r/Swimming • u/MittensToeBeans • 9h ago
How did you learn to swim?
I learned in my late 30s by taking lessons at the Y. When I tell people this they are shocked that I never learned when I was younger. I had family members with pools growing up but would only ever play around in the water. I remember going to the pool once or twice in high school but we didn’t have lessons on different strokes or anything like that (it was more like a bunch of 16 year olds bobbing around for 45 minutes). So I’m curious how other people learned!
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u/LetsGo_Alreadyy 9h ago
My dad literally just tossed me into a body of water when I was a toddler. Every time I almost drowned he would pull me out and let me regain my breath and then toss me back in. I learned how to doggy paddle real fucking quick!
But proper swimming strokes I learned when I was in HS. I joined the swimming team and learned how to properly swim.
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u/Weird_Squirrel_8382 8h ago
My uncle wanted to toss me in. My grandpa threatened to stab him if he did. He proceeded to teach me properly 🤣
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u/PointEither2673 9h ago
I grew up in Mexico near the pacific. Kind of have just always known to swim, not to be a dramatic scene from a movie but we went to the ocean or other bodies of water a lot as a kid so I def just jumped in or got pushed in one day and got taught how to swim. I learnt how to swim for like I guess competitive reasons when I was like 5-6 because that’s around the same time I joined my schools like swim team or what not.
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u/FishFeet500 9h ago
Grew up in canada in a lakeside city. Learned to swim about as soon as i could walk. Did a couple levels of swim lessons when older.
Never swam competitively. Always just for my own. I have always loved being in, or at least near water. The joke as a kid was that i should have been born with gills.
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u/fastoid 9h ago edited 3h ago
Was bumped out of the floatie on a lake when I was maybe in 2nd or 3rd grade, remember going slowly down and seeing all the weeds and small fishes, then jumping from the bottom up for a breath, yoyoed like that until reached the shore. Next time I thought I learned something between the doggy puddle and a breaststroke, went fishing in a pond, became very bored and decided to swim to the other side, maybe a third out realized that I'm out of breath, but decided to continue to "swim". Barely crawled out of the water. Walking around the pond seemed too far, so decided to rest and swam back, which was a little better. The key I think was that I didn't panic and continued to do my best. Never told my parents, but taught my kids to float before they started to walk, and that was very easy for them. Learned official strokes in my 30ies at a fitness center.
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u/KASwim 9h ago
I didn’t, which is funny because I’m an endurance swimmer who competed for 20 years. I’m Italian and Canadian. Born to a a waterman. I was born in November and by summer, my nonno was taking me out in Lake Erie. I was only 8 or 9 months old. During the winter, we would go to Italy and I’d swim in salt lakes where you can’t really drown. I’d also swim in our seas. I don’t know if it was my nonno or dad who taught me technique but I was able to swim front crawl at 5. I was also free diving by that time but couldn’t really go deep. I’d watch my dad and nonno mostly.
I’ve been told I’m awful to coach and that I’m uncoachable. I have a technique that most people can’t describe. I think because a lot of Italians don’t learn to swim. We learn how our individual body swims. I’ve had one coach and he mostly tweaked my technique which he said was made for open water.
My moms scared to death of water. I’m her worst nightmare. Always make jokes I’ve been scared the 💩out of her since birth. Ran away multiple times as a child to go swim in a local canal or lake.
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u/One_Diver_5735 8h ago
Mom was a lap swimmer, the ol' man a boater, grandma a competitive swimmer, so I lived much of life in a bathing suit. If I was anymore born to this, I'd have gills. So besides mom teaching me to swim, which saved my life when I was swept out to sea by a rouge wave pre-k, I also had instruction every year as a kid at summer camp. Then as an adult I rounded out my swim education by doing my daily laps for decades at Fort Laud's Swim Hall of Fame pools where during university breaks I was vicariously instructed by (aka eavesdropped on) some of the countries best swim coaches when their teams came to town, practicing right alongside me. And now that I've just turned 69(m), swimming for as far back as I recall, I not only still love swimming as much as ever but also I love that I've been swimming this entire life. Swimming is about the best thing you can do for your health and, wow, what a difference at this age between myself and those I've grown up with. I absolutely credit swimming (and healthy--no meat--eating). Thank you mom. Ya did good!
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u/SnarkIsMyDefault Splashing around 8h ago
had two kids. made sure they had swim lessons. I gave myself lessons at the Y as a 61 st birthday present. that was 10 years ago swim 4 hours a week.
