There was a key part of our class which involved learning how to pivot so you were swimming on your side underwater, so you’d be in the same position as this cat (sorry, best picture I could find to illustrate). So we spent a lot of time underwater rocking back and forth. Ultimately, the idea was that learning how to pivot well this way would helps us when we were racing and needed to take a breath.
Anyway, Mr. Sinker definitely had a huge advantage because he just sort of stayed underwater. The rest of us floaters had to work to stay under and do the exercise. He just let himself sink and then rolled around like a log.
I can swim for as long as I can hold my breath, I inhaled water several times when I was ‘learning’ to swim and I really don’t like it.
The fear of inhaling water stops me from wanting to even try to breathe while swimming.
Anyone can learn to swim, but keeping afloat is sure easier for some than others. I was a quick sinker too when I was an ultra-lean kid. I learned to compensate when trying to ‘float’ by keeping lungs full and constant arm and leg motion. I did have a couple scares when I jumped from a high spot into deep water, and exhausted myself trying to get to the surface. As I got bigger and stronger this was less of a problem.
Since my early teens I’ve developed fat in my ass and thighs which provides buoyancy for my lower half, but I’m still so lean in the upper body that I have to constantly move my arms and keep my lungs inflated or my torso and head will sink.
As a bonus I can dive down and easily swim along the bottom of the pool. Great for playing tricks on people.
I have a fear of water up my nose and I find it difficult to time my breathing right when swimming so that doesn’t happen. In addition I have crap stamina.
I love being in the water though, and I love scuba diving. I’m actually more scared of snorkeling than I am of scuba diving, unless I have a life vest.
The test you do underwater for your open water certification - where you have to take off your mask and put it back on - is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It took all my willpower not to panic and start flailing my way up to the surface. :: shudder ::
I haven’t been near a pool in over 20 years. I don’t even know if I could swim, but I was afraid of the deep end way back then. I think I could float on my back, but why, when the sun’s in my eyes? Just give me a floaty and a daiquiri and I’m good.
Anyway that might be why my kids don’t swim. They’re really good at walking though!
Which makes for my :dubious: reaction to any hard categorical declarations that swimming or floating “is instinctual”, “you can even though you think you don’t”, “ANYONE can easily float”. It’s painful to hear such statements every time there’s a thread about not learning to swim.
I am an apparent “sinker”/poor floater, but it gets complicated because my anxiety disorder is apparently triggered hard upon sensing eyes + ears + nostrils simultaneously immersed. (I would last ten seconds into a waterboarding, but it would take them the rest of the watch to bring me down enough to get a coherent confession.)
I’ve never gotten the hang of treading water. Swim class was part of my P.E. in high school, and I did well enough to get an “A,” meaning I could survival float, I could do a few laps of the Olympic sized pool, crawl, backstroke (elementary and regular), sidestroke, and breaststroke. Still, it’s never been effortless for me as it seems to be for other people, and it’s only because I was in very good shape that I was able to do the laps of the pool–it was just at the limit of my physical capacity.
I’ve had countless people try to teach me how to tread. (For our swim class, I think we had to do it for 60 seconds to pass. I was just able to reach that threshold. Two minutes and I’d be drowning.) I could never do it. I just go down. I cannot for the life of me figure out what I’m doing wrong. Nobody who watches me can figure out what I’m doing wrong. I just start to sink, and then I expend more effort, and I go from a relaxing, sustainable aerobic activity to one that becomes anaerobic and very quickly fatiguing.
I hate it. I’ve always want to swim in the relaxing manner many people seem to be able to. I’ve never quite been able to get the hang of it. The only place I’ve swam and ever got that relaxing feeling was in the Adriatic, where the salinity of the sea helped keep me afloat, and I was actually able to tread water aerobically there.
Others may have said that swimming or floating “is instinctual,” but note that I have not.
Indeed, I specifically mentioned the “instinctive drowning response” discussed in more detail earlier. In other words, there may be some instinctive swimming response in infants, but the more typical response for anyone older than an infant is to simply drown, arms at their sides trying to push down, legs trying to reach the bottom, and a vertical position in the water.
