It’s interesting as a NZer in the UK. I swim once a week as preparation for a sprint triathlon I have entered. Some of my (UK raised) workmates doing the same tri are afraid of the swim section (750m in a rowing lake) - they really seem to have a mental block about swimming. The council pool I use in Reading is generally pretty quiet, and I am often the only really solid swimmer in the pool (ie just in there to swim lengths consistently and at some sort of pace). Most other swimmers seem to drift a few lengths breaststroke with long rests. I’ve been pretty surprised by the ambivalence. In Telford a couple of years ago, the pool was packed and the swimmers pretty dedicated.
I am up to about a mile in a 40 minute session, free style. I don’t do kick turns, but I can swim all strokes, face in the water. I’m trying to train myself to breathe alternate sides (I’m lazy and breathe on the right generally), but it isn’t a big deal. I’ll open my eyes in fresh, salt or pool water, but I do use goggles these days. I’m also not afraid of white water or surf - I love me some body surfing in big waves.
I would have said NO I can’t swim, but I guess according to your criteria I can.
I could get across that pool doing a half dog paddle, half breast stroke, with a frog kick. I am not afraid of water, and I do put my face in it. I can swim better underwater than on top of it, in fact.
I just can’t seem to learn a proper stroke that is efficient. I have tried numerous times too.
My dad was a diver in high school and enrolled each of us in swimming lessons when we were small. I did the same for my son. Actually, I think it’s an important part of parenting. Children need a first line of defense if they get themselves into a situation. I wish I could have done the waterbabies thing, but I took him swimming when he was just a toddler, so he had some idea about swimming (and no fear) from a very young age.
Those of you who feel as though you’re sinking like a stone…is there a physiological reason for this? I’ve heard people say this all my life, but I’ve never heard if it’s true or simply a psychological sensation that some people get. Anyone??
I can swim, although not terribly well - no problems crossing a pool.
On the “black people can’t swim” front, recently here in South Carolina there was a tragic boat accident where people who lived on a fucking island sank within feet of a dock in fairly calm water and a bunch of them drowned. Now, I understand the “urban black kids don’t have pools nearby” phenomenon, but these people lived on an island!
I had punctured eardrums as a kid. If I got in water ,ear infections followed. I do not swim. I do snorkel . With flippers , ear plugs and a mask, I can swim around for a long time enjoying watching fish .
I swim a mile just about every day, in under 30 minutes–half crawl, half backstroke. I was lucky and got gym membership at Bally’s when the rates were low, and they have a half Olympic-length pool, and they kept lowering the rate to encourage renewal. I now pay $15 a month. They have all kinds of weights and exercise equipment, but all I do is swim and use the jacuzzi to remove muscle tension. It could be the best way to get cardiovascular exercise. (I used to run to the top of the Hollywood hills and then realized that it wasn’t very good on the joints.)
Also, the OP’s husband could be referring to the world as a whole. The more affluent a society is, the more access to a swimming pool there will be to the average person, and the more likely a person is to be encouraged to learn how to swim. Even in coastal cities; I was kind of surprised at how many people in Havana I met who don’t know how to swim. They’ll go to the beach but they won’t go in over their head.
My eardrums are not punctured, but once I swam in the university pool twice in one day and got an infection. The doctor told me that after the first infection, you’re much more likely to get infections from pools in the future. And I did, and every time I had to go to a doctor to get a prescription for the antibiotic ear drops. I couldn’t find any earplugs that would keep all water out, and even a drop can cause an infection.
Then, as I was getting a prescription filled for ear drops, one pharmacist told me that you can prevent “swimmer’s ear” simply by squirting some rubbing alcohol in your ear after swimming–actually, vodka is even better. It causes the water to evaporate more completely. So I haven’t had an ear infection since, and that’s with swimming nearly every day in a pool that’s used by a lot of people.
Stupid doctors. Why didn’t they tell me that?
But I don’t know if that would work for someone with punctured eardrums.
Used to swim competitively. Know all the competitive strokes (with my face in the water, natch), and SCUBA, too. Used to teach swim lessons. And used to teach lifeguards. Still swim usually every other day.
Way back when I used to teach swim lessons, I taught a few adult swimming classes. And I know several adults who admit they can’t swim, and know a guy at my Y who just learned a year ago – in his 60s.* So I can well believe that most Americans don’t know how to swim.
Yes. Most armed services require you to be able to basically swim. From what I understand, the Marine Corps makes you swim with a bunch of shit loaded on your back. Army man myself, just needed to swim the length of a standard pool.
If the criteria for swimming is making it across a pool then I guess I can (on my back) but I don’t really know how to swim. I never had lessons as a kid because we lived out in the country and had no way to get to town to the pool. I was never in a public pool until high school. If I try to swim on my stomach I am a sinker like some others here. That and I could never get the breathing down. I can get by a little on my back because I don’t have to worry about the breathing and it seems to work even when my legs sink. I don’t mind going underwater but I don’t really like going in water over shoulder level.
I’m not afraid of the water and and enjoy being in it, but I’m uncoordinated as hell and can’t really swim. My folks sent me to swim lessons a couple of times, but they were boring as hell so I didn’t pay attention or participate.
I can dogpaddle for a short distance, but since I can’t coordinate my breathing and arm flailing and leg kicking, I’d be a goner in no time in a shipwreck situation.
Of course, I’m an avid sailor and part-time charter boat crew member.
I’ve always thought that most people in the US could swim; I’m surprised to hear these low rates of swimmers too.
Since no one else commented… this is what I gleaned from teaching swim lessons. (particularly to adults; kids generally aren’t convinced they will never float, just that they don’t know how or that it’s too hard)
People, in general, are near to neutral buoyancy. Basically, bones and muscle is denser than water, while fat is less dense than water. Men tend to sink; women tend to be neutrally or positively buoyant. Everyone’s different though, and I’ve had students swear they can’t float whose body shapes would generally be thought of as quite buoyant.
Fortunately, while buoyancy is determined by those factors I mentioned, it can be altered – fill your lungs up with air, and you’ll become more buoyant. Likewise, present a lot of your surface area to displace water (i.e., float on your stomach or back) and you’ll be more buoyant; less surface area (i.e., trying to float up-and-down), less buoyant.
Until you learn those tricks, though, it probably could feel as though you’re going to sink straight to the bottom and nothing can stop you.
(I’ll also note that swim instructors will generally distinguish between “buoyancy” which is a trait of someone’s body, and “floating” which is a skill that can be learned. That’s caused some confusion in threads like these before, where people are talking at cross terminology.)
I’ve known how to swim for most of my life–pretty much a requirement when you grow up in San Diego and Hawaii. I love going to the beach to boogie board or just frolic in the surf. Of course a lake or a swimming pool are certainly acceptable. I never could figure out the butterfly, but I can manage most of the other strokes.
Nowadays I don’t get the chance to frolic at the beach much–the water at Santa Cruz is just too damn cold! When the weather and pool temp accommodates (May-Sept), I swim 35 minutes’ worth of laps three times a week. If I find a pool with a diving board, I’m in heaven.
I was on my high school varsity swim team. And my parents would take all of us to the Y in our younger days to swim like no tomorrow, despite the fact that my mom could only do the breaststroke.
It’s been years since I got into a pool, though. Too much time in front of glowing screens these days.
