Are you a non-swimmer?

[Mollyk]

How many non-swimmers here?

Why haven't you learned to swim..............lots of places to learn

[Torchwatch]

In the UK if your school doesn't take you swimming and your parents can't swim and are too poor to pay for private swimming lessons it's unlikely you will learn to swim.

Adult swim classes are there but it takes courage to join one, you also have to find the time and the money to attend them. If you can't swim it's probably not your fault.

I had to teach a young man to swim in the last few weeks before he joined the army. The army teach everyone to swim from scratch but it's best not to be afraid of the water. You fail basic training if you still can't swim.

[karlos]

I suppose technically I can swim, but only for 10-15 meters (I’ll get to why in a bit). But I’ve only ever learned to swim as an adult and never as a kid, even with compulsory school lessons.

Starting back with the school swimming lessons at age 10/11 (mid 90’s). Up until till that point I’d never been in a pool. Both my parents can’t swim and never wanted or saw the point to. I was also forcefully dragged away from large bodies of water or going swimming with the “fear that you will drown” or “get an ear infection” etc. But from day one the very first thing they instructors did was to line everyone up and split into two groups those that could swim (which was most by that age) and those that couldn’t (me). With those that could going off down to the other end of the pool to swim the various strokes, lifesaving etc (I so wished I too could of had the fun to have swum wearing my pj’s in the pool) and me stuck down in the shallow end with around 30 others who couldn’t. Although we were never really taught how to swim, just to play games etc. As the teacher tot pupil ratio was just too large and I had one other disadvantage, being short sighted and wearing glasses, which obviously I couldn’t wear in the pool. Googles were banded for health and safety and prescription ones either didn’t exist or if they did weren’t an option. So I tended to be the kid on the end unable to properly see what the instructor only a few feet away was trying to teach me.

So all I got from those was the wrongful assumption that I was disinterested, because I wore glasses (still do) I couldn’t swim, I had no one to take me and all my friends already could so I was never invited along. Well there was one other thing I got, and that was a cheap (might have been bhs) plain black swim brief. But even during the mid-90’s I think I might have been the only one or very few to wear one, with everyone else in shorts. But even though I couldn’t swim or went swimming that didn’t stop me from falling in love with how nice that swim brief felt to wear, and wore it as much as I could get away with for a few years after. Even wearing it under my pjs, humping my bed and sleeping in my cum filled swim brief till morning. That was until it was found and thrown away, although it had gotten a little stained and tight (witch as we know just feels even better) by that point.

So for the rest of my child hood I grew up with a fetish for swim briefs/swimsuits and wanting to swim. Even to the point of when on holiday looking through the glass at the swimming pool at the other kids in there swimwear, having fun in the water and me feeling left out. In my early adult years I did eventually buy quite a few swim briefs with the convenience and privacy of online shopping, wearing them secretly and solely as underwear, sleepwear and other stuff other than swimming.

That was until in 2012 I seriously injured my back at work lifting something, pulling/twisting my lower back on my left side. Which even 2 years later by 2014 still wasn’t fixed and I kept putting my back out leaving me laid up each time, and only offered physio (which did help) if it continued for more than 2 months. So I went looking for other solutions which just happened to be swimming. The only problems with that is I couldn’t and It took me a lot of guts (despite all the negativity that it was a stupid idea at my age) to go off down to the local pool (the same one from school) and ask and pay for adult lessons at the age of 28. And I’m not going to lie my first lessons I was as nervous as hell, but I did chose to wear jammers, as can’t stand wet shorts and seemed like the perfect compromise and discovered prescription googles.

I kept up the lessons for just over a year and a half before I both ran out of money and confidence. As I can only get 10-15 meters before my back tenses up and/or I mess up my breathing (can only do front craw) and I wasn’t getting any further with the lessons. I’m not a total beginner and not confident enough to move up to the next group (only beginners or improvers) and don’t have the confidence to go on my own (although I have tried) and I still don’t have anyone willing and able to go with.

[Torchwatch]

Hi Karlos welcome to the board (although this is your 3rd post).
Thankyou for a very honest and heartfelt description of your swimming misadventures. I think it confirms what I said above that if your parents can't swim and your school doesn't teach you to swim it takes a lot of courage to take adult lessons.
If your first swim briefs came from the now defunct BHS (British Home Stores) it suggests that you are in the UK, perhaps if you told us where you are we could find you a speedo budy to splash around with.
Your school didn't like using goggles, but maybe you should. Clear Zoggs goggles seem good value at the moment, the coloured goggles block out a lot of light when swimming in a pool. Wearing goggles allows you to get your face down in the water and helps you to learn to breath properly while swimming.

