Can you swim?

[hondated]

I was of the generation and upbringing that swimming wasn't even thought about. Consequently, when I joined the RN aged 16, I'd never been to the swimming baths more than once in my life and was sort of scared of water. I learnt to swim, I had to, as it was all part of the basic training. These days, you can't even pass the interview to join up as a non-swimmer.

I've not been swimming since well before I left the RN in 1996. It could be that I've not been swimming for over twenty-five years.
No real intention of swimming again. I didn't like it much even though eventually I was actually quite good at it.

Can I still do it?
Dunno.

Mrs Mick F is the same as me, though she never really learnt to swim properly. She has swum, we've been swimming together once or twice, but it's even longer ago than me.

To this end, she's going to Tavistock pool this evening for a taster session, and if she's ok, she'll be taking swimming lessons. She's not convinced that she can swim at all now.

We'll see.

Suffered from epilepsy as a child so my parents thought it wiser that i did not swim.As a cosequence I remember many miserable days as a kid during the schools Summer holidays because my mates had chosen to go swimming.
Adulthood comes along and two kids and aged 28 we decide to have our first holiday abroad Ibiza. Decided then that it would be great to go into the pool with the kids so I found a private swimming teacher and had lessons.
Usual stuff float kicking legs , diving to touch the bottom of the pool and after some time I got a certiicate for swimming a width. Long story short I eventually managed a length and was able to get in the pool with the kids.
Being a grown man I did feel a bit of a plank when I started having to hold onto a float but I have to say that just like learning to ride a bike its one of the best of my limited achievements. Still cannot float though !

[francovendee]

I learn't as a small boy and couldn't get enough of it, up to the pool (bath's in those days) every day in the Summer holidays.
I still love the water but prefer to be on it than in it.

I wonder if it is't easier for a mature person to learn to swim or cycle?

[Mick F]

....................... Still cannot float though !

That reminds me of a chap I knew in HMS Sirius. We were out in the Far East 1988 and called in at Lumut naval base Malaysia and we had access to the outdoor olympic sized pool.

Loads of us went, and one chap "of a dark complexion" could swim like a fish, but his party trick was sinking to the bottom, sitting there with his arms folded and his legs crossed, and staying there until he ran out of breath. He professed to have negative buoyancy and could prove it by stopping swimming, then sinking like a stone to the bottom despite having a lungful of air.

I can swim underwater, and my party trick was do a length underwater, but I can't sit on the bottom because I float .......... or at least I did when I was last in a pool.

[Vorpal]

I loved it as a child. I have vague memories of my aunt teaching me and strong ones of spending hours in the water during the summer.

I think it's kind of boring to swim laps, but I enjoy taking my kids to the local pool.

My kids don't like swimming lessons, though Mini V did well when she had swimming at school.

Littlest hasn't learned yet, though he likes the water.

Mr. V had an experience in school that traumatised him. He told a teacher that he was afraid, so he was thrown in and had to be rescued.

[Vorpal]

I wonder if it is't easier for a mature person to learn to swim or cycle?

I think that adults have better control of their muscles, and learn such things more quickly, but it requires more conscious thought and analysis for most. Adults, especially those who are not in the habit of learning new things, usually need more explanation. Children don't need to understand it, and are already in the habit of learning things; from that perspective it is 'easier' for kids.

[Mick F]

Can you forget how to swim or to cycle?

I cycled everywhere as a yoof, and after joining the RN I went for YEARS without riding a bike. From aged 16 to 20, I never so much as got on a bike.
When I did, I got on and off I went without a thought ..................... and promptly very nearly fell off.
It took me a few minutes of riding a little wobbly-ish until I'd sorted it.

As for swimming, I've already said that it's 25years or more since I swam. I suppose I can still do it .................. but who knows?

[Ben@Forest]

I was chatting to a lifeguard chappy and commented on the swimmers and he said that I should take it up as it's good exercise. I replied that I'd just cycled 35miles today and on Thursday I plan on a 45mile ride, and why the heck would I want to be bored silly swimming length after length after length after length after length ..............................................

