when/how did you learn to swim?

My oldest 2 kiddos are wanting to learn to swim this summer, they're 7 and 6. They love the water, so hopefully it won't be too hard. We're not paying for a pool membership, so they'll just have to learn at a local lake or the river. Nobody really taught me how to swim, I just kinda figured it out on my own splashing around in the pool as a kid. Curious how everyone else learned?

I don’t swim. Never learned and have no current plan to. And I make my living on the water. I wear flotation. Even in the rain.

we pretty much just learned in the river

there was some basic instruction from parents - kick your feet and flap your arms - keep trying until you get it

I did the whole Red Cross Program and all the levels through the local YMCA, was a water safety instructor, Lifeguard and competitive swimmer for 15 years and DO NOT care to ever get in a body of water to swim EVER again. Check with your local Red Cross to see if anything is available near you.

Grew up in a region with very few lakes and thus did not learn to swim until I was high school age working on a farm where the wife was a great swimmer as a younger person in a major city. Still not an accomplished swimmer but can reach shore if need be. Our two children had swimming in summer school when they were in about 3rd-5th grade.

Bryce

Was thrown in at age 4 while the old man said sink or swim lol, good times.....

The will to survive is strong in the human race...even toddlers pick it up pretty quick. My 4 year old swims enough if thrown in the deep water he can swim to shore or a stump to hold on to. Taught as I was...thrown in and sink or swim. I will say this, some people are naturally buoyant and some aren’t. Luckily all my kids floated back to the top and eventually figured out pitching a fit wasn’t getting them any closer to shore. Now I have to really watch the 4 year old...he’ll jump in no matter the depth!

After the first time dad had to dive in fully clothed to fetch me after walking off the end of the pier.
Fortunately mother spent her high school years as a life guard at Weeki Watchi (home of the mermaid show) springs and was an excellent swimmer. I used to swim the Warrior bank to bank as a kid, made sure my oldest two could do the same before we moved away.

Being thrown in and told to "sink or swim" has got to be the worst thing a person could do. This is akin to letting a first shooting experience being a hard recoiling firearm-likely their last. Learn to float first then progress through learning basic strokes and kicks. Everyone should learn to swim and not fear the water.

i can't remember a time before swimming lessons so maybe I was 4 or maybe it was earlier yet.
the village used to have an indoor pool and remember taking lessons there.
when the village pool closed my parents , uncle and grand parents took turns driving myself and cousins to swimming lessons over the summer.

my dad was a life guard for a while , I stopped just short of becoming a certified lifeguard.

knowing how to swim and being a strong swimmer was important.

my kids all started swimming lessons as toddlers and went through about age 10 , then were on swim team for a while. all are decent swimmers.

just as it ruins many people form ever shooting again it does the same for many swimmers , this is how my wife was taught , not good .

if you have kids early swimming lessons they are used to the water before they even knew to fear it.

I have an older brother fifteen years my senior. He took me and a couple of siblings swimming. I jumped off the deep side of the wharf not knowing how deep it was. I couldn't swim. He did a head count just in time to see me bobbing...probably for the last time had he not plucked me out. I wasn't frightened at all but I was terribly embarrassed by it. He made me go back in. I learned to swim.

I can't remember where but recently I read were it is important to teach our children to swim. I learned from a very young age and being around water as much as I am, I can see where it is something everyone should know how to do. I'm not belittling anyone that doesn't or hasn't had the opportunity to learn to swim.

If it was me I would pay for lessons for those children if it was me. To learn the right way and some safety aspects and to get introduced to helping a drowning victim. It is something that might come in handy for those children at some point in their lives and for their own kids someday. I beleive the more exposure we can give our children and learning experiences the better it will be for them. JM2¢

My Dad took me swimming and taught me when I was a small kid.I remember swimming at 5 years old but likely learned before that.
In my teens I could swim for miles without tiring out.Used to swim across the lake and back where we had a cabin a few times a week,it was about 2 miles across.
Pretty much lived on the water as a teenager in summer doing canoe trips,fishing,noodling for turtles and killing bullfrogs(froglegs) with bow or club from the canoe and in spring and fall hunting and trapping around the lake.
I never took official "swimming lessons" ,but I think it would be good for a kid,7 or 8 years old or older to learn.

I started taking swimming lessons at 4 months old and continued until after I was a sophomore in high school. From around 10 until I stopped at around 15, I swam laps for 90 minutes, with some breaks, 5 days a week, during the Summer, as long as the weather was good. It's probably been 20 years, since the last time I swam now.

Keith

If I am swimming these days, something has gone terribly wrong.

