Can you swim?

[Mark]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11172054

Interesting article on BBC News here about many people in America not being able to swim. As far as I know it's still compulsory teaching in the UK - Plus my Dad was keen on scuba diving so thought it important I learned to swim as soon as possible.

Can you swim? If not then why not? Did you get taught it at school?

[Easy Drifter]

Yes.
During my teens probably swam at least a mile a day. Could also stay underwater for over 2 minutes.
Today forget the underwater stuff.
Learned on my own.
Gary Magwood, a former professional diver as well as a heck of a race driver, and I were the only people who could swim upstream through the whirlpool in the Devils River behind turn 1/2 at St. Jovite.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I have not tried to swim for over 3 years and the last time I tried I was not a very strong swimmer.

We had swimming lessons at at school until we were 12. But I don't think schools like doing swimming after that age because only some of the boys have hairs and only some of the girls have breasts.

[tannat]

Yes-I can.

I find it amazing that it is compulsory in the UK. Do you mean to tell me every school in the UK has a pool, or is the Thames a convenient bus ride from anywhere?

There are many, many communities in the US where a private swimming facility (never mind a public or school facility) does not exist.

If it is true that all schools, or at least most schools in the UK have a pool-I'd say you are a very fortunate lot...

And your administrators have their heads on correctly...

[Alfa Fan]

Ever heard of bus journeys? If the school doesn't have a pool then its simply a trip to the nearest one that does!

[MrJan]

Yes-I can.

I find it amazing that it is compulsory in the UK. Do you mean to tell me every school in the UK has a pool, or is the Thames a convenient bus ride from anywhere?

There are many, many communities in the US where a private swimming facility (never mind a public or school facility) does not exist.

If it is true that all schools, or at least most schools in the UK have a pool-I'd say you are a very fortunate lot...

And your administrators have their heads on correctly...

We do have more than one river in England ;) And compared to the US everything is a convenient bus ride away :D

My old primary school has it's own pool, back when I was there it was open air and chuffing freezing but now it has a roof over it. My secondary school didn't have a pool but was about 15 minutes walk from a public pool. I never really learnt at school though, my parents made me do other lessons one evening a week. At the time I absolutely hated it but now I'm very grateful as I'm a confident swimmer :)

[Brown, Jon Brow]

We do have more than one river in England ;) And compared to the US everything is a convenient bus ride away :D

My old primary school has it's own pool, back when I was there it was open air and chuffing freezing but now it has a roof over it.

Soft southerner!!!!

My local pool when I was growing up was a Shap in Cumbria. As you may know Shap is one the the highest and coldest points of the M6 and we had an open air pool.

[tannat]

Ever heard of bus journeys? If the school doesn't have a pool then its simply a trip to the nearest one that does!

That would be a very, very long trip for many primary schools in the US, AlfaFan.

This country is too damn big...

[Easy Drifter]

Not very many schools in Canada have pools. The only pool in Orillia is at the YMCA. 4 high schools and numerous public school but no pools. The proposed Orillia rec centre will have one. Orillia is on 2 lakes though.
When I went to school in Scarborough (now part of Toronto) there were no public pools.
I learned to swim on my own at my parents' cottage. Neither of them were good swimmers. All of our crowd of about 15 (male and female) could swim and all were good but we spent the summers at the lake.
Actually the one who was closest to me in power was at one time my girl friend. She was the only one who had taken lessons.
Later she was a member of Canada's Olympic Triathalon team!

[00steven]

No I can't. The old bag who was training me stuck my head under water and I was afraid to swim for my entire childhood. I never picked it up afterwards either.

[Mark]

Schools with pools? Posh!
We had a bus ride to the nearest public pool which was about 5 miles away.

[anthonyvop]

I really can't remember not being able to swim. Then again I was raised in Miami with my family and all the neighbors having a pool in the back yard and 5 mins from the ocean.

[Drew]

I can swim, but I cheated when we got the swimming certificate, I just walked instead :p :

My school used to go to a gym and use their pool. The gym was right next door to my house, but I still had to travel 3 miles to school to come back to swim and then 3 miles back to school and then 3 miles to come back home. Swimming used to be last thing on wednesdays :p :

[markabilly]

Of course, all you got to do is throw in the deep end when they are youngins and don't help them.

Works everytime.

The survivors learn to swim almost immediately. Guaranteed.

[ShiftingGears]

Yep. I haven't learnt butterfly though.

[edv]

Now that I've got the Middle Aged Bulge, I can simply float!

When I was a kid, I learned the 'markabilly' way...thrown into the chilling deep with nothing but instinct and energy!

