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Learning to swim.
Lackadaisical
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've always been terrified of water. I lived near a lake growing up and while my entire family is avid swimmers...suffice to say, there was screaming, that which was like a little girl.Not really sure why I possess such a great fear of water, it's likely the fact that you are putting a great deal of liquid between air and your lungs. Regardless, I think I should learn to swim. The apartment complex I currently reside at has a very large pool. I've rarely ever seen it used, and I myself am quite large (6"2') so have no real fear of drowning as I can basically stand up in it. How the hell do I swim?
I'm a poor college student btw, so lessons are out of the question. And I literally just moved two days ago so I don't have any friends that I can ask to teach me.
I'm a poor college student btw, so lessons are out of the question. And I literally just moved two days ago so I don't have any friends that I can ask to teach me.
It's a warm feeling when you realize that people share your views...
Sandra Lee and Rachel Ray raped food.
Lackadaisical on
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Man teaching swimming over the internet is hard.
they're usually really affordable and it's a good way to meet people.
After I learned to float on my back I taught myself to tread water, by bobbing up and down and waving my arms and legs about. The point was to learn to touch the bottom with my feet as little as possible. Then I would go up to my neck in the deep end, and doggie paddle towards the shallow end until I was scraping the bottom with my hands. Then I'd go back and do it again. And again. And again.
Then I watched someone do a crawl stroke and thought that looked like something I could do. So I copied them. A far superior method to the dog paddle.
I also did a lot of things like float on my back and try to move just with kicking. Then again, only just moving my arms. If I had a pool noodle or some sort of floaty thing, I'd hold onto it and just kick myself around. Fun stuff like that.
A pool where you always feel safe because you can always touch the bottom is an excellent thing when you're learning.
Also, swimming is super fun and I recommend it highly. It's all sorts of good exercise too, so enjoy it!
If you really have a bad reaction to water, I wouldn't necessarily advocate getting into an unsupervised pool of any significant depth and just trying to self-teach.
One of the strangest rescues I ever had was this dude who was probably 6'5 and very muscular/athletic looking, and he lost his footing in 5' flat water and couldn't right himself. Water fucks with your sense of equilibrium and does weird things to people.
Lessons are probably not as expensive as you think. You can take a phys-ed class by audit for fairly cheap and do it that way, or hit a public pool; they very likely have financial assistance programs for people who can demonstrate need.
If you do decide to teach yourself, the first step is overcoming fear of immersion. Not just putting your head underwater, but being able to hold your breath underwater and get comfortable with getting it in your nose, mouth and eyes. Early levels of lessons for kids involve a bunch of little games that basically develop this.
After that you want to develop your kicking to the point where you feel like you're getting some thrust out of it. You can do this with the "superman" method people mentioned, or by holding onto the wall of the pool and practicing that way. The power should come from your hips rather than your knees, and you want to keep your neck straight as much as possible (face in the water.) Then you can start playing with arm strokes, although it'll essentially be a dog paddle at first.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Step one, get comfortable. Get a pair of goggles, and go and play in the shallow end. Get used to having your head under and opening your eyes. Learn that if air is coming out your nose, water wont go up it etc.
You can do that privately in your own time. Then take a lesson.
If you go with someone - you must make it someone that understands... I'm still slightly impatient with her because I'm so comfortable in the water. Its easy for us to forget how uncomfortable you are.
Conversely, a swimming teacher will completely understand.
I come from a family of swimming instructors--and if you want to learn to swim well, you really should take lessons. Swimming's not necessarily "hard" but it is highly technical, and there's no way for you to really self-assess how you're doing. You might feel like you're floundering, but you're right on the cusp of getting a stroke right. Or you might feel great but be doing something completely wrong.
After that, I worked on underwater. Crawl has always been rough for me though. I still feel like I move more water than me.
EDIT: I found as I grew up, floating got harder and harder. I guess I got denser or something. Holding air in your lungs helps offset that.
As a kid, you're mostly fat and bone and such. As you get older you build muscle mass, and muscle isn't as buoyant.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The first part was to get over the instinctive panic that sets in when you're partially submerged and you don't feel anything under your feet.
I had a trusted friend put their hands behind my back, and then I would just lean back until there was nothing keeping me up except their upper body strength. Then I would relax, knowing that my friend had ahold of me... eventually, she would let go, and I would either float or sink depending on how relaxed I was.
I learned pretty quickly that relaxing helped me stay buoyant, and I got over that instinctive fight-or-flight response.
From there it was mostly just learning the physics of propelling through the water, which was a lot easier than just getting used to being in the water with nothing but water holding me up.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Being face down helps you create a natural vaccuum with your sinuses, which keeps you from inhaling water. People like keeping their face out of the water, which is why you do the "on the back" thing, but it also makes it a lot more difficult to keep water out of your mouth and nose.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Keep your legs relatively close together, and kick back and forth, as if you were walking. For your arms/hands - cup your hands, and trace a wide "infinity symbol" with your hands. When my arms are moving out, away from by body, on the sides - my hands are palm-side-up. As they come back, they're palm-side-down.
It sounds complicated, but it's rather simple once you get the hang of it.
...Push me off the dock into the Chesapeake Bay.
Step 2: Blow bubbles. Get used to having your nose and mouth in the water, near the surface.
Step 3: Hold on to the wall and practice kicking.
Step 4: Combine steps 2 and 3.
Step 5: Buy a kick board.
Step 6: Use the kick board and move across the pool kicking with your head out of the water.
Step 7: Repeat step 6 but this time, practice your breathing. Turn your head to the left (outside of the water) and inhale. Hold your breath, put your face in the water. Breath out slowly underwater. Turn your head to the right and inhale again...Repeat.
Start with all this, then move to floating. Once you're comfortable, try paddling across the pool without the kickboard. You might want to have a friend who can swim or a lifeguard handy while you try this. You probably won't have any problems, but better safe than sorry.
I know that at my college, they have an "Introduction to Swimming" class that states is "meant for those who either do not know how to swim and/or are terrified of water," so if the OP's college has it, that would probably be the best thing to do. At my college, they give you physical activity credit for it, too, 8-).