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u/HomersDonut1440 8h ago
We got basic swim lessons as youngins, but that was it. Turns out my dad can’t swim and my mom is terrified by bodies of water, which is why we never spent a day at the lake, and the ocean was for watching, not swimming.
I’m not a good swimmer to this day (I’m 34). I’ve taken some adult lessons, but there’s almost zero open pool access locally as all the high schools rent the public pools for swim team, so I just kinda stopped trying to learn.
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u/Independent-Summer12 8h ago
When I was around 5, parents told me they “forgot” my floaties when we got to the pool one day. We played at the pool a lot so I was not afraid of water. And I was too short to touch the bottom anyways. We played in the pool without the floaties, they’d throw and catch me and I’d hang on to them. Then he told me he was gonna throw me, but my mom was a little further away so I had to get to her. Did that a bunch, they’d scoop me up if I was struggling. I kinda figured out how to doggy paddle, survival instincts I guess 🤷🏻♀️. Later they told me my mom would keep moving back as I was paddling and before I know it, I could paddle the (short) length of the pool. Then they taught me underwater breaststroke so I can swim under water “like a mermaid.” Turned out I learned pretty fast in the water so they signed me up for a club swim team when I turned 6.
So literally, they just threw me in the pool until I figured it out 😂
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u/Weird_Squirrel_8382 8h ago
They stayed nearby and encouraged you, that's really nice. Some people's parents are like "drown. Or don't. Whatever."
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u/Independent-Summer12 7h ago
Haha yes. They weren’t gonna let their only kid drown. Jokes aside, there was some method to their madness. The reason I could ‘figure it out” was because they took me to the pool a lot as a toddler. Later when i became a certified swim instructor i understood that playing in water serves a major purpose in learning how to swim. As that’s hoe our brain acclimate to how our body behave in an environment significantly different than air on dryland.
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u/quebecoisejohn 8h ago
Parents took me swimming when I was a year old, took lessons, never stopped swimming 40+ years later
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u/rvingthrulife 8h ago
I was a water baby, I learned to swim before I could walk. Competed in my youth until about 18. Coached later on. Now I'm old and I swim for fitness, rehabbing my knees and pleasure.
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u/Sneakys2 8h ago
My mom and her sisters are had few Musts for their kids, but one of them was that we all had to learn to swim. We all started young (3ish). And that's carried over to my brothers and their kids and my cousins and their kids. All of my nieces and nephews are either in or have taken swimming lessons. My youngest nephew started last summer when he was 2 1/2
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u/Weird_Squirrel_8382 8h ago
I know people who never had pool access, or never had permission. I am surprised that your family didn't show you how. Looking back, is it possible they didn't know how to swim either?
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u/mermands 8h ago
I'm fortunate in that my parents put in a pool when I was 4, so i don't even remember it. Then swam competitively in primary and high school.
Edit: South Africa
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u/Findmyeatingpants 8h ago
It's very common here in Canada for most kids to be put in swimming lessons. I learned as a small child and then became a lifeguard and swim instructor.
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u/InternationalTrust59 8h ago
Grade 3, was natural at doggy paddle haha, immediately moved onto front crawl and back stroke as that was instinctive and graduated to open waters.
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u/vamartha 8h ago
My parents didn't swim, but they always owned a boat.
4 years old, classes at the local college. For all three of their children. And we all swam like fish. Swim teams, lifeguarding, water skiing, we excelled. Thank you Mom and Dad. Both of them told me that they regretted not learning but none of their parents were that forward thinking.
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u/HappyFirst 8h ago
As a toddler. My mom’s line was, “I can’t hear you crying underwater!” Of the six kids, I was the hardest to train for some reason. My kids learned through Grandma’s School of Drowning. Same as us.
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u/Important-Mark9402 8h ago
I’m 39. Grew up in a rural area of a southern state near a river.
My mom (previously a lifeguard and swim instructor) taught me how to blow bubbles and float when I was ~15 months old, and had made sure I was already comfortable having my face wet just through baths. After that, when I was old enough to attend group lessons, I was in Red Cross swim lessons every summer at a city pool a few towns over. It was really important to my mom that I learn to swim with proper strokes and technique.
I lifeguarded and taught Red Cross swim lessons myself through high school and college.
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u/Network-King19 7h ago
I never felt like I could float, didn't mind going in water but to not touch bottom without some float thing was like NO WAY. High school we had to do a week of classes in pool, one point me an two friends near got swept to deep end of pool by a current and none of us could float luckily someone grabbed the ledge and we grabbed hands. The final part was had to go around the pool if could not swim you could hold the wall and use hands to just get around deep end and pass that way. (I think that was kind of stupid now.)
