Day 257/365: Friday's Unscientific Poll: Swimming Lessons

[nanila]

Poll #20449 Swimming lessons

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 82

I know how to swim.

Yes
78 (95.1%)

No.
4 (4.9%)

I had swimming lessons

As a child.
64 (78.0%)

As an adult.
4 (4.9%)

Never.
16 (19.5%)

[Optional] I never had swimming lessons because

Humuhumu has been having swimming lessons for about 14 months now. She started in the summer before she began school. She passed Stage 1 fairly quickly, but it has taken her a long time to get through Stage 2, which she officially passed today. This means she can move from the shallow learner's pool, which is only 80 cm deep into the "big" pool, which starts at 90 cm. She had to swim for five metres unaided on both her front and her back in order to move to Stage 3. She can actually swim 10 metres on her front, possibly more.

Keiki's going to start swimming lessons Sunday next, with the same awesome teacher that Humuhumu had. She's going to have a new teacher in Stage 3.

I never had swimming lessons because I grew up in Hawai'i. We always lived in places with swimming pools (apartment complexes and the like) or close enough to the beach for me to be able to go there every day. No indoor pools or heated water needed. I don't have any memories of not being able to swim, so I must have learnt quite early. Watching Humuhumu go through swimming lessons has therefore been a novelty for me. She's already a lot more comfortable being totally immersed than I was. It makes me think that it would have been good for me to have had lessons, as I'd probably be a much better swimmer now.

Comments

[omnipotent]

I love swimming as an adult and genuinely wish I had had more access to pools and lessons as a child. I am from a landlocked state and a rural town, so private pools weren't really a "thing" and neither were public pools. My cousin's family moved to a house with a pool, but I was afraid to go in the deep end because I thought I would drown. My cousin could sort of flail around with something approaching breaststroke, but I was too scared so I could only frolick up to the 6 ft edge--I was already tall for a teenager but wasn't quite the 6' I am today.

As an adult, I decided that living in a state surrounded on three sides by water, while being unable to swim, was simply too dangerous. Learning as an adult brought a new form of exercise into my life, one that I find I strongly prefer. It has become a reflex for me to stop breathing the instant my nose is submerged. I can do all strokes but butterfly--I can dolphin kick, but not well enough to provide any significant propulsion, so whenever disposable income re-enters my life, that will be the final stroke to conquer. Breaststroke is easier on my knees, but hard on my wrists, so I usually stick with front crawl and consider that my best stroke. Backstroke is fun but I find that I often misjudge distance and end up slamming the back of my head into the end of the pool lane, so I don't do it often.

If gators weren't so prevalent here, I'd try open water swimming, but I am rather fond of having all of my limbs attached to my body, so I'll stick with chlorinated pools that are reasonably some distance away from a pond/swamp. At the gym, the most I have to deal with is creepers acting like they have never seen a leggy woman in a bathing suit before. [insert eyeroll here]

Have you thought about maybe doing those parent-child swimming lessons with Humuhumu? I know your schedule stays pretty packed but maybe even one lesson together a week could improve your own skills?

And on that note, post-swim hair care is a must.