I am Beach Lifeguard trained and if you were on a beach I would regard you as a weak swimmer, the trouble is that weak swimmers can rapidly become non swimmers as they tire. Please always have a swim budy with you when you swim in the sea, someone that can raise the alarm if you get into difficulty.


Enjoy your swim briefs even if you stay away from the water.

[karlos]

Thanks as you can’ I haven’t bothered to post much. It’s also surprises some people that when you can’t swim you tend to ovoid and keep away from anything that involves water. Further reinforcing that if you can never learn how to if you first don’t get wet (safely).

Also I did get a lot of negativity just from asking family and friends, with things like being too old to learn, swimming lessons are just for kids (adult ones aren’t as widely advertised) and it was a waste of time/money etc.

Yep, you guessed right I am in the UK, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire to be precise, one of the most landlocked counties in the UK, so no swimming in the sea for me without quite a long drive first (I wouldn’t anyway).

It’s not just my school, but since learning, but all schools/pools (or the ones I’ve known about) don’t like kids wearing googles for school swimming lessons, with out of school lessons being ok. But it’s mostly for health and safety with the kids playing with them, hurting themselves or others etc. And there is the other thought that if a kid only ever swam in a pool wearing googles, if for instance they fell off in the pool or they fell into open water without them they wouldn’t be used to not being without them.

But I did start off my lessons with prescription googles (or as close as I could find) which were almost as hard to find as the actually swimming lessons, and I’m still annoyed that I have to pay a lot more over a normal pair. But they have been a big help, as I know while swimming it’s not like you’ll be reading etc, but not being able to make out shapes (short sighted) and faces from a distance can be quite disorientating.

And the big difference witch surprised me and someone who I knew who learned as a kid (unfortunately they weren’t interested in teaching/helping me) is that kids less are broken up into stages, badges and awards etc, whereas the adult lessons tend to be just 10 weeks and once you’re able to swim 5 meters (or the width of the pool) you’re done. Witch personally could be almost as dangerous and not being able to swim.

[Torchwatch]

In Britain the swimming instructors that do schools sessions are often senior life guards who are offered swimming teacher training as an extension of their role in a sports centre. The same instructors will also do the Adult Learn to Swim courses in the evenings.

If you book your child into swimming lessons in the evenings the chances are that the teacher will working for the swimming club which has hired the pool for lessons. Your child will progress through various swim cap colours and do Personal Survival and Lifesaving training along the way, but the objective is to produce fit and fast young swimmers with proficient stroke development who can pass seamlessly from swimming lessons to coached swimming race training.

Young swimmers who are promoted from lessons to training squads must perform or they will be culled from the squad as there is always demand for places.

The adult swimming classes will teach you to swim a width or even a length but then they will drop you. They will teach you a basic breast stroke and front crawl so you can swim through water so that when you turn up at the pool on your own the lifeguards can leave you to slowly plod up and down the pool on your own.

There are masters squads attached to swimming clubs, they consist of older swimmers who have never left the club, squad swimmers who had dropped out and want another go as adults and adult swimmers who have not gone through the club lessons/coaching system but are largely self taught. A Masters Coach will work on stroke improvement and introduce swimmers to new strokes such as butterfly, but you have to be a strong swimmer before a Masters squad will accept you, I'd reached 3000m and doing 45m underwater before I was invited to join a masters squad.

The other adult swimming lessons are for lifesaving, but to get an RLSS Bronze Medallion (or current equivalent) you have to swim out and return towing a body. Your swimming has to be good before you start the course.

The level of swimming that you have currently achieved means that you are safe in any part of a swimming pool but should probably stay within your depth or close to the wall when out of your depth. Go swimming and practice swimming from the shallow end to a point where you are comfortably standing on the bottom, rest if you need to then swim back, keep doing it and let your comfortable spot drift a little further and deeper over time. When you feel ready to swim a whole length, from the deep end and away from the wall let the lifeguard know what you plan to do, he/she will be on your side as they watch you do it.

You are a little far from me here in Kent, maybe next year I should organise a Swim Suit Board Camp near a nice beach where we can wear our speedos in the sunshine and a swimming pool where we can swim. learn or just play.

