How did you learn to swim?

[stoneaxe]

I don't remember tossing Bob in. He probably fell in--the kid was clumsy. It's not the kind of thing I would do.
...

I can see how years of practice saying that with a straight face prepped you for your success in marketing.

  .....I don't remember much past 6 years old except for the traumatic events....I can still remember my Uncle Woody storming down onto the dock and shoving Bill in.

LOL...having a confirmed bachelor Uncle was pretty cool I have to admit. Uncle Al would pile us kids into his car and head to the beach 1/2 dozen times a summer...of course I think  it was somewhat so he would seem safe to the ladies. I don't think he ever left the beach without a number.....

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

I learned while vacationing in Montauk. I used to play at a beach called Fresh Pond Beach, which had a tidal creek and a deeper area that kids could mess around in. I remember just playing and playing, and soon I could keep myself above water. I never had a formal lesson, just kind of worked it out for myself.

[Tom]

I learned thru the YMCA and Red Cross when I was 5 or 6. However, I grew up in Iowa and it was mandatory that your learn to swim in junior high. Swim class was just like any other class, if you failed swimming, you couldn't graduate.  When ever I hear of an adult that can not swim, I always think that they must have flunked out of school.

[Night Wing]

When I was 7 years old, my late dad enrolled me in a Red Cross beginner's class to learn how to swim. Since my late dad was in the US Army at the time, the Red Cross class was held at Fort Meade, Maryland.

[Old School 213]

First it was mommy & me classes and then 49'er camp at Cal State Long Beach and Red Cross certification.

[SlatchJim]

Learned at about 4 or 5.  My dad showed me the basics, the crawl, and would race me in the condo pool. We went bodysurfing all the time which taught me a lot about the surf zone.  I swam and played water polo in high school and college, lifeguard job got me through college, and I've surfed since 13, even though I grew up in Azusa.  It's probably why I valued my time at the beach more than most, far less smog, much cooler, it was an escape.

At 54, and after a heart attack, I don't have the turnover I had 15 years ago when I raced my HS Sophomore water polo playing son for a car (yea, wasn't going to lose that one), but I can still chase down a board or make it to shore.  In comparison to others my age, I'm sure I'm in the 99th percentile, but compared to a masters swimmer or someone that hasn't had heart issues and I'm pretty JV. I could still swim 2 miles without dying, but I'd only rate myself a 7 at best. 

p.s. the kid is much much faster than I am now.

[seadart]

Hi Bean: Are you Norwegian, which town were you living in?  I lived in Norway for a while in Oslo, Drammen, Kristiansand and Trondhjem and like to go back and visit.  Hoping to do some SUP on some fjords and  seakayaking on open coast.  Have you ever tried surfing in Norway,  I've been invited a few times but never made it yet. 

[digger71]

To stay on topic I learned at the local Y. But...

I have a business partner in his 60's who grew up in Illinois and told me they used to swim naked in gym class.  I thought he was full of sh@t but apparently that was a thing up until the 70's
http://www.chicagonow.com/open-heart/2014/08/swimming-naked-in-gym-class-really-happened/#comments

[Quickbeam]

I had different swim lessons when I was a kid, but never really got the hang of it. I always loved the water and could swim, but would tire out quickly. Then in my early 20’s I joined a health club that had a pool. Started swimming again and learned to slow down and relax in the water. Pretty soon I was swimming distance (1 to 2 miles regularly), and then the speed came after.

I don’t swim as much as I used to and find myself swimming less because I’m on my paddle board more. But I do still love to get in the water.

[Tom]

To stay on topic I learned at the local Y. But...

I have a business partner in his 60's who grew up in Illinois and told me they used to swim naked in gym class.  I thought he was full of sh@t but apparently that was a thing up until the 70's
http://www.chicagonow.com/open-heart/2014/08/swimming-naked-in-gym-class-really-happened/#comments

That's  the  way  it  was  in Iowa at the Y, Jr and Sr High school .  At school   we had 2 days of swim and 3 of gym, mandatory .

