Who Taught You to Swim

[Torchwatch]

My father taught me to swim taking me to an old Victorian Pool. It was rusting, rotting and freezing. There were water polo goals hoisted to the roof that were never lowered for use.

I was too skinny to enjoy the cold water and although I did swim I was too chilled through to relax.

Then Rolf Harris came on TV with a teach children to swim programme. I guess it started with a Public Information Film:

http://625.uk.com/pifs/teachem2swim.htm

Which was so successful that that gave him his own series.

From Rolf Harris I learned to blow water out of my nose by running my hand down my face and to enjoy being in the water.... Thanks Rolf.

At the time Rolf Harris was a light entertainment singer and high speed artist from Australia.
He matured to become the grim reaper in Animal Hospital "It's so sad, poor little Rover was just too weak to make it though the night......."

I had to download Ultimate Media Player to actually play the video as it is in *.ra format, but it does play.

[Byron]

Oz junior backstroke champion in Perth 1945 and showbiz ever since.
At 82 never been busier and his new Rolf's Animal Clinic is running on Channel 5. Not many get invited back to Glastonbury at his age either.
(better not forget the sitting by HM for him - not bad - saw it at the Queen's Gallery)

[kumu]

a neighbor taught me, he about 50, me about 5

[NakedBudd]

From England, Mr. Ivey had married an American woman somehow and come to the United States, where he taught high school math... and also taught children to swim in his backyard pool, as a public service. He did well, but I didn't... and couldn't really swim until college, where it took me an entire year to pass the class.

[Byron]

I often liken it to snow skiing - so frustrating when you seem to sink so many times in the attempt - but one day something clicks into place all of a sudden.

[Malcontent]

I taught myself!:D

[louis]

me here taugh myself.

[Byron]

Interesting that I struggled with breast stroke having seen that as the start of learning imposed by all instructors - but in fact got my confidence in my own front crawl.

[bostonspdo]

I didn't know how to swim growing up. When I got to college, it was a requirement that you know how to swim. This was in the days when Physical Education was a required part of college curricula. If you didn't know how to swim, you took a semester of swimming instruction (water safety, really) instead of regular P.E. The "final exam" in the course was to get into the middle of the deep end of the pool and by whatever means you chose, stay there without touching the bottom or sides for half an hour. I liked swimming enough to take a full year of swimming, which was also my intro to water polo. It wasn't my intro to speedos, which I already liked to wear to the beach, because classes were held nude. You could wear a suit if you wanted to, but only one or two of about fifteen guys ever did.

[Byron]

.....but what's going on here? (some kind of misplaced joke ?)

Allan 8100 arrives as new member December 12 and the same day there are FIVE posts from him . There is a self-introduction in off-topic forum and some of what he writes is coherent and well presented - but the rest is rubbish.

[kumu]

I learned at a beach sheltered by off shore reefs. Its important to learn the ocean. It has its wonders and its beauty, it can give you a lot of fun, but you can never completely trust it, you have to be aware of your surroundings and whats happening, all the time. Actually I prefer lake swimming, there is nothing that I am aware of that can get you in a lake: no sharks, sting rays, jelly fish, no rip tides, no sneaker waves. But still, in the ocean you can put on a dive mask and see really incredible beauty down there, or ride waves one way or another for hours on end.

[Byron]

Agree - in my early days of weak swimming ability I was frightened by the strength of sea currents taking me way along the beach from where I had started out and how powerless I felt even when no big waves were breaking over me.
Underwater views can be stunning and the Red Sea is well known.
Egyptian resorts are much visited but Israel gives National Park protection status to the coral reefs off Eilat and there I recall an endorsement from an Aussie to say it's as good as the Great Barrier Reef.

[kumu]

I have never been to Australia or the Great Barrier Reef but it must be awesome. I did have the very good fortune to go to Fiji once and did some snorkeling on its gorgeous reefs, the prettiest reefs I have seen. Yet some Aussie boys on the boat back to Nadi were quite unimpressed, they said the Fiji reefs didn't hold a candle to the Great Barrier Reef. That will be something to look forward to in some future trip, I guess.