[markabilly]

Yep, and those who don't learn, always got a nice funereal.....funny thing is my experience is the same as yours. As a scrawny kid, I could not float at all-on my back or however.--ZERO. It was swim or drown.
Now floating and treading water is easy

[Mark in Oshawa]

I used to swim all the time. I had some early swimming lessons in the pools, and at the school system, one year they did give us swimming lessons, but I basically learned not to drown with swimming lessons, but learned to swim well on my own in pools, including the one my parents put in the backyard. By the time I was 16, I was faster in the water than most than my friends, and underwater I was able to do 4 and a half lengths of a 32 foot long pool.

So I figured, hey, I could be a life guard, and get a job, and scope out the chicks. In Canada, you need to go for your Bronze Medallion from the Red Cross and it became a problem for me because although I could swim faster, and get to where I had to be, my strokes were not "proper". It seems the guy drowning needs you to be energy efficient. I looked like an outboard out of water but I was fast....but they flunked me anyhow. They didn't like my scissor kick when they insisted I should do a frog's kick either. My way worked for me....but wasn't the standard...so FAIL.

Bitter? Naah....I would have been bored as a life guard....but it is instructive to note that in the swimming world, they want the strokes and way you swim to be the way they want it. There was a standard, and I refused to conform. The summer I failed my Bronze, I was up at a rented cottage with family and friends, and entered the competition to cross the lake. 1.5 miles. 30 entrants, I finished 10th...and maybe my awkward style cost me....but I made it, and I had never swam anything close to that far before...

So I gave up on that, and took skin and scuba classes. Didn't really like diving much either..it was fun..but not my thing...I had moved on...something called racing was tying up my time!!

Ironically now...I just cannot be bothered swimming. Every time I put my head under, I get an ear infection a week later it seems...

[Sonic]

I too had a primary school with a pool in the grounds - well a tin bath 5m across - so I've loved the wet stuff from an early age.

25 odd years later I now try to make sure my kids get down the pool as often as I can so they get confident.

[Tomi]

Offcourse can swim, learned when I was around 5 years old, and I do scuba diving too.

[Easy Drifter]

What is sort of funny where I live is that there is Georgian Bay, all sorts of natural lakes and ponds and rivers everywhere. Many farms have either natural ponds or dug ponds.
Just the same there all sorts of regulations and fences with locked gates required for anyone who puts in a swimming pool.
The people next door might have a 5 or 6 foot deep fish pond but that is ok without fencing.
Politicians with too much time on their hands. :confused:

[Koz]

Nope.

Went to a pool several times when I was younger. Didn't seem natural to me. Don't much like water.

Oh and I live on an island, and the beach was just across the road half my life... Oh well.

[It's JM]

Can't really swim but yet I go to the beach and go into the water (as long as it's low tide). Our school used to have swimming lessons at P.E. but for some reason they cut it from our year group (I think we were too bad behaved :rolleyes: ).

[Mark]

We had swimming lessons at at school until we were 12. But I don't think schools like doing swimming after that age because only some of the boys have hairs and only some of the girls have breasts.

That's probably a factor, that and if you haven't learned by then you aren't going to!
I only did swimming lessons in primary school, which of course I left when I was 11.

[Hondo]

Like a few others, I was raised around water and can't remember not being able to swim. I can remember being at vacation spots where my parents had to speak to the lifeguards before I was allowed to cross the ropes to the deeper sections. Sea Hunt was my favorite TV show and I had a NAUI divers license in 1970.

[Captain VXR]

That's probably a factor, that and if you haven't learned by then you aren't going to!
I only did swimming lessons in primary school, which of course I left when I was 11.

I found primary school lessons so useless, I only learned by having private lessons a couple of years after I left

[schmenke]

I learned to swim when I was about 5 years old, in a cold lake north of Montreal (not far from St. Jovite ;) ).
It was compulsory when I was in school, but I don't believe that's the case anymore. In primary school we were bussed to the nearest public pool, but we were fortunate to have a pool as part of my high school.

[fandango]

My mother worked as a swimming teacher, so I also can't remember a time when I couldn't swim. She says I learned in the bath when I was a baby (not sure if that's a wind-up, now that I type it out).

My kids can both swim. It was more important for the younger one, because she knows no fear of water, so from the time she could walk she would head straight for the sea when we'd go to the beach. We had to get her swimming just so we'd be able to relax on the beach.

There's nothing like the first swim of the year to make you feel it's Summer.

[emporer_k]

Well I could swim.

I used to go with primary school on a friday aftrenoon down the local pool, and also used to swim on a saturday morning.

The only thing is I havnt been swimming since 1996.

[A.F.F.]

I can swim.

Amazing is to notice that more and more kids novadays can't swim? Or do they swim with Wii??

