Swimming beginner

[sammylady37]

Hello

I really want to learn how to swim. I can just about swim a few meters but I do it badly, have no technique. My local pool do 1:1 lessons but they’re off for the summer. I’m wondering should I join anyway, and do what I can, get into the routine of going and see what progress I can make, or will I just end up getting a worse technique that I will then have to ‘unlearn’ when I get formal lessons?

I have the nice swimsuits, the dry robe and the prescription goggles, as well as the motivation now, but I’m a bit worried that the motivation may be lacking by September!

Meant to also say, it may be a waste of money joining now too, if I end up no better a swimmer than I currently am, or even worse, as it’s €150 for 3 months.

You don’t need a dry robe for pool swimming, you’ll bake!!
are you confident in the water? If not, I’d probably go until you can get lessons if you’re happy doing a bit of practice of floating, putting your face in the water etc. if it’s stroke technique you need then I’d probably wait.
it might also depend what sort of pool it is, if you were a non-swimmer in my pool, a lot of the time you’d be in the way of the lane swimmers, people don’t really hang about in the shallow end at mine.

The idea of the dry robe is that I can hop in the car and go straight home to shower and change rather than use pool changing rooms and shower. I live very near the pool.

i can float and don’t mind my face being in the water but I don’t have any technique with breathing or strokes. I suspect I would be an annoyance to proper swimmers in the pool 😫

Why do you need goggles ? People have swum for thousands of years without them. I regularly swim (face down) a mile at my local pool, and have taken part in outdoor swimming events. I've never worn googles, and when I have, found them a hindrance.

There's a lot of youtube videos on swimming technique which are obviously no subsitute for an instructor who'll give personal feedback (even better if they're in the water) but will give an idea of what to aim for.

I went to adult lessons to learn front crawl & backstroke, but failed to pick up breast stroke at the time. I became self-taught in it many years later, and it's now my favoured stroke for open water as it's easiest to sight and deal with some wind directions.

If you've got fitness, once you're directed on a decent technique, progress can be quite rapid.

I'd try to go when it's quiet so that you feel less self conscious if you have to keep stopping.

Does your pool have lanes? If so it is quite normal for people in the slow lane to be slow and stopping frequently.

I went to adult improver lessons around 10 years ago and I am so glad I did. Like you I could swim a bit, but not well. The lessons taught me a much better technique, and after a term of lessons I just kept building up fitness. I carried on swimming at least 3 times a week, and regularly swim 100 lengths (2.5km) without stopping.

Most people find it more comfortable to wear goggles. Some find it very uncomfortable without. They're a pretty mainstream piece of kit. I can swim without which is a useful skill, but my eyes are happier for the next couple of hours if I haven't forgotten them, plus they stop stray hair from tickling my eyes/ face if I'm not in a cap. Feeling comfortable helps a learner concentrate on their learning.

People managed for thousands of years before trousers; few people continue to wear hose/ togas/ loin cloths as a point of superiority just because that's what people wore before new items were developed.

My local pool has some periods of lanes only and some lanes at all times, but often the slow lane is quite wide and plenty of room to practice in

maybe ask staff when is the best time in the day to come for your needs?

I would go with your membership now while you have the motivation

They are prescription goggles, so likely in order to actually see where she's going. Better than wearing glasses in the pool and having to swim with your face out of the water.

I can't swim without goggles as it really irritates my eyes, especially at this time of year when they are already irritated by hayfever.

I got to adulthood only able to doggy paddle. Goggles were a game changer.
I grew up somewhere where no one used goggles, which is why my doggy paddle was a very fine doggy paddle even in the biggest ocean waves. Nobody seemed to think it was weird I could only doggy paddle, was probably more common in my peers than I knew So many pointless wasted zero-progress childhood lessons because I didn't like chlorine or salt water in my eyes. If only someone had goggles for me to try then....

OP: some pools offer 6 week budget memberships. Does your pool have such a deal, Would one of those suit you? At very least try to get some deal like first month free. For instance, our pool does a lot of black Friday deals (say half price swim membership for first year) if you wait until November, just sign up for their marketing lists to get deal adverts. You could go 2-6x/month until a good deal gets offered, for less than a monthly membership cost (probably).

Since I'm self-taught (after all those pointless lessons as a child when I learned nothing due to no face in water due to nobody figuring out goggles would help me) I will say that you can improve & learn to swim self-taught. But yes you have to find your own self-discipline to make that happen. None of us can do that part for you.

Depends on when you go as to if get in the way.

I'd go. All practice is worthwhile

At my pool lanes are morning till about 9.30. Then half the pool switches to leisure so the toddlers and non swimmers come in so that would
Be fine.

Because a) I have crap visual acuity without lenses of some kind, I can’t wear contact lenses and I don’t want to wear my regular glasses in the pool and b) I have anisometropia so have poor depth perception if I don’t wear corrective lenses. I am however, delighted for you and others who have been able to swim without goggles for millennia.