[pdxmike]

PDX Did you see that Caleb Dressel came within .04 of MP's world record in the 100 fly.  49.86!

My Dad was thrown into Maliko Gulch when he was four.  I was 7 and learned from a Marine at the pool in Fort Belvoir Virginia in 1957.  This guy had swam in to do prep work at Inchon, Korea.

It's pretty impressive that swimmers are catching up and surpassing all the records set with tech suits.


And wow, I was born at Ft. Belvoir.  If you were there beyond 1957 maybe we even met.

[pdxmike]

I learned the standard way, taking lessons up through jr. lifeguard at a pool when I was a kid. 


I feel like I only really learned to swim by joining a masters team, and swimming with some really fast people.  It's really a joy to watch (and get hints from) people who've spent a lifetime perfecting every nuance of the strokes.  You see that they're doing each of a hundred things better than you, and it adds up to them being staggeringly faster and more efficient. Technique is almost everything. As an example, one guy on our team (Olympic swimmer) could go the full length of a 25-yard pool underwater from a push-off.  No pull or kick, just push off and glide.  There's almost nothing to work with to improve that other than the push-off with your legs, and body position.  It's about double what a typical good swimmer might be able to do, and all the result of getting every part of his body in better position than other people can.   


Outside of my own pool, I'm pretty good, but still something like a 1 against decent kid swimmers, and maybe a 2 against my teammates.  Once I drove to a national open water race that was held in Oregon and got fourth in my age group.   If I'd stayed in town for my team's Saturday workout instead, I would have been 6th out of 6 in my age group.  The only stroke I can do well is breaststroke.  I'm a zero in backstroke.  I'm slow in fly, but can do it long distances, like a mile or an hour.  I learned that so the 200 fly races wouldn't intimidate me.  It's another example of how technique is everything. 

[SlatchJim]

pdx:  Open water is a whole different ball game for sure.  That same son I beat as a HS Sophomore, tested for a life guard job in San Clemente after graduating.  He took third in a huge group of college level swimmers.  I don't know if he didn't let the 55 degree water bother him or he's just more stubborn than most, but he was never a blazing fast swimmer.  His unorthodox water polo inspired style (He was all zone in polo) in that environment was probably the right fit, and he was finally at home. 

Perhaps whatever you lack in a pool is a bonus out in the chop? You must be more free-range and less coop.

[pdxmike]

pdx:  Open water is a whole different ball game for sure.  That same son I beat as a HS Sophomore, tested for a life guard job in San Clemente after graduating.  He took third in a huge group of college level swimmers.  I don't know if he didn't let the 55 degree water bother him or he's just more stubborn than most, but he was never a blazing fast swimmer.  His unorthodox water polo inspired style (He was all zone in polo) in that environment was probably the right fit, and he was finally at home. 

Perhaps whatever you lack in a pool is a bonus out in the chop? You must be more free-range and less coop.

Oh, the people on my team would beat me just as bad in open water.  But you're right, it is a different game, and it's why pool swimming can only take you so far as far as being capable in open water, especially the ocean.  And you need open water experience to feel comfortable in open water, and to overcome the common tendency (even among good pool swimmers) to feel uneasy or even to panic in open water, which really drains your energy.  I'm sure many good pool swimmers get into trouble right away in open water from a) getting shocked by the cold water, and b) getting totally flipped out by instantly getting slapped in the face by waves and swallowing salt water, and never being able to gain their composure.


And water polo players are just plain tough.

[dns]

Never was a time when I couldn't. Parents took me to the pool and dumped me in the ocean before I was 1. A couple years on swim team when I was little and currently do 3/4 - 1.5 mile ocean swims 3-5 times a week for fun depending on work schedule. Not really sure on a numerical scale, but I guess I'm about as good as any non open water racer out there.