[driveace]

No I cannot swim,unaided.I use a plastic float,and can get across the pool on my back,quite easily BUT not without my aid.
Three years ago in South Africa,on holiday with friends,the other male of the party,was going down this tunnel slide,and said its brilliant,have a go.So i asked my wife and the other girl to be at the pool at the end in case i got into trouble.Went down this long covered in slide,got water in my eyes ,so i shut them,then not realizing i had got to the end of the slide i finished up in the deep water not able to surface.I felt i was drowning,and was waving my arms violently above my head,but i was still unable to surface,THEN a hand grabbed mine and pulled me out of the deep pool.When i got my breath back,i sincerely thanked the tall white gowned,muslim looking guy,with a full face beard for saving my life.My wife and her friend where nowhere to be seen.
A very foolish thing on my part,and i should know better at nearly 70 years old!!

[donKey jote]

When I was 7 or 8 I was the first on the scene to drag my 3-year-old cousin up from the bottom of our pool. Unfortunately we were too late to save him. Another of those countless family dramas that happen the year after year.

My kids are both already better swimmers than I am (although I'm still a good floater :erm: ) and are in a Swimming Club. In Germany (at least where we are), kids are required to have a "Schwimmabzeichen" by 6th grade at the latest. This means those who don't, spend 5th grade doing additional swimming lessons.

[Easy Drifter]

We have had an inordinate number of drownings in Ont. this summer. It has been very hot so far more are around and in the water. Several have been non swimmers or poor swimmers who have ventured out too far in unknown waters and others caught in an undertow from large waves on Lake Huron/Georgian Bay/Lake Erie. People just do not realize how large these bodies of water are and the power of the waves. In our bay last weekend the water was up over 2 feet just as a result of wind action and direction. 90% of our beach was under water.
The other big reason was people in canoes tipping and not having life jackets on. Many could not swim or were poor swimmers. If you can swim and know what you are doing it is easy to right a canoe but if you can't swim well being in a canoe without a life jacket is really stupid.
We have laws about safety equipment in boats but the cops catch hundreds every year without the gear.

[janneppi]

I don't know if it was inspired by this thread or what, but I went swimming for the first time in ten years to a local pool. Apparently I can't swim properly, but can wiggle my arms and legs so I can float for 200m. Might have to look up on breaststroke techniques if I ever go again.

[J4MIE]

I can swim and should do it more regularly to keep (get) fit, was tacentre in primary school though did get lessons in the high school's pool also. Thinking about it, I'm sure my parents sent me and my sister on a two week swimming course there maybe the year before starting high school.

My problem is that I don't like coldness, and the "shock" of getting in water, even if it is fine when you are in, is enough to put me off swimming outside, even on a beach in Greece at 40C last year I couldn't bring myself to go in the water after feeling it with my toes :s Tried scuba diving in Egypt last year too but while I could stay still and do all the skills etc, when I tried to move I was totally out of control so gave up :(

[Easy Drifter]

When I was a teenager back in the 50's for a $5 bet I swam a hundred feet out to the ice at our cottage and back. $5 was fair money back then.
Crazy yes. I wouldn't even do it for a $1000 now!

[F1boat]

Yes, but not very well.

[markabilly]

When I was a teenager back in the 50's for a $5 bet I swam a hundred feet out to the ice at our cottage and back. $5 was fair money back then.
Crazy yes. I wouldn't even do it for a $1000 now!
Yeah, Easy's wife says he is now so chilled, that he can not swim in any of the great lakes, even in the middle of in the summer, without freezing them completely over.... :(

[Easy Drifter]

It keeps me on earth. There is no way the guy upstairs will ever let me up there and the guy downstairs thinks I would freeze the place over. :D

[markabilly]

It keeps me on earth. There is no way the guy upstairs will ever let me up there and the guy downstairs thinks I would freeze the place over. :D
but IT MUST BE NICE TO KNOW, that except for that one exception, everyone else will be welcoming you downstairs....

[Easy Drifter]

Your wife said she can hardly wait with emphasis on hard.

[markabilly]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=39258985&#39258985&from=en-us_msnhp&snid=18424776

appears that a quadruple amputee just swum the English Channel

[Wade91]

i dont think the abbility to swim is bred into people like it is with dogs, so i'm pretty sure i cant swim

[Mark in Oshawa]

i dont think the abbility to swim is bred into people like it is with dogs, so i'm pretty sure i cant swim
can we toss your butt into the Cumberland river and assess the theory?

All humans instinctively do know how to swim if they let their body figure it out and don't panic. Our large brains work against us on this one though....but if you watch anything done on the "water babies" classes that are taught around the country, you realize babies do figure it out if they are given the time to not panic. Panic is what kills people in the water who don't know how to swim intellectually.

Wade in your case, the big brain may not work against you since you have not always shown us your logic or greater thought process to be that significant...lol

[bluegem280]

I could perform various style of swimming with various motion before getting into surface of the pool, I still can swim but is not good as used to be. Although braveness and natural skill of someone differs to others, I think everyone have natural instinct how to survive by swimming in the water. They need practicing.