[Byron]

http://www.colourbox.com/preview/1674051-769819-corals-reef-in-bay-eilat-red-sea-egypt.jpg
So many coral pics to choose from but this is a very colorful one there

[louis]

Off topic but I hear that many break them off to bring back home as table peaces and theres less and less corals, to bad.

[Byron]

:( typical human morons destroying what beauty nature provides - and never to be replaced.
We even have wardens in African wild life reserves going out to purposely remove horns from rhinos so that there might be less slaughter of these poor animals
by poachers trying to satisfy the very lucrative oriental demand for their supposedly medicinal value.

[louis]

hOPE THEY WONT START TO DESTROY SPEEDOS, WHAT WOULD THE WORLD BE WITHOUT THEM.

[Byron]

LOL - no actual destruction that I am aware of but an endangered species I suggest - where we are heavily reliant on the divers and the wp guys now for their survival (having lost the swimmers to their high-tech. alternatives).

[Byron]

Time to leave - you're taking the piss out of this forum !

[Byron]

Well done Mike - got rid of him.
This spammer was called Allan 8011 and was flogging pool liners.

[WaterPolo]

Grew up in small town and during the summer the only group running swimmng lessons was the Girl Guides.

So me and three other guys found ourselves at swimming lessons run by and primarily for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

For first while was pretty intimidating as the girls were a lot taller than me and many of them were already swimmers. Some of the girls made fun of the few boys and others loved that the swim classes were mixed with guys.

But that lake was cold as I recalled in late June and July.

[SwimForHealth]

I was about 11 and the girl who lived down the street who worked a lifeguard offered to teach me at their home pool.

I was so shy around this girl. I was also so scared of the water. She made me climb down the ladder and ease my self into the water. First lesson I put my face in the water, blew bubbles and she tried to get me to float on my back.

After my lesson she seated me on the side of the pool and I watched her do a lot of super dives into the pool.

She was on the high school swim team and synchronized swim team squad.

Her sister who was my age was teasing me about learning to swim at 11 when they learned at 3.

I remember I was wearing the baggiest trunks ever that I was continually tying up.

Watching those girls do those fancy dives made me want to learn even more and after one or two lessons I wasn't scared of the water any more.

[speedos123]

A guy named Craig at our Local YMCA taught my twin brother and I how to swim. I remember learning how to swim from him.

[ReservedEnthusiast]

I learned in stages. First, when I was a little kid (we're talking like 5 or 6 years old), my mom enrolled me in a basic safety-oriented swimming class so I could avoid drowning. Then later on my dad taught me freestyle. And then in college my friend Aaron taught me the proper way to do the other strokes as well as improve freestyle and structure a swim workout to be more complex than just 20 laps of freestyle.

[Chris997]

Swim coaches all pro, changed to a pvt coach, messed me around then self taught, had a few sessions with another coach but critical timing to arrive at pool required a fighter jet to arrive and now I refer to youtube, lots and lots of good info there but I still occasionally ask another coach to just briefly check and correct me on mistakes she sees and has helped loads

[Drenalin]

My dad taught me how to avoid sinking when he tossed me into a creek while fishing from a jon boat when I was six(ish). After several failed attempts to persuade me to jump in on my own he picked me up and threw me overboard. I wouldn't quite call my reaction as swimming but it sure as hell wasn't sinking. One of the best lessons I was ever taught. I've loved the water ever since.

[SwimForHealth]

My grandfather taught me and my two brothers to swim. He also taught my sister.

Gramps grew up in time of nude swimming at the Y so we took our lessons in the buff. When sister joined us we put on suits.

Sister was the best swimmer in the family, she eventually did womens water polo and synchronized swimming.

[Mollyk]

My mom had been one of the first girl lifeguards in her home town.

She took me to mom and tots classes and then I did swim classes. My brothers took me to the swimming hole.

I went to swim team at 7 and synchro classes at 8. Synchro was all girls and great swimmers.

[dm106]

We lived near the water when I was real young and all I ever remember was I was a water rat, as were my brother and sister. It wasn't until about 6th grade that I had any more formal lessons at summer camp and then later skills more honed in middle school on swim team and high school. Never did synchro or even heard of it until high school when I saw it live at Cypress Gardens Florida.