[karlos]

All very well explained, The only other issue is most of the pools in my area without going to a private gym type ones, are apart from the kids and adult swimming lessons, clubs and aqua fit sessions only offer general swims or lane swims.
General swims normally being, cram as many screaming kids into the pool as possible, mostly in the early evening and weekends. And lane swims in the early mornings and late evenings which are normally far too busy, and feel far too intimidating going alone.

[Torchwatch]

Danes Camp leisure Centre in Northhampton run Adult swim sessions. In the Adult Swim sessions at my local pools half the pool is set up in lanes while the other half is left open for swimmers to do their own thing. This might be an environment in which you can develop your basic swimming.
You may find yourself surrounded by grannies going very slowly but faster than you. A bit embarrassing maybe but tough it out and you will start overtaking them. You are young and strong, once you develop your swimming skills you'll build up speed. Imagine how good it will feel to overtake your first granny.

As a squash player and grandmother in her fifties my mother used mean cunning to beat young male squash novices into sweating exhausted wrecks. As they developed their squash skills and fitness they'd eventually beat her and then refuse ever to play her again. She'd make men in their thirties run from side to side of the court while she coolly occupied the centre ground. So don't be ashamed to be beaten by grannies, use them as milestones in your swimming development.

Wade or swim out from the shallow end to find your comfort spot. This is a place where you can stand in the water with it lapping around your shoulders. Move around a little, hop from foot to foot, get used to being here. Then move a couple of paces deeper and get used to being here too.
Eventually you'll be on tip toes with the water carrying most of your weight, more floating than standing but you'll feel comfortable, so easy to start treading water or swimming from this position and so natural.

[Mollyk]

A friend of mine is learning to swim.

He has purchased a book and video for basic swimming instruction.

He goes to the pool during adult times and swims in the slow line next the lifeguard seats.

He wears a swim vest until he is perfects the skill he is learning.

I sometimes will meet him on days that I am working out and help him with his skills.

[Swimmin]

I can't really say I was a non swimmer when I started swimming close to 2 years ago (I was 37). I was able to stay still in the deep end but really not for long. All I knew is the basics of the basics...

So I went with a friend and his son to their local pool on a weekly basis for maybe a couple months and then I started to go only with his son and he taught me the basic swim strokes, how to get stuff in the bottom of the pool etc... I then started to go on my own as I wanted to swim more than once or twice a week.

At that point I really got more confident and stated to time my laps so I can have a baseline on how to improve. It went really fast at that point because I was swimming daily and even often twice a day except week ends so I can recover a bit. My health improved greatly by lowering my blood pressure alot and about 20+ pounds of weight. Before starting swimming I could barely run a few minutes before my knees hurt and now my knees are fine for the occasional run I may do. We have lots of knee and hip problems in my family so swimming is making the articulations move with the least amount of stress on them.

Last week I did 3 kilometers (120 times 25 meters) of lap swimming in under an hour and for me thats a great achievement when I consider from where I started and the previous 15 years of sedentarity.

All this is a big confidence booster and also an incentive to keep up swimming. So long story short if you can get into a pool DO IT.

[Mollyk]

I can't really say I was a non swimmer when I started swimming close to 2 years ago (I was 37). I was able to stay still in the deep end but really not for long. All I knew is the basics of the basics...

So I went with a friend and his son to their local pool on a weekly basis for maybe a couple months and then I started to go only with his son and he taught me the basic swim strokes, how to get stuff in the bottom of the pool etc... I then started to go on my own as I wanted to swim more than once or twice a week.

At that point I really got more confident and stated to time my laps so I can have a baseline on how to improve. It went really fast at that point because I was swimming daily and even often twice a day except week ends so I can recover a bit. My health improved greatly by lowering my blood pressure alot and about 20+ pounds of weight. Before starting swimming I could barely run a few minutes before my knees hurt and now my knees are fine for the occasional run I may do. We have lots of knee and hip problems in my family so swimming is making the articulations move with the least amount of stress on them.

Last week I did 3 kilometers (120 times 25 meters) of lap swimming in under an hour and for me thats a great achievement when I consider from where I started and the previous 15 years of sedentarity.

All this is a big confidence booster and also an incentive to keep up swimming. So long story short if you can get into a pool DO IT.
This is a great story about getting in the pool and the fitness payoffs.

Congratulations Swimmin!