I also don’t think that learning to float is necessarily easy, any more than learning to ride a bicycle is necessarily easy. Just like riding a bike, though, once you learn it, you don’t forget how to do it, and it becomes second nature.
What I do think is that **everyone ** is capable of learning to float and to swim, just like I think that everyone can learn to ride a bide. You just need proper instruction, motivation to learn, and practice.
I honestly feel sorry for anyone who gives up such an enjoyable activity as swimming. I can not imagine not being able to enjoy pools, lakes, the ocean, or waterparks. I also think that anyone who has never learned to swim does themselves a disservice from a safety standpoint. Anyone can find themselves in water over their heads at some point in their life.
As I mentioned earlier, I had a near-drowning experience when I was 7 years old. (An adult pushed me into the deep end of a pool to “teach me to swim.” :rolleyes: ) Thankfully, after that, I took all of the Red Cross swimming lessons, from “Beginner,” to “Advanced Beginner” (which I repeated several times because I “needed to work on my stamina!”), to “Intermediate,” to “Swimmer.” I got my Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges in Boy Scouts. In tenth grade, I joined my high school swim team. Later on, I took the Red Cross Advanced Lifesaving and the Water Safety Instructor courses.
I went from being completely unable to swim to being an excellent swimmer. You can, too! And I don’t know about other people, but learning to swim was anything but instinctive for me.
I wonder if you are kicking your legs in a flutter kick (the kick used in the crawl stroke). This type of kick is very fatiguing.
When I tread water, I move my legs in a type of circular “egg-beater” type kick. It takes very little effort. In my lifeguard recertification class last week, we treaded water for almost all of the two-hour class sessions (when we weren’t doing rescue drills).
I grew up in a swimming household, we vacationed at the beach and had access to a pool during the summer as well as a vacation home on a lake.
But I can understand how someone who grew up in different circumstances would be unable to swim, just like I can’t ski or ice skate.
My college required that you had to be able to swim to graduate. It isn’t like they made you swim to your diploma but in general in worked like this.
You had to pass 1 unit of phys ed to graduate.
All freshman had to go to the gym and take a swimming test, you had to swim a few laps and tread water for 15 minutes ( which is NOT easy).
If you passed the swim test you could then sign up for soccer, archery, skating or any PE class you wanted.
If you didn’t pass the swim test you had to take swimming. And you had to keep taking it until you passed.
Yes, I’m sure their were some exceptions for the physically handicapped.
I thought it was a good idea and back in the '70’s it was totally accepted and non-controversial but these days probably every whiner that wanted to take soccer instead of swimming would make some sort of federal case out of the requirement.
Indeed and your sensible approach is greatly appreciated.
I wonder if the “try to maintain a standing position” reflex means that after a certain point in development, the motor cortex sets the bipedal position as the default for any attempt at locomotion and in moments of panic it automatically goes for it, unless the person has trained to handle the different environment.
Well, everyone’s life has an end point, doesn’t it? :eek:
I can remember enough of childhood swimming lessons before I got the knack to understand a bit why people find it unpleasant and scary, but now I love swimming so much. I am currently hugely enjoying my new Aquabeat underwater mp3 player. I admit tend to just assume everyone can swim like I assume everyone can read - I realise there are people out there who can’t, it’s just not my default expectation. I think most people in the UK get at least some swimming lessons, though maybe not enough or of good enough quality to get someone swimmming if they don’t take naturally to it.
Maybe you could try swimming with a scuba mask instead of goggles - that would prevent the water going up you nose.
I found that article very helpful. Around 10 years ago I was at a neighbour’s pool when the son of another neighbour (about 4-5 years old) ran out of the changing room and jumped straight in at the shallow end without the armbands he was used to wearing. I can still picture him floating almost motionless, entirely below the surface of the pool - even in the shallow end the water was way over his head. Fortunately I was standing right there, so I stepped in fully dressed, picked him up and got out.
