|
Grew up in the Midwest and learned to swim before I can even remember. Summertime pretty much meant spending a ton of time at the pool or a nearby lake (or Lake Michigan) because hey girls in swimsuits. In high school they had us do swimming for P.E. so I learned the basics of the different competitive strokes but never did join the swim team. I later moved to Hawaii and gained instant respect for the swimming ability of local surfers. The waves here are no joke and the ocean in general seems to be a lot rougher, and many tourists pay the price for it. I stupidly got caught in shore break a few times and happy that I had any kind of swimming acumen. Then I got into triathlon and did my first ever competitive swim in the open water along with 1000 others. Mass start ocean swims are absolute chaos and I have no idea how I managed to not freak out. Nowadays I feel pretty good open water swimming and can manage current, chop, and swell. I stay the hell away from any breaking waves if I can help it though. Most of the time I swim laps with my masters group at the pool though, ocean swimming is a weekend thing for me.
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 09:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 21:21 |
|
|
Nwabudike Morgan posted:I'm in the Navy, and during basic there's a swimming test portion, which should be obvious to most people. But the strange thing is like a hard 65% of people didn't know how to swim, and would freak the gently caress out during the swim portion, resulting in them having to stay in bootcamp for multiple extra weeks. always tripped me out that people would join the Navy of all branches without the foggiest idea of how to swim. This is so true. Occasionally the navy will do swim tests at our pool, or there will be navy guys there practicing for their test. I thought I was going to have to personally save some of them before. I am always like "man, I sure hope your ship don't sink". Even the ones that do seem to know how to sorta swim totally loving suck. Also, I find it sorta weird that they always, and I mean ALWAYS, bring all their poo poo to the locker room in one of those cheap disposable plastic grocery bags. Doesn't the navy handy out duffle bags or some poo poo?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2015 20:46
|
|
|
Grew up in the UK near London. I never had swimming lessons at school and didn't learn to swim elsewhere because I have a terror of being in deep water without a handhold. My mother tells me I've always been this way so I don't know if anything caused it or what. I get around this terrible handicap by not going in deep water. Having said that I'd kind of like to learn, and I would insist any child of mine learn. I think it's important.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 12:13
|
|
|
HopperUK posted:Grew up in the UK near London. I never had swimming lessons at school and didn't learn to swim elsewhere because I have a terror of being in deep water without a handhold. My mother tells me I've always been this way so I don't know if anything caused it or what. I get around this terrible handicap by not going in deep water. Having said that I'd kind of like to learn, and I would insist any child of mine learn. I think it's important. I am pretty sure that fear of water, like fear of snakes, is instilled in you at an early age. My wife is terrified of water and she told me how her mom used to absolutely panic when my wife even got near water when she was young. She would even make her wait 30 minutes after eating to go into a 4 inch deep kiddy pool lets she get stomach cramps and drown !?!?!. My wife started freaking out when our kids went to the pool the first time, which in turn made my kids freaked out, so the whole time I was trying to talk her down, then talk the kids down, etc. I then told my wife to stay home until the kids got used to swimming if she was going to do that, so thats what she did. The kids love the water. If you want your kids to not be afraid of the water, don't be over protective or show anxiety when they go in the water. Have someone go experience go with them, and if need be, don't even go yourself until your kids are acclimated. Where I live there are classes geared towards adults who are scared of the water, perhaps there is something in your area.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 18:37
|
|
|
Begby posted:If you want your kids to not be afraid of the water, don't be over protective or show anxiety when they go in the water. Have someone go experience go with them, and if need be, don't even go yourself until your kids are acclimated. Where I live there are classes geared towards adults who are scared of the water, perhaps there is something in your area. Good advice! I should look for something like that, thanks very much.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2015 21:41
|
|
|
Australian here. Swimming was part of our school's physical education curriculum from Kingergarten onwards. I went to a private high school, and we didn't pass PE unless we earned the Bronze Medallion from the Lifesaving Society, which included water rescue and resuscitation. Used those skills once. Worth it.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2015 01:58
|
|
|
Duck and Cover posted:Connecticut, swimming lessons as a child. I assume I can still swim but I haven't for probably 10+ years. As I recall I never did manage to get the hang of that flip turn. my swimming story is this quote exactly, what the heck, who are you, why are you me
