# Can you swim? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999 "2024-05-24T00:47:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/121 "2024-05-25T20:34:57Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > - Jumping or stepping into water over your head > - Floating or treading water for one minute > - Rotating in a circle and finding an exit > - Swimming 25 yards to the exit > - Exiting the water, including without using a ladder if in a pool I can do all these except maybe get out of the pool. The only thing is I have real hard time going underwater without plugging my nose. I’m working on it. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/122 "2024-05-25T20:37:33Z")
I was swimming at about age 4 or 5. My parents tied a rope around me and threw me into a fast moving river (OK that’s not true). But I know I was swimming then because I can date my earliest experience to a city pool dug out next to a reservoir. It was more pond than pool. If I remember correctly the walls were staked telephone poles and the bottom was cement. They cleaned it by flushing it and refilling it from the reservoir. But it had a diving deck and I spent a lot of time diving so I had the basics down. When we moved I had a couple of years of swimming instruction at a local Y up through 1st and 2nd grade. It was good enough to get me out of trouble as a teenager swimming in the ocean. That was a bit scary. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/123 "2024-05-25T21:50:42Z")
That’s what Mr.Wrek tells his boating riders. He a fisherman, not a swimmer. He can swim. He just doesn’t care too. He’s been in the drink a number of times. Due to, well, stupid decision making. Bending too far over. Falling because of faulty knee or gout. Sinking his boat. You takes yer chances out with him. Wear your vest. And hold on. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/124 "2024-05-25T22:40:09Z")
What do _you_ think? I drink, too. And I’m going out like Captain Pomin. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/125 "2024-05-25T23:15:00Z")
Here…fishy fishy fishy! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/126 "2024-05-26T18:46:24Z")
Like an otter. It’s the _only_ athletic type activity I’ve ever been good at. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/127 "2024-05-26T19:32:23Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > What I should have said is that I think it’s extremely important for people to learn how to swim. I absolutely agree! When I was in college, we all had to pass a swim test (which I did). Kids who did not, I believe, had to take swimming as one of their two PE elective courses to graduate. Public schools (elementary / high school) did not routinely have any kind of swim facilities, not that I ever heard of. Maybe in some areas they did. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I can do all these except maybe get out of the pool. Same here. I doubt I could exit a pool in deep water anywhere. When I was growing up, I certainly could, but part of that was the design of the pool - a shallow edge, then a gutter, then the regular edge - gave us more to grab onto. I CAN swim underwater w/o plugging my nose; I remember being bemused by seeing other swimmers using a nose clip. I can also do breathing function tests (spirometry) without a clip on my nose; someone tried to put one on me, once, and I said I didn’t need it. I let them use one once, and it hurt like hell. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/128 "2024-05-26T19:44:15Z")
I grew up in Louisiana; knowing how to swim was considered Very Important. My aunt gave swimming lessons for kids starting at age 3 or 4, and I was duly enrolled in them. I don’t believe I even knew anyone who didn’t know how to swim, and I still think that everyone who is physically capable of swimming should learn to do so as early as possible. I’m not particularly fast or graceful in the water, but I have swum under all sorts of conditions–lakes, fast-moving rivers, shallow reefs. I’ve even had occasion to swim across a couple hundred yards of a bay, towing an overturned canoe behind me to the beach. Being, shall we say, extravagantly buoyant does occasionally confer some small advantage. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/129 "2024-05-27T16:40:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If you had an older brother you should have looked in his direction to see if he was laughing. I don’t have a brother, but I did have older cousins. I don’t recall where they were at the time… ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/130 "2024-05-27T17:22:41Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > I grew up in Louisiana; knowing how to swim was considered Very Important. My aunt gave swimming lessons for kids starting at age 3 or 4, and I was duly enrolled in them. In the summer of '89 my parents took me to Mississippi to visit some family friends. These folks lived right on the gulf, there was a pier at the end of the street everyone shared, so I just assumed all the kids could swim. We went for a swim in the nearby Jourdan River and us kids decided it’d be fun to swim across it. My sister and I were doing fine, but about halfway across I noticed the other kids were struggling to keep their heads above water and realized they didn’t know how to swim. I ended up having to help the youngest on our way back to shore which meant I spent more time under water than I wanted to be. Which I was a decent swimmer, I had no lifeguard training and had we been farther from the shore we both would have gone under. I was absolutely livid and verbally ripped into all three of them asking why they agreed to swim across the river when they didn’t know how to swim? Their mother told me it was no big deal because you could float forever and I shouted back, “Yeah, doing the dead man’s float.” That was the last time we visited them. I was shocked to learn that peopel who lived so close to the coast, people who regularly went into the ocean, didn’t know how to swim. It blew my tiny little mind. