How to Learn to Swim Safely

Are you an adult who never learned to swim? Even if you will never be a candidate for the swim team, it's never too late to learn to swim for fun and safety in the pool or ocean. There are many types of strokes and other advanced swimming techniques, but the basics are really quite simple.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pool or other calm body of water

1. Become comfortable in the water. Choose a location where there are no waves and where the depth is fairly even. It's probably safest to start in a location with a life guard. Another good safety precaution is to swim with a buddy, who will notice if you run into trouble.

2. Go deeper into the water until it is almost up to your head. This allows you to experience the way your body works underwater while knowing that you can instantly feel secure by putting your feet down. Practice walking and moving your body in different ways.

3. Prepare for your head or face being submerged by practicing holding your breath, closing your eyes and putting your face in the water. Wearing goggles can make this a more comfortable experience by keeping water out of your eyes and allowing you to open them under water. If you don't breathe in or move suddenly, you shouldn't get water up your nose, but if you are uncomfortable start out by holding your nose. When you're comfortable with your face in the water, bend your knees and dunk your whole head. You can breathe out while you're underwater and come up in time to breathe in.

4. Know that your body is naturally buoyant. Practice floating by holding your breath and relaxing your body. Your feet will probably come up and your head will bend down into the water, but your body as a whole will not sink. This is a great position to practice because you can float for quite a long time like this, without expending much energy. Just relax, and practice bringing your face up whenever you need to breathe (try to do this without putting your feet down, so that you know you could do it in deeper water).

5. Be aware that the rest of swimming is using various methods to move your body around in the water. The most basic, intuitive swimming style (called "the doggy paddle") comes naturally to most people. When you feel comfortable floating in the water, try moving your legs and arms without touching the ground, and see if you can propel yourself forward.

6. Kick your legs up and down quickly, and you will probably find yourself moving forward more strongly. A lot of the power of swimming, especially in beginners, comes from kicking your legs. When you are comfortable with this stage, you are ready to learn some specific swimming strokes, like the crawl or breast stroke.

Tips & Warnings

• There are floating tools that help with practicing swimming. You can hold a kick board in your hands, which helps you float with your head out of water, while you practice moving by kicking. Similarly there are floats that you can hold between your legs while you practice arm movements for swimming.
• Never swim alone unless you are very confident in your ability.

[buggins]

on 9/15/2008 I would love to swim but I can not seem to straighten my back enough for my legs to be straight