Everyone can do it. Why can't I ??

Oh, yeah: I'm terrible at any sport where you have to strike a ball with a stick or racket (though I can handle a paddle all right -- maybe cricket?).

I agree with the salt water thing - the sea is much much more buoyant. I learnt in the sea when my children were small - I learnt in about 18in to 2ft depth! i was floating with my hands on the sand when i thought - if i lift my hands and start swimming I should just stay afloat (and if i don;t i can just put my hands down)- and i did! trouble was i couldn't stop in water any deeper - I had to swim up to someone to hold onto me to stop or swim into shallow water to put my hands down!

When i tried in the pool it felt 'dead' and i had to get my confidence all over again.

A friend taught me to treat water and then i could stop anywhere!!! eureka! so i am NOT a good swimmer, my technique is lousy = crawl with my legs and breast stroke with the arms, face OUT of the water as i cannot put it under no matter how hard i try ...

My husband hasn't an ounce of fat on him, isn't scared of going under but CANNOT swim. He can 'swim' a width but he just goes deeper and deeper under the water until his breath runs out and he has to stand up red in the face! He cannot float at all just like you. he hasn't been for lessons as he isn't particularly bothered but nothing the girls or I can do helps him to float at all - only armbands!!!

Hey, that's ok, little buckaroo. We can't all do everything, even me.
For instance, I can't speak Chinese.

I was never a strong swimmer, so my best swimming experience has been in public pools or at my brother's home. Sea water and I just don't get along too well. My last experience was at the Galapagos Islands where we went snorkeling almost every day. We wore those flappers, and they were hard to walk on in rough waters. There was another guy in our group that was having the same problem, and it was sort of comforting to know that I wasn't the only on struggling.

Just in case you didn't know, c.i., you have to walk backwards with the flippers.

ok...i will say i HATE swimming...but i can swim...and i sink!

This happened to me:
we were doing a life saving seesion in physical education once at school - the teacher said "Ok, everyone, roll up tight into a ball, and you will float. If you are ever tired, do this because it doesn't take much energy but it will let you breathe" etc etc.

Everyone in the class does it...everyone floats - except me i sink...and sink and sink....till i have to 'unball' myself to get a very much needed breath of air.

since i hate swimming so much, and can't really swim very well (eg. i struggle with 25m and get lapped twice over by average speed people...) ill see if i can give you any advice...

1. If you can't float - try under water swimming (i luv it)
2. start at the shallow end and start walking towards the deep end....i find that you actually start 'floating'...it gets much harder to touch the ground...(or maybe im just too short)
3. do a bomb dive into the deep end - your instincts will probably kick in.

those are the only things i can sort of think of....obviously if you haven't swam before, have a friend or two with you for safety.

good luck!

Hmmm...looks like I am not the only one !! It does make me feel better

But I really wanna swim !! WAAAAAAAAHHHHH

Slappy, u cant speak chinese ?

Well, I can swim, but not in circular pools....makes laps too confusing. I also can't wrap my head around chess.

I couldn't swim until I was very very old for a Minnesotan (State motto, "Land of 10,000 Lakes"), about 9. I also had a bad water experience in my past, when I was about 3. I have no particular memory of how I learned -- I just spent more and more time in the water, splashed and flailed without particularly trying to swim, and eventually was able to take that one last step that Vivien describes. I'm now very very far from a champion swimmer, but I can get around in a minimal way.

Can you find kickboards anywhere? Clinging to a kickboard is part of how I learned, I believe -- helped me figure out the kicking part, then I held it further and further in front of me until I figured out how to keep my torso afloat, then was able to let go and flail with arms (kinda dog-paddling) to keep afloat. All with no face in water. (Which is what I refused to do, for a while after I started swimming, I think. Now I'm fine with it.)

Hmmmm... so should I try again ? But isnt 32 too old to learn swimming ? Can you teach an old dog new tricks ?

I can't swim either and I am from Michigan, which is surrounded by the Great Lakes, and have lived half my life in Massachusetts, close enough to the Atlantic Ocean to spit into it.

Luckily, Gautam, most hotel pools are no deeper than five feet which means even if you start to drown, all you have to do is stand up!

Oh, sure you can!

But dahling, by the time the command to stand up reaches my legs, I would have already drowned !!!

Gee. I wish I'd known this. That hotel in London had a pool. It could have been SO MUCH fun to watch you sputtering... I mean, learning to swim.

Cruel Cruel Piffka !!!

Swim teams, anyone?
Has anyone been a member of a swim team? When my children were growing up, they spent their summer days at our neighborhood pool and were members of the swim team. They both were champion competition swimmers. They enjoyed themselves in a good healthy sport and stayed out of trouble.

BBB

Dedicated to Gautum with apologies to the writer of the song Locomotion.



Everybody's doing
The brand new swim now,
Come on baby
Do the flotation
I know you'll get to like it
If you give it a chance now,
Come on baby
Do the flotation
My little baby sister
Can do it with ease,
It's easier than
Learning your ABC
So come on, come on
Do the flotation for me

You've gotta
kick your legs now,
Come on baby
Stand up, lean back
Well I think
You've got the knack,
Woah woah

Now that you can do it
Let's make a splash now,
Come on baby
Do the flotation
A chugga, chugga, motion
Come on baby
Do the flotation

Do it nice and easy
Now don't lose control,
A little bit of rhythm
And a lotta soul,
So come on, come on
Do the flotation for me

Oh yeah
Do the flotation
Do the flotation
Yay, yay, yay, yeah

Move around the pool
In a big commotion,

Come on baby
Do the flotation
Do it holdin hands
Like you got the notion,
Come on baby
Do the flotation

There's never been a nap
That's so easy to do,
It even makes you happy
When you're feeling blue,
So come on, come on
Do the flotation for me

I wouldn't let you drown, Gautam! I'm only a paddler, a dipper and a dabbler, myself, but I always have fun when I'm playing in a pool. I know it can be scary, too. I didn't learn to swim at all (and such as I can, which is not very well) until I was eleven.

Maybe the driving thingie wasn't a good comparison to not being able to swim, since I can drive.

Like G and swimming - I cannot ski. I have taken lessons. I have tried and tried and I just cannot do it. I can't get my balance and I cannot manoeuver (sp?). I do not have any co-ordination and so I won't even attempt it any more. I feel like a loser when my friends go on skiing holidays since I just can't join in.

On the other hand, those same friends cannot ride horses and I can. Must be the use of different muscles that you can do one but have difficulty with the other?