I don't get why some people can't swim, it's just so intuitive and natural to me. I took swimming lessons as a child, but I actually already understood the basics beforehand.
Poll: Reality and Movies - How Many People Can Swim?
- Thread starter Baron_BJ
- Start date
I replied "no."
I'm African-American. My mother took me to the free swimming lessons at our local city pool for years. I've head lessons over and over and over again. My high school made us pass a "swimming test" to graduate, which involved one lap and treading water for a minute. I got to the end of the pool mostly by swimming underwater until I couldn't hold my breath anymore, doggie-paddling until I caught my breath, then going back underwater to continue my journey. My treading water was really just doggie paddling. I can sort of float on my back, but it is a lot of work, because I tend to sink like a stone. I can't float on my stomach at all. I can't do any strokes for real. I mean, I can forward crawl, but I'm not buoyant enough to be able to get air...so really I can't forward crawl.
I enjoy the water and I feel very comfortable in it...but if I fell into a deep body of water, I'd probably drown. I see people who can swim...and what I do is definitely not what they do.
I'm African-American. My mother took me to the free swimming lessons at our local city pool for years. I've head lessons over and over and over again. My high school made us pass a "swimming test" to graduate, which involved one lap and treading water for a minute. I got to the end of the pool mostly by swimming underwater until I couldn't hold my breath anymore, doggie-paddling until I caught my breath, then going back underwater to continue my journey. My treading water was really just doggie paddling. I can sort of float on my back, but it is a lot of work, because I tend to sink like a stone. I can't float on my stomach at all. I can't do any strokes for real. I mean, I can forward crawl, but I'm not buoyant enough to be able to get air...so really I can't forward crawl.
I enjoy the water and I feel very comfortable in it...but if I fell into a deep body of water, I'd probably drown. I see people who can swim...and what I do is definitely not what they do.
I'm a good swimmer, school laid the foundation with basic swimming lessons and the rest i figured out by simply going to the beach a lot. The numbers in the bbc article kind of baffle me, even if the US is mostly landlocked there still has to be lakes and ponds right? It really should be introduced into the curriculum, think of all the lives it could save.
I dont get why you wouldnt want to learn something that could save your life.
I dont get why you wouldnt want to learn something that could save your life.
I´d say i swim good enough. I won`t last long if a try to go very fast, but i can swim quite long in a neat tempo. I used to go swimming like three times a week, for a year or two, but that stopped, somehow... But now that I´m in a Uni, I´m trying to pick the habit up again. The exercise is quite good, and i love the feeling after swimming long enough and then shambling out of the water, into the shower and/or sauna. And hey, I´m pretty sure it`s mandatory to teach swimming in schools. Not sure, but anyhow, that`s where i learned to swim. Fun stuff.
I'm black and I can swim. Pittsburgh can get hot and I wanna be able to cool off when I want to...Jamash said:
When I was 7 I fell from quite a height, into a swimming pool and smacked my head on the side of the pool and was severely dazed and nearly drowned (My older brother saved my life).
Ever since then whenever I'm near a body of water I hyperventilate and have vivid horrible flashbacks of being in the water and not being able to move properly. It's so bad I have to shower instead of bathe. I tried bathing a while back and was a horrible shaky mess the entire time.
So no. I can't swim. I'm waaaay too hydrophobic. But then again I won't ever need to swim since I'm never going to put myself in a situation near water.
Ever since then whenever I'm near a body of water I hyperventilate and have vivid horrible flashbacks of being in the water and not being able to move properly. It's so bad I have to shower instead of bathe. I tried bathing a while back and was a horrible shaky mess the entire time.
So no. I can't swim. I'm waaaay too hydrophobic. But then again I won't ever need to swim since I'm never going to put myself in a situation near water.
I can float, and splash around on my back a bit. Anything else is beyond me, but I'm not too bad as long as I can keep my head above the water.
As for why I can't swim well - I never had swimming lessons outside school, and in the school lessons I never learned to breathe out under water. When you refuse to put your head under without holding your nose, they tend to dump you in the "special" class pretty quickly.
As for why I can't swim well - I never had swimming lessons outside school, and in the school lessons I never learned to breathe out under water. When you refuse to put your head under without holding your nose, they tend to dump you in the "special" class pretty quickly.
I never really went to the pool (mostly stayed home studying...) much so I never learned to swim properly (backstroke, butterfly, front stroke, etc) and when I did,it was only for a session at the YMCA ^^;. Also, as a child, I kind of got pulled by the under tide (?) so large bodies of water makes me cringe mentally. Although I do like pools and baths so I'm not hydrophobic...it's just oceans, not being able to float, and swimming in general. So no. I would die trying to swim very far.