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2015 23:24
|
|
|
Grew up in MD, parents moved into a house with a pool when I was like 10. By 16 I was sick of cleaning it and when my father issued the "clean it or you can't use it!" ultimatum I called his bluff and didn't ever swim in it or really anywhere again. Now I'm 38 and have gotten i to kayaking so it time to brush up my skills again.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 03:22
|
|
|
Grew up in Indiana. There was a lake nearby, but it was private and absolutely infested with mosquitoes as it was a man made lake and there were few predators to eat them. The second closest body of water I could get to was lake Michigan, and gently caress that place, it was cold and dirty. So I went to my local YMCA from around five to thirteen. My parents kept me busy on weekends with baseball, basketball and swimming. I hated the first, enjoyed the second and hated the lessons of the third. There were tiers of learning in the YMCA named after fish for classes. Minnow, guppy, dolphin, etc, all the way up to shark. I was banned from going into that class because it involved life guard training, kicked down two tiers, banned again, kicked down two tiers and banned a third and fourth time. It was only meant for people ages 16-18 or so and I would have adored the training. It made me bitter. I'm out of shape, but because of my form I can probably outdo 95% of people because I just did it for so long. The only way I'll drown is if I'm unconscious or tied to a rock. Absolutely hated the flip turn, and there were a number of exercises I despised. I want to call it the dolphin kick, in which you don't use your hands, but instead you keep your legs together and move up and down like a dolphin. I still to this day think it was a move invented by sadists, because I've never seen anyone use it in earnest. Anyway, growing up in a YMCA was great. I think the best part is that I went to a rich school that was all white save for a single black person, but when I went there it was a mix of everyone, so I learned to get along with people outside of a white monoculture.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 05:32
|
|
|
Learning how to swim is vital, I went and did classes when I was younger and loved the water. I got older and started doing swimming for club teams etc. but never really kept up with it, tried to do diving but I was pretty bad although my teacher actually was a silver medalist at the Olympics. I wish I stuck with swimming because after I quit I got alot fatter it is great exercise and way more entertaining in my opinion than running, also swimming should be a mandatory skill one of my friends from high school drowned a few weeks after graduation and he didn't know how to swim (maybe this is profiling ,but he was a Indian-American). I probably would have died if I didnt learn not to panic as sometimes while swimming in lakes etc. I get leg cramps and while they hurt like hell, the trick is just to hold your leg still and just float/paddle towards shore and not thrash.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 09:52
|
|
|
Leather Daddy posted:How someone could drown in a pool without being able to get themselves out though by at very least thrashing towards the edge though v Basically I sunk to the bottom of the pool. I never learned how to swim and skipped it during camp. I might someday learn how but right now I just like to hangout by the beach under a parasol.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 16:48
|
|
v
|
I grew up in Southern California and have been swimming since 4 or so - far enough back that I only barely remember bits of the learning process. I was probably 15 before I (knowingly) met a person who couldn't swim, and that seemed just crazy. Like not knowing how to run. Even now, I can't think of a single friend, family member, or friend's extended family that doesn't know how. A couple months back some guy I know wondered out loud if racial swimming stereotypes were based on anything, which I thought was stupid so we looked it up. Percentage of people in the US with little or no swimming ability: African-American: 70% Hispanic: 58% White: 42% The disparity is of course caused by a combination of poverty and historical inequities (in the early 20th century when swimming became a common leisure activity and public pools were built all over the country, guess who wasn't allowed in?), so on second thought the existence of a disparity wasn't surprising. But drat did it show me that I live in a weird bubble, because a huge percentage of this country can't swim.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 18:54
|
|
|
Begby posted:I am pretty sure that fear of water, like fear of snakes, is instilled in you at an early age. I can agree with this whole idea of parents just being non-panicky around water if they want their kids to learn how to swim. I have vague memories of my parents showing me how to do the freestyle stroke, putting water wings on me and then just letting me do what I want in the pool, albeit they were nearby in case I ever did start to flounder. I love the water and I really wish I lived closer to a beach so I could enjoy floating around in the salty water.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 21:37
