# Poll: Do you know how to swim? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029 "2009-04-22T23:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/81 "2009-04-23T16:21:10Z")
Yes. I’m a strong swimmer. I mainly do freestyle and backstroke, occasionally breast stroke. Can’t do a flip turn to save my life, though. I also do skin diving, and did SCUBA for a while; I like being under water better than on top of it. I was actually a sissy in the water until I was nine. I didn’t like to get my face wet. My parents made me take lessons, but I learned nothing. Then we put in the swimming pool. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/82 "2009-04-23T16:22:03Z")
I worked as a lifeguard and swam competitively in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/83 "2009-04-23T17:07:25Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > With 77 responses, and 8 non-swimmers, we are up to just over 10% Which is not any kind of statistical survey. The respondents are not a generic slice of the population; they’re people who responded because they have a specific interest in the thread topic. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/84 "2009-04-23T17:40:02Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > yes, my parents put me through a “water babies” thing where I started swimming (or at least floating) as an infant. Can’t remember a time where I didn’t know how to swim. > Yes, backstroke, crawl, breaststroke. > Not at all, yes. I think I first made it across width of the pool at age 30 months. In college, I could swim 50 yards underwater. Can’t imagine not being comfortable in the water. I can swim every stroke, but my butterfly runs out of gas pretty quick. ---
**Author:** ![SlowMindThinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@SlowMindThinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlowMindThinking)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/85 "2009-04-23T17:48:44Z")
Just google something like “percent of people who can’t swim”. Here is an excerpt from an NPR report of a USA Swimming study: > [@](#): > > And here’s one piece I didn’t get to explore: the study by USA swimming that documents disparity in swimming competence is nearly the same for both black kids and Latino kids – 58 percent of black kids and 56 percent of Latino kids, compared to 31 percent of white kids, can’t swim. But, twice as many Latino kids as Black kids are now involved in competitive swimming. For the record, while swimming isn’t my strong suite in a triathlon, I can probably swim until I get hypothermic, dehydrate, or starve, depending on conditions. All 5 slowlets are on a swim team. I’ve never seen Mrs. Slow swim, and I don’t think she could swim 50 meters. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/86 "2009-04-23T20:00:08Z")
Yes… I’ve been able to swim all my life (that i can remember). I’m not a great swimmer. However, i’ve no fear of the water, and i can get around just fine out there! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/87 "2009-04-23T21:43:56Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Which is not any kind of statistical survey. The respondents are not a generic slice of the population; they’re people who responded because they have a specific interest in the thread topic. > > Stranger Thanks. I promise I won’t use it in my doctorial thesis.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/88 "2009-04-23T21:54:35Z")
Yes, I can swim across an olympic size pool length or width. When I started on canoe in high school, we had to swim something like 20 lengths before we were allowed to go on a canoe trip. I know and use backstroke, side stroke, front crawl, breast stroke and I can tread water. I’m not afraid of the water. I do put my face in, but I’m not very efficient, and I haven’t yet found that ideal rhythm that allows people to swim really well. I have gone to a ‘stroke improvement’ class, but it’s at a terrible time for me at my local Y. Fortunately, I’ve found the lifeguards are all really helpful when it comes to working with aspiring swimmers. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/89 "2009-04-23T22:03:15Z")
Yes, I was on the swim team in Jr. High but wasn’t very good. I can do freestyle, breast, backstroke, sidestroke, and butterfly. I am a pretty strong swimmer but not terribly fast. I can dive ok. ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/90 "2009-04-23T22:08:10Z")
I love to swim. I love to swim so much, I go swimming in the rain. I can actually remember the moment (some 40+ years ago), when I let hold of my dad and dog paddled on my own. It was sweet! I took junior lifesaving lessons around grade 7 or 8, but I dropped out because I was bored with the repetitive lap swimming the lifeguards made us do while they flirted with each other on the pool deck. I can tread water for a long time, am not afraid to get my face wet or swim under water. I can’t butterfly, but can do most of the others; I prefer breast stroke. I also love to dive. I can’t do anything fancy, but I don’t look too bad. I can stand on my hands underwater, do a front or back somersault underwater, and my cannonball makes a great splash. I have a pool in my backyard and summers off from work, and am absolutely fantastic at lolling on a float while listening to a baseball game on the radio. As a matter of fact, that’s the happy place I go to in my head when I am at the dentist. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/91 "2009-04-23T22:24:47Z")
Yes. I can do crawl (rather slow and not for long), breast (ditto), back crawl (ditto), but the elementary backstroke just about forever. I swam about a mile in the ocean off Barbados in February, all backstroke. My wife swims but is uncomfortable in water over her head. Obviously that is psychological. All three of my kids and all my grandchildren above the age of 3 swim. The 2 1/2 year old is comfortable in the water but not swimming. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/92 "2009-04-23T22:40:35Z")
