Learning to swim??

[altwight]

get in the water. stand in shallow end bring your legs up and try to stay above water. doing this in the shallow end is way harder than keeping yourself up in the deep end, so if you can do it there you'll definitely be able to do it in deep water.

simply move your hands in a waving kinda motion and do circles with your legs. swimming underwater should be common sense. im assuming you're just trying to stay above it.

[testdummy]

I learned to swim at the salvation army, when i went there, they had various levels you could take, from drown in a cup to competition style. I don't remember it costing much(i was 13 at the time) but we had kids from 5yrs old to like 20 something in the first class.

[Siniroth]

Get tossed in a pool at 5 years old. No joke, worked for me, I can swim just fine.

Seriously though, try not to drown at a pool and you'll do fine

[Tristam]

That's kind of stupid advice, no offense. It's one of the reasons that so many kids die every year on beaches and open water. Parents think that because their kids can float in a pool that they can handle themselves in open water. It's not nearly the same. You only learn to swim properly in a class. That's a great way to teach someone to get acquainted with a pool, but it's also a good way to get themselves killed in open water.

Big agreement here, even in shallow lakes or busy pools, when waves start hitting you and you swallow a mouthful things can go downhill in a hurry. The first time I ever had to jump in as a lifeguard was a guy who had to be in his late teens early 20s and it surprised the hell outta me because he just casually launched himself into the deep end of the lake and when he came up he was making every classic drowning victim motion you're taught in lifeguarding classes. Anyways when I got him to shore I asked him if he could swim (he said no) and then asked him why he jumped in, he said some of his friends had shown him how to "swim" (float) in a pool and they told him he was all good. Man I wanted to give his friends an earful.

Anyhoo, a good option is possibly to look for private instruction. I lifeguarded at a hotel for a couple summers and I would give private swim lessons there basically for tips (giving lessons was like a break, hotel lifeguarding is the most boring shit ever). If you happen to know someone who is a lifeguard, they may be able to point you to someone certified to teach who would be willing to do a series of private lessons less expensive that what you might pay even at a YMCA.

[Mikelee0351]

Question #1: Are you black?

If so, stop now, it isn't meant to be.

Question #2: Are you a pussy?

If not, join the Marines, they'll teach you how to swim. Or kick you out for being a failure.

[Cleverness]

If black people can play bass guitar, they can swim. It's basically following a simple rhythm when learning to swim.

when I was younger my parents put a life jacket on me, and threw me into a pool and I learned all by my self, push the water around you with your hands and kick with your legs.

eventually they took the life jacket off and put on water wings, they were getting in my way, and one day they fell off and I sunk to the bottom of the pool and sat there for about 20 seconds before I finally started to make my way up, I suggest you do the same

I had a buddy on my HS football team that I played with who learned to swim this way. Not something I would recommend to someone at 19 to learn now to swim though <_<

[Biddinger]

You can also look up your local red cross here: http://www.redcross.org/where and they should have a list of certified swim schools and their contact info.

[Cyn]

when I was younger my parents put a life jacket on me, and threw me into a pool and I learned all by my self, push the water around you with your hands and kick with your legs.

eventually they took the life jacket off and put on water wings, they were getting in my way, and one day they fell off and I sunk to the bottom of the pool and sat there for about 20 seconds before I finally started to make my way up, I suggest you do the same

Damn, my step dad didn't do any of that for me lol. He just picked me up and tossed me off the end of a dock into a lake.

Early 80s parenting for ya.

[Eggroll]

If you don't know how to keep a rhythm going and steady your breathing, you can get fucked up pretty quickly in any situation involving waves.

Main problem I have with swimming (well, aside from lack of endurace, if I weighed less would be a lot easier) though is water always getting stuck in my ears, particularly if I fuck about and do somersaults and the like. Anyone got advice for that, or am I stuck to needing ear plugs to prevent two days of head-aches following the session?

Like others said, get ear plugs. I'd also pick up some over the counter ear drops to dry out your ears, swimmers ear can be excruciating and can take a couple of days to clear up, not something you'd want to chance.

[miokomioko]

doggy paddle

[altwight]

im astonished at all the 'omg you need to take a class' responses in this thread. swimming is easy, you guys are making it out to be something it isn't you kick your fucking feet and move your hands. dont waste your time going to classes. just go swimming and make sure you're not alone.

[Kaisha]

Everyone has their own comfort level with things they're not familiar with altwight. When you're used to being on hard solid land all your life, going into a substance and having to fight gravity to stay afloat isn't something that sounds all too appealing on paper.

Took a friend of mine two months of going to a local pool before he was comfortable enough to keep himself up in the deep-end, but he's still a bit iffy and prefers not to be touched.
(where-as I'm the dick doing a hand-stand on the pool floor and trying to grab him with my legs)

[*Shinzon*]

im astonished at all the 'omg you need to take a class' responses in this thread. swimming is easy, you guys are making it out to be something it isn't you kick your fucking feet and move your hands. dont waste your time going to classes. just go swimming and make sure you're not alone.

Sure it is easy. Easy until a person who thinks they know how to swim gets taken out sea by strong currents and can't get to shore. Happens all the time.

[altwight]

Sure it is easy. Easy until a person who thinks they know how to swim gets taken out sea by strong currents and can't get to shore. Happens all the time.

yea im assuming the OP isn't a dumbfuck and won't go jumping in the ocean thinking he can just float the whole time like some of these people's tard friends.

[*Shinzon*]

My point is swimming in a pool or any controlled environment is not the same as swimming in the open water. If you want to have confidence you wont die every time you go in the water at the beach, you take a class and that's the end of it. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what the fuck they are talking about.

[Siniroth]

Sure it is easy. Easy until a person who thinks they know how to swim gets taken out sea by strong currents and can't get to shore. Happens all the time.

Swimming is easy, fighting the stronger forces of nature isn't, if you want to swim into ocean you should probably learn more about swimming than general 'k I can stay up in a pool' knowledge.

[altwight]

what the fuck are yall talking about? i swam at my gmaw's house every summer and then stopped going over there at like 16. went to the beach for the VERY FIRST time this past may and swam in the ocean fine. I'm 21. ohwait i forgot i took classes on how to swim in the ocean before i went cause everyone does that. tards.


edit: why are yall even talking about swimming in open water?

edit2: OP said nothing about swimming in open water or anything. he said swimming, not like it even matters. you guys must have had very pussy parents or you're all just really pussyfooted. yea im using all the insults now and shit. tards<-

[*Shinzon*]

what the fuck are yall talking about? i swam at my gmaw's house every summer and then stopped going over there at like 16. went to the beach for the VERY FIRST time this past may and swam in the ocean fine. I'm 21. ohwait i forgot i took classes on how to swim in the ocean before i went cause everyone does that. tards.


edit: why are yall even talking about swimming in open water?

edit2: OP said nothing about swimming in open water or anything. he said swimming, not like it even matters. you guys must have had very pussy parents or you're all just really pussyfooted. yea im using all the insults now and shit. tards<-

lol shit son why isn't everyone perfect like you

[Max™]

im astonished at all the 'omg you need to take a class' responses in this thread. swimming is easy, you guys are making it out to be something it isn't you kick your fucking feet and move your hands. dont waste your time going to classes. just go swimming and make sure you're not alone.

Also works for dancing, random rhythmless movements with no obvious purpose, hell, you could probably apply that to sex as well!

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

oh god rofl who gave maxteem the retard title