# Is it possible to teach oneself how to swim? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 5, 2011, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250 "2011-09-05T08:38:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/21 "2011-09-06T03:34:36Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Assume that at midlife one has gotten over basic fear of the water and would like to learn to swim for real. But one does not relish the prospect of looking silly, joining a beginner class alongside eight year olds. Is it possible for one to take up swimming as a self-taught exercise, practicing at one’s club at 6 am while noone’s looking? Hire a private swim instructor or take an adult swimming class. Definitely, **DO NOT** swim without a lifeguard present. It is **imperative** to get someone to teach you correctly because it’s an essential skill. It’s\*\* impossible\*\* to learn how to swim without proper instruction. It is\*\* impossible\*\* to teach oneself how to swim. ---
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/22 "2011-09-06T03:39:15Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I would say, based on all the stories of people being flung into the water and, voila, learning to swim, in the process, that yes, it is possible to teach yourself to swim. In fact, it would seem possible to spontaneously learn to swim, in such cases! What? Cite? Are you being serious? > [@PunditLisa](#): > > Sounds like a good way to drown. > > Instead, just sign up for private instruction at 6am. But do learn to swim because it’s an essential tool. Correct. > [@Lightray](#): > > People trying to teach themselves to swim look just as silly as adults in swim classes with little kids. And, it doesn’t work very well; you’ll end up with some very poor habits and techniques. Correction: It won’t work at all. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/23 "2011-09-06T03:43:42Z")
> [@OneMissedPost](#): > > It’s\*\* impossible\*\* to learn how to swim without proper instruction. It is\*\* impossible\*\* to teach oneself how to swim. Surely that’s overstating it a bit? And why are you so emphatic on this? ---
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/24 "2011-09-06T03:43:52Z")
> [@Weedy](#): > > Swimming with poor technique is much more tiring than it needs to be. There are bound to be adult learn-to-swim classes somewhere in the neighbourhood. Swimming with a poor technique causes people to get tired much quicker than they should. They end up expending more energy than necessary and the results aren’t good. It can cause someone to get too exhausted and working out or doing any exercise when you are too exhausted is dangerous. > [@Koxinga](#): > > Surely that’s overstating it a bit? Not at all. I taught swim lessons. I was also a lifeguard. I can tell you one thing: Learning how to swim is like learning how to ride a bike. Once you learn, you never forget. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/25 "2011-09-06T03:47:03Z")
As long as you know you’re calling a couple of people liars in this thread, and casting aspersions on the memory of Benjamin Franklin, then keep on truckin’, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![OneMissedPost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@OneMissedPost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneMissedPost)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/26 "2011-09-06T03:49:33Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > As long as you know you’re calling a couple of people liars in this thread, and casting aspersions on the memory of Benjamin Franklin, then keep on truckin’, I guess. Where did I do this? You asked a yes or no question and I gave an answer. I want people to cite claims about people magically learning how to swim. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/27 "2011-09-06T03:51:33Z")
I dunno, maybe try teaching yourself to read. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/28 "2011-09-06T03:58:22Z")
Swimming is basically not drowning and there are documented cases of people teaching themselves not to drown. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/29 "2011-09-06T04:08:45Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > Swimming is basically not drowning and there are documented cases of people teaching themselves not to drown. If such stories are self-attributed, then I’ll bet that"s just confirmation bias. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/30 "2011-09-06T12:04:11Z")
Well, my uncle taught all his kids to swim by tossing them off the end of the dock. It worked every time, not one drown. Yes, it was many years ago before such things were frowned on. He lived no where near any instruction, as well. We all took lessons. But we saw them every summer and they were always, and are still, much stronger swimmers than us. How’s that for a cite? ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/31 "2011-09-06T14:00:12Z")
My Dad never went in a pool until he was 28, then taught himself to swim by watching other people and copying. He’s now a competent and keen swimmer/scuba diver, and never had any official teaching at all (apart from the scuba bit). Yes, he had other people to watch, but so would anyone going to a pool. This is what the OP was suggesting, and saying it’s impossible is ludicrous. I’m sure you’d have a better chance of not picking up bad habits from a teacher, but you can certainly learn to swim without. I’d stay somewhere with a lifeguard though. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/32 "2011-09-06T14:01:16Z")
My Dad never went in a pool until he was 28, then taught himself to swim by watching other people and copying. He’s now a competent and keen swimmer/scuba diver, and never had any official teaching at all (apart from the scuba bit). Yes, he had other people to watch, but so would anyone going to a pool. This is what the OP was suggesting, and saying it’s impossible is ludicrous. I’m sure you’d have a better chance of not picking up bad habits from a teacher, but you can certainly learn to swim without. I’d stay somewhere with a lifeguard though. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/33 "2011-09-06T14:38:35Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > My Dad never went in a pool until he was 28, then taught himself to swim by watching other people and copying. He’s now a competent and keen swimmer/scuba diver, and never had any official teaching at all (apart from the scuba bit). > Yes, he had other people to watch, but so would anyone going to a pool. This is what the OP was suggesting, and saying it’s impossible is ludicrous. I’m sure you’d have a better chance of not picking up bad habits from a teacher, but you can certainly learn to swim without. > > I’d stay somewhere with a lifeguard though. Some people can learn to speak Spanish just by listening to Spanish radio. Does that make it a likely or common result? No. For most people, attempting to self-teach swimming beyond the doggie paddle will only end up with them being more tired, more frustrated, and at times more scared than is in any way necessary. In the end they will be swimming less comfortably, less knowlegably, and less safely than they would otherwise. I just can’t relate to the basic premise that taking a class is embarassing and something to be avoided (pools aren’t stupid; they separate children and adults, something the OP would know if he had honestly looked into it). I admit I’m a bit peevish to the idea that someone’s ego will be utterly destroyed if some other human catches wind of the fact that they are not the World’s Leading Expert in Everything. Take a class! You won’t die from it! ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/34 "2011-09-06T15:07:48Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Some people can learn to speak Spanish just by listening to Spanish radio. Does that make it a likely or common result? No. For most people, attempting to self-teach swimming beyond the doggie paddle will only end up with them being more tired, more frustrated, and at times more scared than is in any way necessary. In the end they will be swimming less comfortably, less knowlegably, and less safely than they would otherwise. > > I just can’t relate to the basic premise that taking a class is embarassing and something to be avoided (pools aren’t stupid; they separate children and adults, something the OP would know if he had honestly looked into it). I admit I’m a bit peevish to the idea that someone’s ego will be utterly destroyed if some other human catches wind of the fact that they are not the World’s Leading Expert in Everything. Take a class! You won’t die from it! I agree that he should take a class. I think actually a few private lessons - if they can be managed during the day when the pool is pretty empty - would be ideal both from an instructional as well as an embarrassment standpoint. But I think its way easier to learn to swim without lessons than you are making it out to be. I was a competent swimmer pre-lessons. Lessons to learn to swim were not common 50 years ago and yet both parents, all my aunts and uncles, my parents cousins - the vast majority of them are competent swimmers - who learned to swim in lakes and swimming holes in the 1930s-1960s. My baby sister was a competitive swimmer without ever having taken a lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/35 "2011-09-06T15:14:43Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I agree that he should take a class. I think actually a few private lessons - if they can be managed during the day when the pool is pretty empty - would be ideal both from an instructional as well as an embarrassment standpoint. But I think its way easier to learn to swim without lessons than you are making it out to be. I was a competent swimmer pre-lessons. Lessons to learn to swim were not common 50 years ago and yet both parents, all my aunts and uncles, my parents cousins - the vast majority of them are competent swimmers - who learned to swim in lakes and swimming holes in the 1930s-1960s. My baby sister was a competitive swimmer without ever having taken a lesson. I am talking about adult learners, sorry if that wasn’t clear. I don’t think many people learned to swim as an adult without any lessons, at any point in history. Especially not adults who, until recently according to the OP, were actively afraid of water. I also never said an adult couldn’t self-teach. I said, and I stand by it, that they would be doing themselves a disservice if they did. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/36 "2011-09-06T15:17:21Z")
duplicate ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/37 "2011-09-06T15:24:50Z")
I taught myself to swim as a child; it was no problem. I had enough advice to have a theoretical underpinning to my efforts, and the rest was just messing about in my grandmother’s pool when we went to visit. I’d hang out in the shallow end, make up games that included swimming or swimming-related tasks, and try different things. It was basically 0-risk, and it was fun. I’m having a hard time believing that this was some sort of exceptional feat. That said, it may well be a good idea to take lessons – it might be quicker, you might come out of it with better form, you might not care to spend 2 hours at a time in the pool splashing about almost aimlessly, etc. But there’s no reason you couldn’t give the solo approach a try. Is there a shallow end at this pool? Then you won’t drown. Do you have the option to change your mind if it doesn’t seem to be working? Of course. What’s the harm? ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/38 "2011-09-06T16:09:44Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I agree that he should take a class. I think actually a few private lessons - if they can be managed during the day when the pool is pretty empty - would be ideal both from an instructional as well as an embarrassment standpoint… Actually, depending on what usage your pool sees, during the day can be quite busy. All of the local YMCA pools are full of retiree lap swimmers during the day. And the rec complex pools don’t have lap lanes during the day because the pool is used as a wave pool (during summer months), or they’re holding aquatics classes of various sorts (during other months). Later in the evening is usually when the pool is empty, or weekend late afternoons and evenings. Although with private lessons there may be a chance to use a private pool – with no one else around. Back when I taught, the other company I worked for arranged those sorts of lessons, and I’d go to a private pool a few times a week to have a small class for adults or kids. I could’ve also arranged time at the private pool for individual lessons, had I wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/39 "2011-09-06T16:39:40Z")
Swimming isn’t rocket science, I’m sure you could work it out on your own. That said, I’d take a lesson. I swim strong but ugly and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to form good, graceful habits. Edit: Couldn’t you just have a buddy teach you? Buy him a beer afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250/40 "2011-09-06T17:09:49Z")
> [@OneMissedPost](#): > > I want people to cite claims about people magically learning how to swim. Is it really that magical or rare? Nobody taught me how to swim as a kid. I started out just hanging around in the shallow end, got comfortable going underwater, figured out how to tread water, and eventually managed to move myself around in deep water by age 8 or so. I didn’t have (and still don’t have) Olympic form or anything, but it wasn’t some unattainable skill to the uninitiated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-teach-oneself-how-to-swim/595250.md?page=3)