I learned how to swim when I was - I don’t know. I remember doing the crawl in the lake around age 5 or so. Since we had a place on a lake learning to swim was a requirement. I joined the high school swim team in 7th grade. My strengths are the backstroke, crawl, and breast. I suck at diving.I could never get the timing down on the butterfly, and I didn’t want the massive shoulders that our butterfliers had, although just by nature being in the pool 3 - 5 hours / day almost year around I still ended up with linebacker shoulders. When we lived in the condo we had daily access to the pool and I was in it every chance I could. Being in a pool is the ultimate relaxation. I cannot go to the pool and “lounge”, though. I must swim, even if it’s just a lazy breaststroke. I would rather swim in a pool than a lake - not a fan of weeds and fishies. I discovered the hard way that little perch love biting anything colorful that moves - including tattoos on ankles. I also strongly dislike the not knowing what’s on the lakebed. More than once I’ve sliced a foot open in a lake. No, I’m not afraid of the water and yes, I do submerge my head. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/93 "2009-04-23T22:51:50Z")
I’ve been swimming as long as I can remember, but I had formal lessons as a kid, too. I know all the basic strokes, but only usually use the crawl and the breaststroke. As further data points, both of my kids and my husband also know how. My son was afraid to put his head in the water at first (he was about 3 or 4 when he started lessons.) It may have had something to do with his ears, though. He still had a tube in one of them when we started and had to have a special earplug made. He loves the water now, though–ocean, pool, bath, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/94 "2009-04-24T02:38:37Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Thanks. I promise I won’t use it in my doctorial thesis.:dubious: Fair enough. Just realize that the percentage of positive respondents here far outweighs the swimming ability of the general population by any reasonable estimate. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/95 "2009-04-24T03:14:00Z")
Yes. I can get across your pool and back, probably multiple times, but I can’t remember which stroke is which. I can tread water, or swim on my back or, …the regular way. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/96 "2009-04-24T03:17:28Z")
Formal swim lessons before first grade, swim team as a young teenager, Mile Swim in the Boy Scouts. My best competitive stroke was the backstroke, but swam/can swim the Butterfly (not well), American Crawl, Breaststroke, Side Stroke, Dog Paddle, underwater, and any other conveyance stroke I may be forgetting, plus survival swimming. I spent my first 18 years living on islands (Oahu, Parris, and Port Royal). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/97 "2009-04-24T03:27:52Z")
[quote=“Ro0sh, post:45, topic:494029”] Yes I can swim. Freestyle, Backstroke, doggie, and Butterfly I think, the froggy looking. I always confuse it with Breast… But I can’t do the crazy one that Phelps is good at. /QUOTE] Michael Phelps is famous for butterfly. The froggy one you can do is breaststroke. I’m surprised at the people responding who can do butterfly but not backstroke. I thought butterfly was way more advanced than backstroke. Anyway, yup, I can do the major strokes except for butterfly. I haven’t know many people who can’t swim. Is sidestroke an actual stroke, or might I know that by another name? > [@SanVito](#): > > Yes I’m a very proficient swimmer. My parents sent me for lessons from the age of 4, and I was also taught at school (including life saving). > > In Britain it’s something the government is very hot on, as a health and safety issue. All schools are required to teach swimming at primary school (ages 5-10 or 11). Pupils are supposed to leave primary school being able to swim a number of strokes - the success rate is about 80-90% apparently. > > Children under 16 are also allowed to swim for free at public/local government run pools. Free swimming for kids is only at certain times of year in certain boroughs, and doesn’t apply to all council-owned pools. My borough only just reintroduced it after having paid swimming for a couple of years for kids. True about basic swimming being required; it’s not the best way to learn (the kids spend an awful long time travelling to the pool and back, and standing on the side of the pool waiting to get in), but it’s better than nothing. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/98 "2009-04-24T04:33:06Z")
Yup! I was about 3 or so when my parents started taking me to the local pool, and I took 2 years of swim classes in high school. I’m slooowly getting back into lap swimming now to add on to my doing water aerobics twice a week. I can do all the swimming strokes, but I prefer the crawl and backstroke. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/99 "2009-04-24T05:48:49Z")
Well, not properly, but I can cross a pool. I prefer swimming underwater to surface swimming, which I never really learned to do well. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029/100 "2009-04-24T07:35:28Z")
Yes. I swim pretty well. Had to since I used to surf every day. I’m able to hold my breath (just tested myself) for approx 2:15. I used to do underwater swimming drills every day. Haven’t done so in a few years so my capacity is a little lower than usual. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-do-you-know-how-to-swim/494029.md?page=6)