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/131 "2024-05-27T17:42:06Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > It’s the _only_ athletic type activity I’ve ever been good at. Same. Well, I can ride a bicycle, and am a medium-level competent rider of horses. And I can hike. Don’t ask me to do anything involving a ball. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/132 "2024-05-28T02:25:04Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > There are so many lakes and rivers around here (and Canada in general) and so many people have backyard pools that I’d consider it irresponsible to not teach a child to swim I saw an interesting fact on the news this morning (27 May 2024) that about one Quebec child per day is taken to ER for drowning or near-drowning: > **[About one Quebec child per day taken to ER for drowning or near-drowning: study](https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/about-one-quebec-child-per-day-taken-to-er-for-drowning-or-near-drowning-study)** > > Research found children between the age of one and four are most at risk and more likely to occur on weekends or in pools without proper fencing. I’ve been able to swim since I was 8 or 9. I was taught at summer camp and the transition from couldn’t float to could float was very sudden. I remember it quite clearly. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/133 "2024-05-28T10:48:25Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > one Quebec child per day is taken to ER for drowning or near-drowning: Heh, I knew a Québécois woman and I can believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/134 "2024-05-28T11:44:44Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > one Quebec child per day is taken to ER for drowning (obligatory) “Someone should keep a closer eye on that kid!” (/o) ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/135 "2024-05-28T16:08:39Z")
Regarding kids and drowning, Steven Levitt’'s _Freakonomics_ memorably summarizes the dangers of not being able to swim. He’s anti-gun, but points out that parents underestimate the dangers of pools/ [Op-ed piece on swimming pools vs. guns as the most dangerous weapon | ScienceBlogs](https://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2001/07/27/levittpoolsvsguns) And I’ve been able to swim since my father taught me as a young child; I became a strong swimmer in high school and do laps when I have the chance. My own kids learned young too. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/136 "2024-05-28T16:25:48Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > According to the American Red Cross, while 80% of Americans say they can swim only 54% can accomplish these basic tasks in the water. > > - Jumping or stepping into water over your head > - Floating or treading water for one minute > - Rotating in a circle and finding an exit > - Swimming 25 yards to the exit > - Exiting the water, including without using a ladder if in a pool I can do the first four of these without any trouble, but getting out of a pool without a ladder might be tricky. It takes a fair amount of upper body strength to get your torso up to water level, and then you have to get a foot on the ground which requires some flexibility. Upon reflection, i could do it, but it would not be pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/137 "2024-05-28T18:04:20Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > Regarding kids and drowning, Steven Levitt’'s _Freakonomics_ memorably summarizes the dangers of not being able to swim. He’s anti-gun, but points out that parents underestimate the dangers of pools/ And rates are really high for autistic kids. Most kids who drown in pools are autistic. Hence me wanting my son to learn. But it is coming slowly for him. ---
**Author:** ![Jegpeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jegpeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jegpeg)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/138 "2024-05-28T18:59:41Z")
A lot depends on the pool. In soom pools the water comes right up to ground level, and I wouldn’t have any trouble exiting those. Other, pools the grond is up to abut 18" above the water level and i really would struggle to get out of those without a ladder. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/139 "2024-05-29T14:38:23Z")
Yes, I can swim! I was born, raised and still live in Minnesota the Land of 10,000 Lakes (actually there’s more than that) not to mention Lake Superior is 15 minutes away. We had a cabin on a lake that we spent every weekend at during the summer. So I was in the water from the time I was a baby. Most of us in Minnesota think it’s odd if you can’t swim and/or ice skate! ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2024, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999/140 "2024-05-29T14:43:31Z")
I have taken beginning swimming lessons multiple times but unfortuantly i still cant swim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-swim/1001999.md?page=8)