Yebbut - cycling is not necessarily good for all round physical health - see below about bone density. I went to a talk about cycle fitness and it was recommended that you do other forms of exercise as well. I think swimming has the same problem as cycling in being non-weight bearing so some weight bearing stuff is good. If you do a lot of cycling then yoga and/or Pilates are good for the stretching element (and maybe even good balance) - I know Froome does or did Pilates.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/why-cycling-is-bad-for-bone-density-and-how-you-can-improve-it/

[Mick F]

Yes, no doubt that is correct.
I'm very active, let alone cycling.

Personally, I find swimming lengths in a pool boring and dull.
Why not make exercise entertaining? Swimming lengths is boring.

[bikepacker]

I swam competitively up to the age of 18 representing Staffordshire in freestyle relays. Still like to swim but not too often these days.

[fausto copy]

Just got back from the pool.

It was so quiet that I thought I'd try for 40 lengths (1km).
4 lengths hard, as water felt freezing.
10 lengths and just starting to get my breath under control.
20 lengths and cruising.
28 down and feeling OK.
30 and struggling
32, bu**er this, I'm knackered...let's get out.
A good workout though.

I think the cycling equivalent for me would be over 50 miles.

[gbnz]

A good workout though..

I'd agree.

Behind playing around in a pool as a kid, I'd never been into swimming. Until either April / May '16-'17 when the hot humid conditions led to me trying the pool as an exercise option. The first 2-3 weeks, vainly trying to swim perhaps 15 laps (It is a super length pool), quite dispiriting.

But it certainly drove home the value of exercise/swimming, because I was rapidly up to 50+ laps, at a faster and faster speed. And while I've routinely done weights for 20+ years, it was apparent within weeks that I suddenly had upper body arm/back muscles developing at speed that I'd never felt before. And as they were "natural" muscles - evolved over millennium to allow the human body to progress through water, the muscle mass was of far greater benefit in every day activity than "pumping" iron (I.e. Climbing/moving furniture et al).

[gbnz]

A good workout though..

I'd agree.

Behind playing around in a pool as a kid, I'd never been into swimming. Until either April / May '16-'17 when the hot humid conditions led to me trying the pool as an exercise option. The first 2-3 weeks, vainly trying to swim perhaps 15 laps (It is a super length pool), quite dispiriting.

But it certainly drove home the value of exercise/swimming, because I was rapidly up to 50+ laps, at a faster and faster speed. And while I've routinely done weights for 20+ years, it was apparent within weeks that I suddenly had upper body arm/back muscles developing at speed that I'd never felt before. And as they were "natural" muscles - evolved over millennium to allow the human body to progress through water, the muscle mass was of far greater benefit in every day activity than "pumping" iron"

[ambodach]

Learned to swim in Helensburgh seawater pool as a school pupil. Freezing it was. My wife and myself swam regularly with our kids till we moved to an area with no pool. Got wet suits and went wild swimming and snorkelling. As a scuba diver I had to do all the tests while training but once underwater bug got hold did not do much surface swimming.

[Mick F]

Learned to swim in Helensburgh seawater pool as a school pupil.

This rings a bell somewhat.

We lived in Helensburgh in married quarters August '82 to January '83 then moved to Balloch when we bought a house there. Sold up in May '85 to move down to Cornwall.
The elder girl went to Logie Baird primary school Helensburgh, the younger didn't start school until we moved to Balloch and both then went to Christie Park school in Alexandria.

I think the girls - or at leat the older one - went to that pool with the school. Can't be sure as my memory fails me from back then as I was very much involved with work. Mrs Mick F is out at the moment, so I must ask her when she comes back if she remembers. May see our elder daughter next week. She's in her 40s now. I wonder if she can remember?

BTW, I cycled up to Faslane there and back every day from Helensburgh, then after we moved to Balloch too.

[lbomaak2]

I eventually mastered the mechanics of breaststroke when I was about 12, and was OK swimming widths in the shallow end. I had (and still have) a phobia of being in water to deep to stand up in. One day when I was 14, my parents decided to make me confront the phobia. After we got home from the swimming pool, we had lunch and then I said that I was going out for a cycle ride. I didn't tell them that it was going to be the longest cycle ride I had ever done. I spent that night in a bus shelter about 35 miles from home. If it hadn't been for a combination of hunger and British Summer weather, I might have carried on further.