Zim

I taught myself to swim. I practiced swimming with a life jacket on quite a few times. Once I thought I had the hang of it, tried without the jacket. It was a little scary at first, until I realized I could really swim without any assistance.

Maybe we were just bred different back in the day. I and all my kids love the water and have no fear of it. And my kids could shoot a .300RUM at 5 or 6...it’s not the recoil that scares kids, it’s the noise. Great hearing protection and they’ll fire 50BMG and laugh.

I am one of the people with zero buoyancy. Went to lessons 2 years wouldn't work. I was always very athletic but won't float as soon as I move.
I made sure my daughters got good lessons early on as I did not want all of us to drown trying to pull them from water.
The lessons in my mind are very cheap insurance no matter the cost!

It was an accident, actually.
River was there, I was there and no one else was there.
Age 15. It helped that there was also a gravel bay downstream a bit.

You must have been a natural with a name like Muskrat.

My father rowed me to the middle of the lake and tossed me in, swimming back wasn't the hard part, getting out of the burlap sack was!! No really growing up in Michigan you are never any farther then a mile for a body of water so most every school has swimming lessons in middle school.

Red Cross Swim Lessons

Truth was, Boco, and still is, I can't float. That certificate is from the second time around trying to pass from Tadpole to Minnow at the YMCA. Instructor flunked me the first time around 'cause I couldn't do the jellyfish float. Must've felt sorry for me when he finally passed me.

It wasn't until I was in the Air Force in Thailand and took a SCUBA class when the instructor asked me how much weight I'd need to get to the bottom of the pool, and I said watch this, shoved off, and promptly sank to the bottom of the pool. When I resurfaced, he said, oh, you're like me, and educated me on negative buoyancy. Some of us are just a bit more dense in the bone/muscle mass than others.

In Boy Scouts when I got my 5-miler award I swam most of it underwater. Three lengths of the pool up for air, then back under for another three lengths and back for air.

Another note: back in the 50s and some of the 60s for sure, they required us little boys to swim naked in the pool. The instructors wore trunks, but us boys skinny dipped. We were traumatized for weeks having the instructors telling us we'd have to go naked for parents' night, but learned at the lesson prior to the big night, which included girls in the audience, we could wear trunks to that.

In our neighbors pool, shortly after I started walking; probably about 18 months.
I would swim with my eyes open under water, I can still remember seeing my mom sitting on the steps leading into the pool as I swam towards her.

My Dad who was a Marine Corps DI and taught swimming..
I was 4 or 5 years old.

Local swimming pool. Older sister was a lifeguard so I spent a lot of time there.

Chris

Red Cross Swimming Lessons at the local swimming hole.

I learned to swim in water. Lot easier than learning to swim in concrete.

Learned to roller skate in a buffalo herd.

Mike

W. Berlin, Germany back in 1971 during the summer.
*I seem to recall it was a national requirement that all German children know how to swim.
If it was 1971, that would have put me at 6 years old....
Training was fairly comprehensive, I still remember one to the instructors to this day - and I still have my medal [as we also had patches of achievment which were sewn into our swimming trunks.
Worst part was having to jump of a 5 meter diving board, but it could have been much worse - there was also a 10 meter board.
Gotta say, the Germans take swimming very very seriously - and in turn, that was the one sport I was really good at.
I still swim to this day any chance I can, typically in a lake where I take my dog out as well.
About 5 years ago, maybe 6.... [time needs to slow down !!] the "freediving" bug bit, and it bit hard.
Did that for about 2, maybe 3 years... then a couple of injuries [unrelated to freediving...] kinda forced me to change things and I got out of it, but at one point I had a solid 45 second breath hold with no problem [*I was actually hoping to get into spearfishing]
On reflection, this was by far the best way to see marine life, because they would come right up to you, wondering what kind of fish you were.....
Some days, it was so beautiful - I would say that if I met the right fish, I was never going to come back.
I still dive, but again not like I used to, but I'm glad I got into it when I did, better late than never at all....
But swimming... I think it's ultra important to know, not too mention the health benefits as well.
I seem to recall now that I've been thinking about it taking more classes at the YMCA in Staten Island during the mid 1970s, while I was growing up in Brooklyn NY.
I seem to recall I did real well there too - funny, all German kids there as well !!
One of them - Ralph Bachmann - he would up eventually serving in the U.S. Army overseas during the Persian Guff Crisis, and I remember he made the local newspaper.
At the time I had recently moved to CT, as I was a Blackhawk mechanic [UH-60A, L models] and I'm sure our mom's [Ralph's and mine] probably spoke about that some on the phone, how years later we were both in a round about way involved in the same thing - our nations defense - just in different aspects.
Sorry for going on, thinking about swimming brough back some real good memories.