|
|
|
I grew up in New Jersey and my parents made me take swimming lessons for several years as they figured that swimming is just one of those things that a functional adult needed to know.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 21:56
|
|
|
I learned to swim at the YMCA as a child and generally disliked the lessons, but I wish I had continued them into my teenage years because my form is loving awful except for a back crawl. I can tread water until I fall asleep and it boggles my mind that anyone could drown, treading water just seems so instinctual. I live in New England and the ocean is beautiful but also a brisk 45-50 degrees in the summer, so swimming in it is really unpleasant unless you've got a proper wetsuit. The best surf is allegedly in the winter and seeing surfers in water that is probably warmer than the air is some drive that I just dont have.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2015 22:36
|
|
|
Grew up in Michigan. My parents enrolled me in a swim class at the local High School when I was about 4, and our neighbors had an in ground pool with a deep end. Then in high school you had to swim for gym class. There days where we would do water survival training. Like tread water for 30 minutes, and jump in with your clothes on, takes them off, and make a buoyant thing to hold onto out of your jeans. Also swimming in the great lakes. There were islands and sandbars that you had to swim long distances for. I also broke my shoulder on a jet ski, and had to swim a mile back to shore with just 1 arm. A few summers ago my friend brought his Mexican neighbors up to his cottage on the lake for 4th of July, they couldn't swim and had to wear life jackets on the boat. indoflaven fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 14, 2015 |
|
#
?
May 14, 2015 16:34
|
|
|
Control Volume posted:my swimming story is this quote exactly, what the heck, who are you, why are you me Why are you both me as well? CT goon here.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2015 19:02
|
|
|
My parents forced me to take swimming lessons when I was around six, and I hated it. I think I cried through half of it, although I ended up swimming competently. By the time I was a teenager I encountered an issue where I seemed to lose much of my buoyancy to the point where if I tried to float on my back I'd end up almost completely submerged, floating a few inches under the surface. Maybe it's a side effect of being a skinny runt but I would get worn out trying to stay afloat well enough to breathe and eventually I gave up and never went back to it. I think I'd enjoy swimming as an adult if it weren't for the not being able to breathe part.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2015 21:47
|
|
|
For me, in Texas, swimming is a social activity. I actually hate the act of having to stay afloat (i'm skinny and sink like a rock), but give me a 4 foot deep pool, a can of beer, and a couple of friends and you'll have to pull my rear end out of the water before i leave willingly. I love playing around underwater, but never venture too far away from shore as being able to stand in water is important to me. I'm also a professional scuba diver and have no problem diving to 200 ft underwater, yet without any gear i'm hesitant to spend any real time (over 10 minutes) in water that I can't stand in.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 05:08
|
|
|
Crunkjuice posted:I'm also a professional scuba diver and have no problem diving to 200 ft underwater, yet without any gear i'm hesitant to spend any real time (over 10 minutes) in water that I can't stand in. How prevalent is a total lack of swimming ability among scuba divers (either recreational or professional)? I know from my own recreational experience that you need no swimming ability whatsoever since your gear should keep you positively buoyant at the surface.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 06:49
|
|
|
I'm one of those cliche goons scared of the ocean. I didn't learn how to swim until my mid 20s, and even then, I can only dog paddle. I can swim to "not die" but not well enough to just enjoy myself. Here's another stereotype, but Jaws was a big part of the whole thing.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 14:05
|
|
|
I grew up in the midwest in the country. I don't remember it, but I grew up playing in creeks as a toddler with minimal supervision (my grandma would fall asleep and I'd wander off). Then some pool lessons, then a whole bunch of river and lake swimming. I remember being told over and over not to swim under tree branches in a river for fear of being caught by the current and tangled up in the branches underwater. Never had swimming in school, didn't need it. Never could master the front crawl for distance, probably due to being out of shape. I think only former swim team people can really do that for 100+ yards. Oh, and swimming in saltwater sucks, freshwater supremacy. mastershakeman fucked around with this message at 14:48 on May 16, 2015 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 14:45
|
|
|
mastershakeman posted:swimming in saltwater Sharks, jellyfish, riptides mastershakeman posted:freshwater Insects, snakes, crocodiles, man-eating trees (apparently), brain-eating amoebas Hmm, maybe we should stick to chlorinated water. (I kid; swimming anywhere is awesome. Except when there's snakes. gently caress that.)