His mother came out of the changing room and seemed completely mystified by the whole thing. In the heat of the moment I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but afterwards I wished I had because I really don’t think she realized that if I hadn’t been standing there her son would probably have died. It wasn’t until I read the article that I realised that she probably assumed if he’d been drowning there would have been a lot of noise and splashing. I don’t care about the credit, but I really hope she never allowed him unsupervised near a pool again (until he could swim).
Nope, I’ve been told to do that (eggbeater) or to do what I can best describe as exaggerated, spread-out bicycling motion with your legs. If I do it at any sustainable, relaxed pace, I sink. I’ve watched others tread very closely, I try to mimic their movements, I go down. Now, I’m not saying it’s impossible for me to tread water. Surely, there must be a way. I don’t really believe I have the buoyancy of a rock, but I can’t find a way to make it work (although it does seem I’m very bottom heavy. Even if I relax laying on my back in the water, the only way I could stay above is by completely inhaling a lungful of air, and I cannot keep horizontal. My legs always dip down and eventually I end up vertical. Once again, the only place I’ve been able to do this successfully without sinking or having to hold a full breath of air is the Adriatic.)
IMHO, everyone can learn how to float, but I don’t think it’s instinctive. However, I think a rudimentary doggy paddle is instinctive. At least, in those who don’t panic it’s “doggy paddle”. In those who do panic, it’s “flailing”. That’s why you can toss a baby/puppy/cat in a pool and it will sort of approximate the doggy paddle, but a child or human adult whose instinct is to get a good foot purchase… well, they’re a bit more screwed. I took to swimming quite naturally, but someone still had to teach me how to put my face in the water and float, and quite a bit more teaching to float on my back.
Anyway, I came into this thread to say that neither of my parents can swim. In deep water, my mother tries to stand on the bottom that isn’t there. I’ve never even seen my father water deeper than his waist, so I cant say what happens to him in deep water. He’s dead now, so I’ll never know.
That is exactly what robby is describing though. I consider myself a great floater and I do the same thing. Most people can’t just lay on the water like a raft. Your legs and much of your body go under but that doesn’t matter. All you have to do is relax your neck and keep your nose and mouth above water. Use your hands and only your lower arms like a goldfish to keep you up and positioned. Use relaxed, slow, and very large leg movements to keep yourself above water. Keep enough air in your lungs to make it easy. I promise you can do it. You can stay in that position for hours without getting tired at all. If you find yourself trying too hard, something has gone wrong. It sounds like a misinterpretation of expectations.
Mississippi. Which is kind of odd if you think about it, since we have a plethora of water bodies in the state. It isn’t lack of a place to swim but a person to teach kids how to swim, I guess.
I’d be very surprised if there was a single public school in the state with its own swimming pool.
I do all those things. Matter of fact, I can go through the motions of swimming, crawl, backstroke, or breaststroke, in the shallow end of a pool, with no problem. As long as I know I can stand up in the water, I’m fine. I mean, a hot tub? Are there really non-swimmers who are scared of a hot tub?
It’s when I don’t know that, or worse, know that I can’t, that the panic sets in. If anyone can suggest babysteps to get from where I am now to being comfortable in deep water, I’m all ears
I can swim fine, but I certainly don’t consider it “fun” any more than I consider running fun. At this point, I won’t do either unless I feel my life (or the life of a loved one) is at risk. I didn’t learn to swim easily at all, so maybe that tainted my view of the whole thing, but it’s just not fun or relaxing to me. It’s work. It sucks. I like being around water, and I like being in it in a hot tub or sometimes the ocean or a pool when I can just stand, but not if I have to swim. I won’t even snorkel. I just don’t like it.
I do all those things. Matter of fact, I can go through the motions of swimming, crawl, backstroke, or breaststroke, in the shallow end of a pool, with no problem. As long as I know I can stand up in the water, I’m fine. I mean, a hot tub? Are there really non-swimmers who are scared of a hot tub? 