[airshifter]

can we toss your butt into the Cumberland river and assess the theory?

All humans instinctively do know how to swim if they let their body figure it out and don't panic. Our large brains work against us on this one though....but if you watch anything done on the "water babies" classes that are taught around the country, you realize babies do figure it out if they are given the time to not panic. Panic is what kills people in the water who don't know how to swim intellectually.

Wade in your case, the big brain may not work against you since you have not always shown us your logic or greater thought process to be that significant...lol

I wanted to do the "water babies" thing with our daughter, but my wife freaked out on the idea. I don't think it mattered though, as our daughter still took to water like it was a natural thing.

She's a good swimmer for her age, with being somewhat fearless her only setback. This is a good thing at the pool to teach confidence, not such a good thing in surf sometimes. After reminding her over and over to always watch the waves in the surf zone, that constant reminding and a few good tosses by waves has helped her see the light. :D

This would normally be prime time for us to hit the beach here, with the water still warm and tourists mostly gone. But previous trips have contributed to my daughter having an ear infection, so we have to wait it out for a while. :mad:

As for myself, I've been swimming since a very early age and am quite confident in the water. I've also done some diving to include advanced and rescue specialties, as well as military egress training so not much scares me in the water.

On one of our last beach trips I had to assist a woman out of the surf zone after a wave caught many off guard. She broke her ankle in the process and was in trouble in the surf. It gave the kids a scare, and was a good lesson in respecting the power of a wave. TBH the incident gave me little confidence in some of the average people at the beach. After it becoming obvious that she was in trouble and I was helping her through the surf, most people just kept walking. As the woman was not small by any means it was also obvious I wasn't going to get her completely out of the water on my own. Just as I sent my daughter to grab a couple of decent sized guys one woman stopped to assist, which for some reason broke the spell and we got ample help from that point.

[glauistean]

I really can't remember not being able to swim. Then again I was raised in Miami with my family and all the neighbors having a pool in the back yard and 5 mins from the ocean.



Sounds like a nice spot. In Illinois it was above the ground pools and then if you went to Lake Michigan you had to wait for a report on whether there was sewage in the water.

I managed to learn and represented my school. Came third in a big competition. 100 yard backstroke. There was only three in the event and I got a medal. lol

[Easy Drifter]

Since Wade said he did not know if he could swim or not I was going to suggest he jump in the deep end of a pool and find out.
Then I realized he just might do it! :eek:
And there might not be a lifeguard there! :eek: :eek:

[CarlMetro]

Yes. I swim a mile (64 lenghts of a 25m pool) every day during the week and around half a mile on Saturday mornings whilst my son is in his swimming leason. It's one form or exercise which I actually enjoy and you don't need lots of expensive equipment or good weather to do it either. The mile will take me less that 1 hour to complete and I feel great afterwards, really sets me up for the day ahead.

Swimming is my main sport,I'm a distance swimmer (1500m in the pool, anything more open water!).Swimming is a sport that is not natural to everyone.Learning how to swimming doesn't have to be boring or traumatic but can actually be many fun, if the right strategy to diving training is used.My daughter is also new to competitive swimming.I hope she will be prove as good swimmer if continually learned it.My best wishes with her...

[donKey jote]

NBCNews.com Video Player (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=39258985&#39258985&from=en-us_msnhp&snid=18424776)

appears that a quadruple amputee just swum the English Channel

was his name Bob ? :dozey:

[schmenke]

When he came ashore he was discovered to by Sandy.









:rolleyes:

[donKey jote]

his friend had a seagull on his head... I think he was called Cliff.


:s nore:

[race aficionado]

phalange

sorry . . . it's a word the donks used in another thread and I had to throw it here into the water.

[schmenke]

This thread is going off the deep end...

[steveaki13]

This thread is going off the deep end...



Sinking without trace you mean

[Tazio]

It's sink or swim.

[steveaki13]

Not a pun, but I can swim or could. I havent been swimming for about 5 years so I assume I would still be able to keep afloat.

I used to swim semi reguarly, but these days have got out the habbit.

[donKey jote]

you mean hobbit, right? :andrea:

[steveaki13]

you mean hobbit, right? :andrea:


Oh yer I got out of the hobbit years ago he was a bit dank and smelly. ;)

Swimming is my main sport,I'm a distance swimmer (1500m in the pool, anything more open water!).Swimming is a sport that is not natural to everyone.Learning how to swimming doesn't have to be boring or traumatic but can actually be many fun, if the right strategy to diving training is used.My daughter is also new to competitive swimming.I hope she will be prove as good swimmer if continually learned it.My best wishes with her...
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