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 19:08
|
|
|
paperwind posted:How prevalent is a total lack of swimming ability among scuba divers (either recreational or professional)? I know from my own recreational experience that you need no swimming ability whatsoever since your gear should keep you positively buoyant at the surface. I have no numerical basis, but its prevalent. There's lots of fat/out of shape divers in the world. You need to be fit enough to provide yourself propulsion, but actual "swimming" isn't really too much of a need. All divers have to pass a swim certification test to get their lifetime license. Its a 5 minute tread, and an untimed 200 meter swim. You just need to be able to swim, but you don't need to provide competition level swimming abilities just to dive. Where fitness really comes in is with the advanced diving. You are carrying much more weight and diving in harsh conditions. In cozumel, a 400 lb fatty can putter around under water and not die.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 19:19
|
|
|
Choadmaster posted:(I kid; swimming anywhere is awesome. Except when there's snakes. gently caress that.) Agreed. gently caress watersnakes.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 19:25
|
|
|
mastershakeman posted:swimming in saltwater sucks No it doesn't. You get extra buoyancy in salt water. 
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2015 21:59
|
|
|
Saltwater pools are pretty dope, you can open your eyes underwater and it doesn't sting nearly as much. Plus your hair isn't all dry and gross.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2015 05:39
|
|
|
Alaska here. I've swam since before I can remember On the road system most people can swim and it is a common recreational activity. Most high schools have pools, and they are open to the public. Off the road system there are few pools (I know of one in Naknek, maybe Nome has one), and while there is to s of water, most of it is very cold. So it isn't easy to learn. It can certainly be done, but as with any barrier to entry, it deters a lot of people. Drowning is a big deal, due to the combination of high rates of boating, especially remote boating, and high rates of inability to swim. There are pretty common "kids don't float" stands offering free life jackets at many public boat ramps. I once got in a confrontation with a group of Yupiks in Dillingham and backed my way onto a bridge with a plan to take someone into the water if it came to a fight. It didn't, so I don't know if it would have played out well, but the odds were certainly favorable that they couldn't swim. I've also pulled a number of bodies out of rivers that resulted from simple capsize / overboard situations where the person should have been able to make shore if they could swim.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2015 09:09
|
|
|
I would imagine that if you were used to swimming outside in Alaska, your body could pretty much swim anywhere. I new a guy from northern Alaska that had moved down to Oregon for school, he would swim outside in the coldest temps and be fine. Just something I remembered, last post made me think of it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2015 20:48
|
|
|
I'm almost 33 years old and I can't swim. And my house overlooks a lake. I'm going to die. I never learned because I didn't really have any opportunities to do so growing up, although I live on the east coast about an hour away from the beach. It just doesn't matter to me as an adult. I just have to avoid falling in the lake and I'm all good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2015 21:17
|
|
|
27 here. My mom was a lifeguard before becoming a teacher, so despite growing up in a place with few opportunities (NYC) I learned how to swim. Almost drowned in a water park when I was a young kid before learning how to swim 100%, one of those big slides went down into water way too deep for me and the water was too crowded for anyone to notice. Thankfully I knew how to "doggy paddle". Scary as hell, but it didn't deter me from water. These days I loving love swimming; I have a bad back (spondylosisthesis, bulging discs) so it's the only exercise I can get a really strenuous workout from without throwing my back out. Just put up an Intex above ground pool for that purpose, can't wait to get flexibility back and lose some weight.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 01:33
|
|
|
When I was a very young kid I believed for some reason that nobody born before a certain year knew how to swim. I don't remember why exactly I thought that but I guess it was because out of the handful of adults that I knew, many of them either didn't know how or just didn't like to swim. But everyone I knew that was my age swam at the pool all the time! It was weird gradually realizing that yes, quite a lot of people over the age of 40 actually know how to swim. I suppose I just grew up in a landlocked area where public pools were not as ubiquitous as they are today until the mid-80's or so.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 04:15
