I can't swim, as in, I just sort of... sink. Why is this?

[GingerbreadTeapot]

I've never ever been able to swim. I just don't float? I also hate getting water in my nose which won't have helped especially when I was a child but that aside, I cannot swim.

I had terms and terms of lessons as a child, my parents paid for intensive holiday courses, the works. I used to dream that I could swim, about bobbing around swimmily in the deep end.

As an adult I had some lessons with a friend of a friend who was a swimming teacher. She insisted beforehand that everyone can swim, but after a month or so agreed that I'm not very bouyant. I just bloody sink. I cannot float. I don't understand!

I'm 5ft 7 ish, hourglass type shape but with smallish boobs, and a 12-14 but weigh more than I look like I should if that makes sense? Could I maybe have very dense bones or something?

I'm a similar shape to you OP. I can swim, but I can't float. No idea why.

If body fat played any kind of role in being able to float or swim, Michael Phelps would have drowned years ago. The reason you "can't" float is because you've convinced yourself you can't and you're too stiff and anxious.

I agree with PP that said trying to keep your nose away from the water will be affecting your posture. Do you sink on all styles? Have you tried a nose-peg?

A year ago I was a crap swimmer (>25m with a flailing front crawl) but after a lot of lessons I can swim a good breast stroke, back stroke and front crawl and a really really bad butterfly. I was a sinker too. Until your water confidence improves, your tense posture will probably keep dragging you down.

I'm like this too, I thought I was just crap at swimming! I had no idea most people naturally float!

I never learned to swim as a child as my mum is scared of water and my dad used to just take us with armbands. I taught myself as an adult but I can't tread water properly so I get tired really quickly as I do have to try really hard not to sink. I usually just stay next to the edge, I'm not really confident going underwater either, I should try that.

I do have low body fat, that could be part of it. DS1 sinks as well, he can swim now but it took him ages to learn as he was really unconfident. DS2 is extremely bouyant but he is a fat baby :o

@CountFosco
Yes, that's what everybody tells me. I just can't coordinate these moves. It's like dancing - I can't do that either.

DS - no ounce of fat - when younger had problems with not floating.
He was asked to fetch rings from the bottom of the pool and he could not get down. He needed additional weights.

To float (and swim properly) on your back you need to put your head back in the water and that will bring your hips up. My son used to go into the vshape when he swam backstroke and that corrected it.
Not sure about floating on your front because I only swim breaststroke.

My husband is the same. He just sinks. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Even with a woggle he sinks!!

make yourself as long as you can each stroke and pointy. try completing a lap with as few strokes as possible.
this will work

Can you float if you lay on your back and relax?

DP is also the world's worst swimmer, which does please me in a way because it's the only sporty type activity that I'm much better than him at. He also can't tread water without enormous effort whereas I can just sit there all day.

I understand the Michael Phelps argument but with DP he does seem very 'sinky' and while he is overweight, he's also very muscular and stocky, whereas I'm your typically light boned podgy woman, so I do wonder if that's a factor.

How much do you weigh if you don't mind me asking? I'm the same height as you but with quite big boobs and weigh about 11 and a half stone when I'm a 12-14, but sadly am currently about a stone and size more.

Nose clip. Gamechanger

You need stronger tummy muscles?

@EspressoButler oh yes that’s true I also have some very buoyant fun bags

I can't swim or float. I have accepted this, I can't bear water going up my nose or covering my face (I can't even duck my head under the water in a bath without panicking) which doesn't help, and I can't get water in my ears either otherwise it causes an ear infection...I will just have to stick to dry land

I floated as a child, now I sink.

If you don't float, you need to think of it like an aeroplane - more upward force than gravity.
Use breast stroke as it's much easier. Push away from a wall with both feet. Keep ankles together and bring legs up (splaying out knees). Open out ankles and straighten legs out to a V (this will be a bit like trying to walk in water). Then with straight legs bring your ankles back together (effectively squeezing out the water in between them). This will push you forwards.
Meanwhile your hands join palm to palm and shoot out in front of you. Roatate hands to they are back to back, then circle arms out and back to palm to palm. You will need to experiment with pushing arms wide (move you forward) and down (keep you afloat) until you find your happy medium

It'll be something to do with the oxygen levels in your blood

If you take your feet off the bottom you will float. Have you heard of drowned bodies washing up on the shore - well they wouldn't do that if they were lying on the sea bed. Bodies float, unfortunately they don't float if you lift your head up out of the water to breath. But if you have goggles and nose clip on and lie in the water with your face in the water holding your breath you will def float. Do it near the side so you can put out your hand to hold on when you want to stand up, you will see the side through the goggles. If you can relax into that position it is a good start.

I am absolutely not a lady what breaststokes and has a nice gossip. My back isn't flexible enough to keep my head and legs up, so my legs end up pulling me down.

I failed to learn to swim as much as a width in 4 years of school lessons. I went to adult lessons and had a teacher in the water with me who showed me how to position myself in the water and how to breathe, rather than flailing around on the side of the pool looking like a one-man silent rave. It took about 4 months of weekly lessons to get the position, breathing and arm motions good enough to do my 25m badge. From that point I was off and increasing my distance by the week.

Once you have the technique, it stays with you and I can now turn up at the pool after many months and churn out a km without practice.

I did however lose boyancy in pregnancy... I had a humungous bump, gaining 50% of my bodyweight, mainly concentrated on my abdomen. Size 8 with a 43" waist! I had to borrow waddles to make me float. At 39wks, aquanatal was cancelled to I went to general swim so as not to waste my taxi journey. The pool was pretty much lengths only, so I ended up asking the lifeguards permission to use floats down the deep end so I could actually swim without cutting up the shallow end and beaching my bump on the ground

Experiment:

In the shallow end, lie on your back in the water.

Do not kick, paddle, or otherwise try to maintain your position.

Take a huge big deep breath. Fill your lungs.

Relax every muscle. Relax

You should float. Breathe by releasing a small amount of your lung capacity then replacing it, not by emptying your lungs then filling them again.

If you're worried about water in your nose then use nose clips/plugs. Not sexy, but they help you to relax and not panic about water going where you don't want it to, which is the aim of the game here.

Different people are differently buoyant but floating is partly technique and not just natural buoyancy.

The pp who said pro swimmers are all muscle though, not true. Olympic athlete swimmers have more bodyfat than other
comparable athletes. Buoyancy provides an energy advantage. But even a bodybuilder should be able to swim. Technique can triumph over body composition.

Btw for me, relaxing does NOT work. I sink. I have to stiffen my body and inhale a lungful to float.

If you take your feet off the bottom you will float. Have you heard of drowned bodies washing up on the shore - well they wouldn't do that if they were lying on the sea bed

Actually, mostly humans don't float unless they're good at controlling their breathing for buoyancy. That's why we drown. Dead bodies wash ashore because the bacteria feeding off them release gasses which make the corpse buoyant. Every good mobster knows to keep 'em sleeping with the fishes you gotta plug 'em full of holes so they don't float up again (or stick them in cement shoes).
We find the bodies that wash up. We don't find the ones that don't.

A really good swimming teacher can make a hugh difference, I used https://www.artofswimming.com/ but i am sure there are many around now who specialise in 'transforming your relationship with water.

The friend of a friend swimming teacher was probably more used to coaching people who already swim and may well have dented your confidence. A good swimming teach will be able to help, easily. Enjoy.

Have you tried using the foam dongles that are at poolside. Loads of people use them where i swim. Hook them under your armpit and round your back if that makes sense, then you will have enough confidence to lift your legs and get the feel of floating. Then take it from there. Give yourself time and don't try too hard.