certain parts of your body might sink more I find for instance my feet want to sink Okay so even if we just get you floating for a second ACH you got the right yeah okay you want to try on your front first lean forwards okay so that keeping you a [Music] flont so you say float on there Absolut you'll be there all day if you wanted if you want to try your head into water blowing [Music] [Music] out yeah I was surprised how much I could stay FL cuz it's definitely realized it's more of a mind thing cuz once you realize you're not just going to sink you just have to be there and um and Float rather than try and float that was good that was good I wouldn't have thought that would been so easy let try just frontward okay so I just going to like look down in the water okay underneath like we were doing before with the wle and then we're just going to take our feet off [Applause] I mean you have your finally we're going to try bringing all of this together no floats head in the water kicking a few meters from one side of the pool to the other let go all right this is the ultimate aim today this is it this is all our aim if we can do this we [Applause] have yeah do yes good it's pretty life changing I guess really weird yeah yeah it's good I didn't think I'd get this far so soon um so yeah it was good it's a nice feeling like it's 20 years of a block in my head has just gone it got a bit overwhelming in there a bit yeah it's like it's just like not a thing now hopefully cuz now I know what achieving feels like for swimming then I know that every time I try something new I I should get through it all right and I think there's still going to be some worries and scaredness but I now know what it feels like to get through that so hopefully it'll be a bit easier me and my wife have always gone to bars and sat in the jacuzzi and whatnot so I'm used to the environment we were in today I think the smell of the chlorine in the like in a proper big pool that'll definitely be a [Music] thing but hopefully I'll just be able to not think about it as much I think swimming a length is going to be like the next big one I reckon but should be able to do it I think yeah yeah uh yeah it's just going to be get into it I think I'm just going to stuck in