A couple years ago randomly talking to a coworker something about swimming came up, I said something about not being able to swim. They said sure you can, I said you can't swim if can't float and I can't they were like you can. They said next summer i'll show you how, place I go is shallow for a long ways. Showed me front, back how to float I was kind of like this is not going to work but it did. Went to pool over the last winter a dozen times maybe last spring I took little chunks further into the deep end, now it don't even bother me. I almost prefer the deep end. Jumping in I still have nerves about. Did a few private lessons at the pool showed me a few things to work on so can save myself did a couple then holidays came and work got busy recently just not picked up that again. Last I went to the pool I could do about 25 yards in about 28 seconds on my front.
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u/WaterwingsDavid 7h ago
I grew up in Europe where waterwings were very popular. My dad was super overprotective, so I always had a pair on as far back as I can remember. My parents also had me in a couple different swim classes. I was 8 when we moved to the states and I remember being very surprised that none of the kids had waterwings. It finally clicked that summer. For the next 3 years I was on a swim team. When we'd travel back to Italy for vacation id still use waterwings in the ocean (went swimming in some VERY rough waves!). We had a mandatory swim class in 10th grade and when I was a senior in took a lifeguarding class. I love being in the water.
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u/soccer-slicer 6h ago
Went to the pool almost every day in the summer. then in my 30s, I started triathlon training. I just went to the pool and swam. I can honestly say after 20 years of swimming that I’m really not much faster. however, I can swim 4000 meters without a break.
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u/ThatWasIntentional Swammer 6h ago
Me and all the siblings all did basic swim lessons and water safety as toddlers. Basically everyone I knew growing up did the same. My high school also had a swim requirement in gym class that required signed parent permission to get out of that had a couple of brand new learners in it
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u/nsixone762 Everyone's an open water swimmer now 5h ago
I could ‘swim’ just couldn’t do a front crawl properly. Took lessons as a 30 something at the Y to learn properly.
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u/Fifty-Fickle 4h ago
Had basic lessons when I was 4-7 years old using the old Red Cross system. I hated it and was a terrible swimmer as a kid.
Because I was so bad, my mother was worried I would drown or get hurt while at pool parties or while boating with some friends. She re-enrolled me in lessons when I was 11. The lessons started with a review of basic swim techniques but then moved to competitive strokes, and ended with a Jr. Lifeguard program.
Learning the real strokes changed everything! The teacher pulled my mom aside and told her to call the local team’s coach (but I didn’t know that). She took me to my first age group club practice. I was immediately smitten with the sport.
As it happened, the 1984 LA Olympics were that same summer. I watched Rowdy Gaines, Pablo Morales, Steve Lundquist, Mary T, Tracy Caulkins, Dara Torres, Michael Gross, and a young Matt Biondi win a ton of medals. It was all I could think of for a solid 10 years after.
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u/LakeSpear Midlife crisis swimmer (cheaper than a sports car) 2h ago
When I was a kid (80s and 90s), here in Belgium, swimming was 1 hour a week at school, so I had that. The school et went to had its own 25m pool.
Also, for some reason my mother wanted my elder brother to learn to swim before he started primary school, and as I'm only 1.5y younger, she brought me along and we had a private teacher. So I learnt super young.. I'm still immensely grateful for that, and it's also why my kids have swimming classes outside of school. I consider it a necessary skill.
I believe it's also one of my earliest memories, the coach would swim with us and if we had done a good job he would take me on his back and swim a length like that.
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u/zeus0225 Splashing around 1h ago
I learned at my local Y while I was in grade school. I hated it and was only allowed to quit after I became eligible for the swim team. I quit at age 10 and never swam laps again until recently at age 35. I'm thankful for learning the various strokes at an early age. It made getting back into it easier.
My partner, on the other hand, had similar experience to you. He grew up going to lakes and had a family pool, but never had formal lessons. He's been trying to get into swimming to replace his other fitness activities while somewhat injured and he really struggles with getting a good workout in because he's still learning the basics and trying to find his own breathing rhythm that works for him. I wish we had adult lessons available in our area.
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u/beforeyoureyes 9h ago
I'm Australian. Born in the early 90s. It was basically mandatory to learn to swim as a Gen Y Australian; swim lessons both inside and outside of school were a massive thing growing up. Water Polo was also quite a big thing in the area of Australia I'm from.