[NE_OH_thonger]

My school system had a pool, so swim lessons were part of PE class from fourth to eighth grade. This was also my introduction to brief swimsuits, as, until I was in the eighth grade, students were required to wear the school provided swimsuits, which were some strange off-brand brief. I can't even think of what they were called, except that "Ocean" was in the brand name.

[MuscleSpeedo]

I took an adult swim class when I was about 16. Everyone else was a lot older. Well, it seemed like it at the time. They were probably about my age now, LOL. I felt really out of place. That was probably close to the time I fell in love with speedos, but didn't own any yet. No one in the class wore any.

I've never been a great swimmer, but good enough to get by.

[Mollyk]

I have ttaught so many boys and men who have bad experiences learning to swim.

The most common is the ones when dad thinks if you throw the kid in from dock or the boat that they will swim. What logic?????

[dm106]

I have told so many boys and men who have bad experiences learning to swim.

The most common is the ones when dad thinks if you throw the kid in from dock or the boat that they will swim. What logic?????

Probably would result in the kid being terrified of the water!

[Mollyk]

If you are a poor swimmer or non-swimmer and you will be at the pool or the beach or the swimming hole this summer-----wear a float vest or float belt and keep yourself safe.

[Polyamid986]

My dad taught me, when I was six :)

[Mollyk]

That is so cool to have a dad teach his son to swim. So often fathers are so busy that this job is left to a mother. Dad teaching his boy is a great role model for safety and personal fitness.

[Lap Counter]

While on a camping trip when I was 5 years old, my dad tried to teach me to swim in a lake that couldn’t have been more than 50 degrees. Total failure! That was the only time he tried.

[Polyamid986]

While on a camping trip when I was 5 years old, my dad tried to teach me to swim in a lake that couldn’t have been more than 50 degrees. Total failure! That was the only time he tried.

I was lucky enough to have a father who was always supportive & ready to dedicate his time to me.
By the way I wasn't that young, but I must have been 12 or 13 when I went to a lake that was in the mountain that was also somewhere around 50-55 degrees, ruins the look of your bulge in speedos xD

[Mollyk]

Grew up in small town and during the summer the only group running swimmng lessons was the Girl Guides.

So me and three other guys found ourselves at swimming lessons run by and primarily for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

For first while was pretty intimidating as the girls were a lot taller than me and many of them were already swimmers. Some of the girls made fun of the few boys and others loved that the swim classes were mixed with guys.

But that lake was cold as I recalled in late June and July.

That is so cool of a story.

Are you a good swimmer?

Did they change the lessons for boys?

[Mollyk]

I was about 11 and the girl who lived down the street who worked a lifeguard offered to teach me at their home pool.

I was so shy around this girl. I was also so scared of the water. She made me climb down the ladder and ease my self into the water. First lesson I put my face in the water, blew bubbles and she tried to get me to float on my back.

After my lesson she seated me on the side of the pool and I watched her do a lot of super dives into the pool.

She was on the high school swim team and synchronized swim team squad.

Her sister who was my age was teasing me about learning to swim at 11 when they learned at 3.

I remember I was wearing the baggiest trunks ever that I was continually tying up.

Watching those girls do those fancy dives made me want to learn even more and after one or two lessons I wasn't scared of the water any more.
That is touching story about overcoming fear of the water. I would think the teasing was hard to put up with.

[Mollyk]

Is a wonderful story about gaining confidence in the water with a devoted instructor.

I must admit the story also rings trues as I taught so many of the boys wearing those baggy trunks and shorts. Is like the boy is wearing a dress or kilt and they get dragged down by the suit.

I was about 11 and the girl who lived down the street who worked a lifeguard offered to teach me at their home pool.

I was so shy around this girl. I was also so scared of the water. She made me climb down the ladder and ease my self into the water. First lesson I put my face in the water, blew bubbles and she tried to get me to float on my back.

After my lesson she seated me on the side of the pool and I watched her do a lot of super dives into the pool.

She was on the high school swim team and synchronized swim team squad.

Her sister who was my age was teasing me about learning to swim at 11 when they learned at 3.

I remember I was wearing the baggiest trunks ever that I was continually tying up.

Watching those girls do those fancy dives made me want to learn even more and after one or two lessons I wasn't scared of the water any more.