Can you swim?

[FaxModem1]

Everyday after class, I do a few laps in the campus gym's pool. And something I'm really picking up on, which I hadn't noticed before, is that quite a few people either don't know how, or learned at a much later age than I did.

So, can you swim?

If you can, at what age did you learn to do so, and how proficient are you at it?

If not, why not?

Oh, and for me, I was around 6 or 7, my parents had me take swimming lessons one summer, and I've always visited pools, lakes, and even the ocean during my life.

[Lonestar]

Yes, as long as I can remember. My folks made me take swimming lessons early on.

[Guardsman Bass]

I think I'm a pretty good swimmer. I've swam a lot over the years, although not so much this year.

I'm not entirely sure when I learned how to swim, although I remember taking lessons when I was 5 or 6 years old. I know that I was a decent swimmer by the time I was 8-9 years old, because I would swim a lot down at Lake Powell with some of the relatives on their boating trips.

[HeadCreeps]

I can't swim. Most of my childhood was spent working with statistics instead of playing outside, so I was late in learning things most people do at childhood. It's a skill I'd like to pick up.

[Lonestar]

I can't swim. Most of my childhood was spent working with statistics instead of playing outside, so I was late in learning things most people do at childhood. It's a skill I'd like to pick up.

Really. You were spending most of your grade school life working with statistics.

[HeadCreeps]

I can't swim. Most of my childhood was spent working with statistics instead of playing outside, so I was late in learning things most people do at childhood. It's a skill I'd like to pick up.

Really. You were spending most of your grade school life working with statistics.

Asperger's.

One of the things I did was imagine I was a sports manager who was trying to gradually improve any given team, typically using sports cards or a sports almanac. I would "trade" players who were of nearly equal value until I perceived the team as as good as it's going to get, then I would simulate a game on the floor with the assembled cards. When I figured out how to run excel on my dad's computer, I would simulate the games on that with the square shaped grids instead. Rather than imagining that I was improving my "team" with unfair trades just to get the awesome players, I would try to only improve the team more gradually because I perceived it as more realistic.

I know now that most of the stuff I did would never work in reality, but doing this gave me a huge head start in grade school level math.

Another thing I would do was take old marvel comics cards where they'd list every character's power ratings and pretend they were fighting in a situation where x stat was required, such as mental power or physical strength, determined in a set order (first match is the first stat listed, second match was the second stat, etc).

[Dave]

Not terribly well. I had a few swimming lessons, but I never quite got the hang of smoothly breathing while doing the forward crawl. I can dog paddle just fine, though.

[JointStrikeFighter]

What Australian can't?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Yup. Swimming lessons when I was young in London.
I'd hardly call myself a good swimer, but I can swim in 3-4 styles well enough, know basics of how to breathe, and can scuba dive .
It's always very very strange to meet people who din't know how to swim. (I found out that my GF doesn't know how to swim. major :0 WTF?)

[weemadando]

I learnt when I was tiny.

Never been competitive, but am more than competent.

I would be willing to say I won't ever be featured on a show like Bondi Rescue.

Spending your childhood and teen years swimming in winter swells around Tassie = experience.

[Stofsk]

Every child should learn to swim. It's a skill you can't ever forget once you learn it, plus it's a very good form of exercise.

Sadly I don't have a pool otherwise I'd swim in it every day. Going to the community pool costs money unfortunately.

[Crown]

What Australian can't?

Pretty much this.

It was part of my Primary School curriculum so I would have learned around the age of 10. Given that we're an island nation (lol) I'm fairly certain that it's part of all school curriculum's that are near the coast.

As for how good; technique is 'medium' I do the swivel the head from side to side rather than keep it submerged, and endurance is shit due to being a fat lazy bastard, but I can tread water until the end of time!

[XaLEv]

Yeah, I can swim.

I also learned how to tread water from a GI Joe PSA.

[Darth Tedious]

What Australian can't?

+1 on this from me. I don't even remember how old I was when I learned to swim.
Which reminds me- I need to get on to teaching my 3-year old daughter...

[Dread Not]

I started taking swimming lessons when I was 5 or 6. It took me a while to get good at it, but I've lived near a lot of beaches and pools in my lifetime so I've gotten pretty good at it. Between the ages of 16 and 20 when I was in excellent physical condition I would usually swim laps once a week for at least an hour.

I've wanted to get back into it lately. There's a lake close to where I've recently moved, but it's freezing cold. Hopefully in mid-July when it gets crazy hot it will be warm enough. I find that swimming is excellent exercise if your muscles or joints are sore, and I've been having all sorts of back and neck problems lately, making exercise a challenge.

[2000AD]

Swimming was part of the school curriculum, I think it was every other week one PE session would be held down at the local leisure centre. Also went to evening swimming lessons while young because my mum did plenty of aerobics and circuit training stuff before she had her stroke.

[Broomstick]

So, can you swim?

Yep.

If you can, at what age did you learn to do so,

I'm told I was given lessons around 2 due to a tendency to jump into any nearby pool of water on my own - apparently I have no fear of it.

and how proficient are you at it?

For specific techniques and form, meh, OK I guess. From the standpoint of moving around in the water, getting form point A to point B, endurance, pretty darn good.

I swam a lot more in my younger years. Due to skin problems I have been, at times, barred from public pools. At such times, staying out of lakes with their associated bacteria and such is also a good idea. Right now, I don't have a convenient place to swim so I don't, which is a shame, because I actually do enjoy it.

[PeZook]

Goddamn I have to go to a pool and do some laps one of these days...

I'm competent. Nothing great, my overall shape has deteriorated lately, but I could do a goodly distance not that long ago.

[Darth Yoshi]

I had lessons when I was about 4 or so, but I wasn't enthusiastic about it, and stubbornly refuses to actually get into the water. I ended up teaching myself how to swim when I was 10.

[Serafina]

My mother took me and my sisters swimming before we could walk (with plenty of supervision and aid of course). So yes, i can swim very well, tough i never received professional swimming lessons - i'd not be able to compete at any competition.

[mr friendly guy]

What Australian can't?

Those being rescued by the surf lifesavers.

Yeah I can swim. We had swimming lessons as a kid courtesy of the school, and I vaguely remember only being reasonable at age 12 or 13. I am not fast and these days unfit, but I won't drown if you dump me in the pool.

[Dartzap]

Nope. Tried to learn, failed miserably due to whatever reason. Bit poor as I live at the seaside and go on boats fairly regularly.....

[AMT]

I went to lessons when I was younger but had more fun pretending I was aquaman. I eventually learned by going to a public pool and staying away from the deep end until a kind lady started teaching me, though I still was too scared. Eventually I said hell with it around 9 or 10, jumped into the Deep End of the pool... and stayed there. Sometimes total immersion is what's needed.

[Zixinus]

Learned to swim from pretty young. 6 or perhaps less maybe?

I don't rate myself very good at it, especially because I've been losing practice in the last few years. That, and I'm not in prime condition.

I also have a phobia of dark water. I don't know why but I really don't feel comfortable swimming in dark water. So it's only swimming pools for me.

[Alferd Packer]

I learned when I was little--no formal lessons, of course, but just my mom or dad teaching me in the neighbor's pool. I would say I was seven or eight by the time I was a strong enough swimmer to avoid having to wear a life jacket all the time, maybe a little older.