Forgive me hi-jacking your thread.. can you tell me about your prescription goggles... do you just get your ordinary prescription?
I thought they would be astronomically expensive and have never looked at them,but just checked online...gobsmacked!!😊

That’s what I’m aiming for! At the moment I couldn’t swim a width of the pool, not to mind a length! 😂

OP: some pools offer 6 week budget memberships. Does your pool have such a deal, Would one of those suit you? At very least try to get some deal like first month free. For instance, our pool does a lot of black Friday deals (say half price swim membership for first year) if you wait until November, just sign up for their marketing lists to get deal adverts. You could go 2-6x/month until a good deal gets offered, for less than a monthly membership cost (probably)

nothing like this available unfortunately. It’s 6-month membership or 12 month. It’s part of a gym and you can’t just join the pool, you have to take full gym membership. The 6 month is €300 so I don’t want to waste half of that between now and lessons starting in September if I’m just going to be arsing around in the pool at best and at worst developing bad practices.

I have a very weird prescription so they would have been extortionate to get my usual prescription in them, but they gave me a ‘good enough’ one which does me fine, I don’t need to be reading anything while in the pool! I got them from my regular optician, they were €35 or €40 I think.

You're sending a bit perfectionist about the swimming, OP. Is it important to you to get it right quickly & run zero risk of "bad habits" ?

My pool costs £5.50/session. Swim membership is £22/month. So if I go less than 4x/month, I would save money by only PAYG not with membership.

I guess I can't understand investing in all the equipment now & then suddenly declaring a 3 month delay, unless there's some reason you really don't want to go at all. Same reason you got this far in adulthood without ever swimming regularly?

Thanks Sammylady!
I will investigate!

Jeez, nice bit of psychoanalysis there!
I’m not ‘a bit perfectionist’ about it, I just don’t want to make it more difficult and costly for myself in the long run.
I’ve outlined the costs above, but neglected to say that private lessons are €120 for 6 on top of the gym membership, so this is not a cheap pursuit.

I got ‘this far in adulthood without swimming regularly’ for a variety of reasons, not one particular one and it’s absolutely not the case that I ‘really don’t want to go at all’, au contraire I am very keen to start but I don’t want to waste my time or money, as I value both.

I learned to swim aged 48!

you go girl!!

oh and I think the reason I didn’t swim before was because we didn’t have Goggles as kids and it SUCKS!! So odd ignore the odd comments about not needing goggles!

I couldn’t swim (over 5km a week) without mine! They’re like the most important bit of kit!

id advise you that you go swimming, in the meantime if you can, this will help you get used to the water, the routine etc. swim as far as you can and eventually you’ll get fitter at what you’re doing. Then when the lessons start you’ll be in a better place physically to learn better technique and progress.

there’s lots of content on YouTube, you could have a look and give things a try.

good luck! You’ll love it, you’ll become obsessed by it and it’s so very good for you!

Oh and don’t worry about ‘being bad’ at it, everyone- even the now world record holding members of my squad will work on technical stuff to get better and better

I’m hopelessly slower than them… but I plod on!

Could you try another leisure centre? I am currently taking adult group lessons with the swim school attached to a local centre. It is £5/month more than swim membership, but you can swim for free at any lane or public session you like on top of that as a perk - essentially a swim membership plus a little over £1/wk for 30mins tuition every week! The lessons run 50wks a yr, with 2wks off for Xmas.
They have different levels of classes depending on ability and confidence. Everyone in my group can swim using recognisable strokes, and are just tightening up technique or learning skills they never taught in school lessons like turns. The group before mine is in the teaching pool (12m long rather than 25m, and depth set to 1.3m so you're never out of your depth), with a mix of abilities from unable to put their face in and only uses a noodle to does OK front crawl but lacking confidence in deeper water. We have a great teacher who lets everyone work on whatever skill/stroke we choose each week, taking turns to watch and correct each swimmer on what we are doing/set drills etc. He then leaves us to work on that for a few lengths whilst speaking to the others, before returning to see how we're getting on and giving further advice/drills. I really look forward to my sessions and find them much more productive than a regular lane swim because he makes sure I swim rather than chat

As to the no goggles thing: sure, of course you can swim without them, but why the hell would you want to?! Goggle-less face-in swimming is incredibly rare IME (for good reason). The only swimmers who don't wear them at our pool are the ones who don't get their hair wet and stick to the slowest slow lane, and the stage 1 & 2 swim school kids who aren't allowed.

@SkankingWombat those classes and that instructor sound great! The only other leisure centre near me is a 25 minute drive away, whereas this one is only a few minutes away.

@MzHz thank you for your encouraging posts! It’s a bit daunting but everyone was a beginner once I guess.

Thanks to all those who gave constructive advice.

My aunty learned to swim in her forties, she went to the same lessons as the kids & learnt much faster than them.

Having totally failed to pick it up from the incomprehensible shouting and flailing from the instructors at school lessons, it took 3 months to go from my gasping, frantic 10m doggy paddle to a decent 25m front crawl. A few weeks later it was 50m and within a year a mile and ASA awards.

The advantage of learning when older is that you have better concentration and body awareness, so people with a bit of drive do learn much quicker.

My two have been doing group lessons since 4, and 5 years on DS2 is getting used to 25m in a range of strokes and 7 years on DS1 getting used to 50m with strong technique. (There was a year of stalled progress from Covid restrictions in there) Being kids, sometimes they're just knackered from school or distracted. It's not particularly efficient, but the weekly habit and exercise is good for them anyway. Adults are much more efficient!