I turned 60 today and...

[two_bit_score]

Never learned to swim either. I too don't even float. Mom didn't know how and my Dad would have drowned me with his lack of patience in such matters.

Friend "assured" me he should teach me in his man made lake. Don't you just love people with their constant positive unrealistic BS projections. Anyway, all I got for my troubles was an eye infection.

I taught myself to swim at Belton Lake.

 

[dragoneggs]

Mom took us to the YMCA to learn... and then let us go swimming at our cabin lake by ourselves each and all summer long! Nowadays... reckless child endangerment.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I as an absolute non swimmer spent days at about age ten hanging onto a raft in the St. Lawrence river with a younger friend than I. I don't for the life of me, to this day know where my friends parents, that took me there, were all day. Maybe in fairness, they had no idea I couldn't swim. Oh, not even a thought of floatation devices! Those were some of the best days of my life.

 

[Oaktree]

Never learned to swim either. I too don't even float. Mom didn't know how and my Dad would have drowned me with his lack of patience in such matters.

I took swimming lessons as a kid...might have been a town program, they were at the municipal pool but I never was very good at it because, like you I don't float either. Iron-rich blood? I dunno, but I just sink like a stone.
I also absolutely can not dive. Others make it look easy, but I just land flat on my stomach.

 

[two_bit_score]

I took swimming lessons as a kid...might have been a town program, they were at the municipal pool but I never was very good at it because, like you I don't float either. Iron-rich blood? I dunno, but I just sink like a stone.
I also absolutely can not dive. Others make it look easy, but I just land flat on my stomach.

Maybe you cannot relax in the water. If you cannot relax you won’t float.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

When I started college, every freshman had to take a swim test. I flunked, and had to take a remedial swimming course. The instructor was a marvel. By the end of the term he had taught me every swimming stroke including the butterfly, and how to jump off the 10 meter board without killing myself. That was 12 weeks well spent. His most valuable lesson was how to rest in the water. Swim for a while, and if you get tired just scull along waving your hands for 10 minutes or so.

 

[robbyr]

I can swim but I'm afraid I can't "scull".

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I can swim but I'm afraid I can't "scull".

It's just laying over on your back and using your mouth as a blow hole. You don't need to use your arms and legs because you aren't trying to go anywhere, but waving your hands back and forth will give a few ounces of lift, enough to keep your nose and mouth out of the water. The term comes from using a sweep like a fish tail fin.

 

[dragoneggs]

Sculling is about all I do in the water if it too deep to stand.

Otherwise I proclaim the rest of the strokes are too exhausting except for maybe the sidestroke.

 

[East30]

Good thread. Body and mind has become disconnected as I age. I turn 60 in less than two months. Still play softball and still try to stretch doubles into triples with a 70% success rate, as most can't accurately throw from the outfield. That's the mind telling me how hold old I'm not. Last summer I tore my distal bicep tendon clear off the forearm diving for a catch. Caused by the mind telling me how old I am not. Last year visiting my urologist, whom I've known for 7 years since my cancer and prostatectomy, telling me I'm too old to be playing softball as these injuries will be a lingering issue years from now, is the reality of my age. When will my mind grow up? I Hope it never will. Again, that answer is my mind tricking me to keep playing softball, stretching the base running and diving for catches.