|
|
|
Crunkjuice posted:
Can confirm, lazy fat body and diving Cozumel is nice, as there is a current so you don't need to fin much.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2015 07:53
|
|
|
I cannot swim but I once did some diving to about 20-30 ft with an air tether (not scuba because it was a line going up to a compressor on a boat, but that was the only difference--the BCD, regulator, fins, mask, etc. were standard scuba equipment). Once you adjust the BCD to neutral buoyancy you have no need to "swim" in the conventional sense of the word because you no longer rise or fall in the water. You just point yourself where you want to go and kick, and off you go. I met a barracuda that was like 7 feet long and we just kind of chilled together. I thought you had to be a competent swimmer to become a scuba diver though. You're supposed to have not only a plan B, but plans C, D, and E for when your gear fucks up, and that includes ditching it and swimming to safety under your own power. The tether I was on was short enough that I could not descend past the point where it would be dangerous to physically drag me out of the water (surfacing too fast from deep water will give you decompression sickness, which sucks). Woolie Wool fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jun 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2015 00:29
|
|
|
Woolie Wool posted:
That is why you dive with a buddy you trust. If worse comes to worse they are there to help you out. If you are solo diving you have additional training/equipment to cover what ifs, extra mask, bailout tank with regulator ect. Also Divers are taught not to dive above your ability/training and are expected not to get yourself killed. The worse thing I could think of happening is being 100 feet down diving a wall and having your BCD bladder rupture and you drop down while trying to ditch gear and then rocketing to the surface once it is off. In that situation your swimming ability will not really matter. Gindack fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Jun 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 5, 2015 06:04
|
|
|
Hummingbirds posted:What's the point of the butterfly stroke? And when my parents made me join a swim team These swim technique questions kinda got skipped. The Butterfly Stroke is a sprint stroke, you can get some of the fastest speeds possible with this stroke. The Butterfly was developed as a competition style, and won many records before it was eventually subsumed into the general freestyle. It remains a core element of swimming competition. When Michael Phelps became internationally famous because of his amazing Olympic performances, many of them were in the Butterfly series. The reason bilateral breathing is encouraged is because it is fairly key to developing solid symmetrical stroke techniques. If you are always favoring one side to breathe then you are likely also favoring that side while stroking, which ruins your form. If you switch back and forth then you are more likely to swim evenly and use the pocket correctly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2015 07:33
|
|
|
Speaking as a Texan, who also spent a lot of time as a Boy Scout, there was also the Life Saving merit badge. That's not a badge one got lightly. In the easiest form, in order to get the merit badge I had to learn CPR, swim a mile, and pick up a brick from the bottom of a 20 foot pool. Half the kids I spent my summers with became lifeguards with that training. thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 11:20 on Jun 6, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2015 11:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 21:21 |
|
|
I grew up in the south of the UK, I had swimming lessons at primary and secondary school, and my parents also sent me for extra lessons. My dad likes to swim so he used to take me along with him at the weekends too. I don't recall anyone not being able to swim at all by the time we were in secondary school but there was definitely a range of abilities/enthusiasm. It is noticeable that my partner who only ever had school lessons isn't a confident swimmer; he can swim OK but it always looks like a bit of a struggle, which I guess stems from having limited time to practice when learning. You're meant to breathe on both sides when you're swimming freestyle because if you're racing that enables you to see how your competitors on each side are doing compared to you, and it means you can breathe more often if you need to when you're going full-speed. If you can only breathe on your left, in theory you can only take half as many breaths in a length compared to someone who can breathe on both sides. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2015 09:42
|
|