I learned as a military brat at the base pool in Germany. Aged 7. 2 fond memories: a nickel grape soda after swim lessons, and our instructor, Karen, who wore a white bikini with a Red Cross swimming patch sewn on the bottom. Good times!

I learned to swim by playing in the water.

My dad is scared of water. Uncle gave him a thrown in swim or die lesson. I guess he bout died.

Similar thing happened to my dad. Same result.

My aunt forced me and my cousins to take lessons as kids. We took them in the morning before the pool opened, in an unheated pool. I remember my cousins lips turning blue.

I hated every minute of it, but I can swim.

My oldest is ten, he's had two years of lessons, and is comfortable it the water.

The pool is heated that he takes lessons at.

Grew up right beside the city pool. I can't remember not being able to swim. Was on a traveling swim team at the age of 5, the butterfly was my specialty. Had a box full of ribbons and medals, have no idea what happened to them. Could go off the high diving board at 4. I learned this on my own,, never took a lesson in my life. I'm 59 now and probably would be lucky to save myself.

Learned early, started taking lessons in 1st or second grade, went all the way through those, swam on the High School team, Lifeguard Certified, worked 5 summers at the local pool, Water Safety Instructor Certified, Lifeguard Instructor Certified, played water polo in college and took up scuba diving. Blew out my ear drum diving at 24 and had to have my shoulder redone at 25. I'm comfortable around water, my wife not so much.

Actually, swimming correctly using different strokes is not something that a child or many adults can teach themselves. It may be good to find a swimming coach/class.

I was around water all my life, fishing, trapping and hunting. I still wasn't able to swim until I was 11 years old. When it happened, it was like riding a bike....POOF, I could do it(dog paddle) and couldn't believe I couldn't before. I, like Muskrat, float like waterlogged stump. My Pappy would bob around and actually sleep as he floated. He'd even have all 5 toes sticking up out of the water. I tried and tried to take his advise and it didn't stick. He, and others that float like corks, just have a different shape or something. I float ONLY if I take a deep breath, and only my top two inches of head float. I look like a hairy bobber. My feet point straight towards the bottom. If I exhale........glub, glub! I sink immediately.

Learned in a gravel pit all nine of us no parental guidance ,I can swim but don't ask me to save you , Come real close to drowning once and believe me you can breathe water and it does not hurt . Then you pass out !

Water logged hair ball ,Shave er down that will help

Now, my poor dog Loki on the other hand... she learned that water is not a solid substance right after I took this picture.
*If you notice, she is looking with great intent at - I'm assuming it was a beaver because before the area around this stream was developed, beavers were everywhere.

Next thing I knew - with a leap of faith and determination and a great big splash, my pig shaped friend life vest and all started heading straight to the bottom.
I grabbed the handle on her life vest and we got to shore and I got her in the boat, and I had a very wet and frightened dog back in the kayak for the rest off the trip.

To this day, she does not swim - but will go into the water - wade so to speak - right up to her back...

She can swim, just chooses not to.

That's funny , George.

Honestly , I can't remember a time when I couldn't swim . I believe my parents started with us at a very young age. Think it started with just gently letting go of us in shallow water and allowing us to work with the water. Just grew from there.

Learned at the pool in our county seat. Mom probably enrolled me for lessons. Scouting helped later. Took advanced swimming and lifesaving in college PE.

I never learned to swim, yet I've been around boats all of my life. I spent 8 years in the Coast Guard, with some interesting experiences.
I went through boot camp at Cape May, N.J. When it was proven that I can't swim I was required to report to the pool every evening for "swimming lessons".
What a joke ! The instructors all stood at one end of the pool yaking with each other, and the the trainees stood at the other end , shivering, and they never showed us anything.
On the firing range they never provided ear protection, and I swear that is why I have high frequency deafness today.

My brother and I along with our gang taught ourselves how to swim in a local creek when we were around six years old I don't think they had lessons in the early 1940's.

Jarhead

I don't remember the story that I was told was that not too long after I came home as a baby my mother took me to the YMCA and in a baby swimming group. Guess newborns swim naturally. Anyhow.....as a toddler I never had a problem jumping in and swimming around. I hated getting yelled at to go back to the shallow end. I son like swimming if I can touch the bottom.

6-7 years old went to the lake with my family. My dad walked me about half onto a pier and through me out into about 15 feet of water. Told me to sink or swim.