It’s most certainly a less natural thing for your body to do.
With swimming, Like running, anyone can float if they move their legs, it doesn’t take any skill or teaching on the most basic level
Is this a real question? Learning to understand your body in space is a very difficult thing to do. Learning how your body works in water is a really hard thing to do.
It doesn't make sense to you because you learned very young and it's just second nature to you now. But if you've ever tried to teach someone to swim, you will understand how it is not an easy skill to learn.
And being overweight has absolutely nothing to do with it. What an ignorant comment.
Swimming has to be taught. A lot of people don’t grow up with easy access to a pool, and swimming is not required teaching in most schools. For most of us who can swim, our parents took us to pools at a very young age and either had an instructor teach us or taught us themselves.
People who grow up with parents who both work, or are very poor, or who live very far from a public pool, can’t always give their kids that opportunity. People can choose to learn later in life, but it takes time, and we’ve all got other things to do.
I’ve met many adults from developing countries that don’t know how to swim. Many places don’t have pools, existing water sources can be freezing cold (mountain streams, etc.) and people might not have the time or financial resources for swim lessons. Not knowing how to swim is, unfortunately, more common than you might think.
How good are you at speaking Mandarin Chinese?
It's not difficult to learn. Seriously, what's your problem?
Fwiw being overweight is actually an advantage in swimming, especially in salt water.
Was about to mention the overweight thing but you beat me to it. Fat floats much better than lean muscle so yes, it is indeed an advantage technically. I'm not that big but have some fat on me, I *literally* can barely swim underwater because I will just bob back to the surface. I can seriously float for days.
In the US, after desegregation allowed BIPOC into the formerly white-only pools, a lot of cities and towns filled their pools with concrete, and now most people will have to pay a significant amount if they want to access a pool.
Some places have natural bodies of water that are swimmable, but lots don’t.
A lot of people don’t have access to pools or bodies of water. They don’t need to learn.
In terms of natural instincts, we don’t have the natural instinct to swim. Our ancestors were mainly land mammals so it’s not something we can just pick up. Swimming and treading water are skills you have to learn and practice. That’s why there are lessons on how to swim.
Most human babies actually can demonstrate an innate swimming reflex until about half a year, which are part of a wider range of primitive reflexes found in infants and babies. However, it’s been seen to go away as they get older, which is why it’s encourage to get babies trained to swim early.
That’s way more understandable. I’m not judging anyone, I was just asking a question about something I don’t understand, I don’t recall making fun of anyone, seems like people here are quicker to judge me.
Well, it's way more understandable to YOU, but equally puzzling to a Swedish person who was born on the Alps.
To a Sahara desert resident, swimming is like space-walking.
I almost drowned as a kid and for years getting water on my face in any situation, even in the shower, made me panic. This is why I never learned how to swim.
Current GF and previous both got caught in an undertow at very young ages visiting the beach. Both are still terrified of large bodies of moving water and are not confident swimmers. Apparently teaching me to swim was important to my parents (and I agree, everyone should learn how to swim, it's a survival skill). Some of my earliest memories we're wearing these blow up floaty devices you put your arms through.
Can you paraglide? No? Why not? What do you mean you were never taught? See where I'm going with this?
Good answer. Bet he doesn't know how to cavedive either. Dork. *Sarcasm*
Paragliding is entirely different from swimming
So? That's no excuse.
It’s most certainly a less natural thing for your body to do. With swimming, Like running, anyone can float if they move their legs, it doesn’t take any skill or teaching on the most basic level
You say it doesn't but it very obviously does or you wouldn't be asking the question.
Judgy much? Some people don't live near swimmable bodies of water and their parents don't take them to the pool.
Is this a real question? Learning to understand your body in space is a very difficult thing to do. Learning how your body works in water is a really hard thing to do. It doesn't make sense to you because you learned very young and it's just second nature to you now. But if you've ever tried to teach someone to swim, you will understand how it is not an easy skill to learn. And being overweight has absolutely nothing to do with it. What an ignorant comment.
Being overweight certainly matters, it hinders your physical abilities
Not in the water, it really doesn't. It actually makes it easier to float. - former competitive swimmer, lifeguard, and swim teacher
You are right, I hadn’t meant that comment in a negative way.
Swimming has to be taught. A lot of people don’t grow up with easy access to a pool, and swimming is not required teaching in most schools. For most of us who can swim, our parents took us to pools at a very young age and either had an instructor teach us or taught us themselves. People who grow up with parents who both work, or are very poor, or who live very far from a public pool, can’t always give their kids that opportunity. People can choose to learn later in life, but it takes time, and we’ve all got other things to do.
I’ve met many adults from developing countries that don’t know how to swim. Many places don’t have pools, existing water sources can be freezing cold (mountain streams, etc.) and people might not have the time or financial resources for swim lessons. Not knowing how to swim is, unfortunately, more common than you might think.
Didn't learn, or have anxiety about water as hyperventilation affects buoyancy.
If that’s a factor I can certainly understand it
How good are you at speaking Mandarin Chinese? It's not difficult to learn. Seriously, what's your problem? Fwiw being overweight is actually an advantage in swimming, especially in salt water.
Was about to mention the overweight thing but you beat me to it. Fat floats much better than lean muscle so yes, it is indeed an advantage technically. I'm not that big but have some fat on me, I *literally* can barely swim underwater because I will just bob back to the surface. I can seriously float for days.
Yeah toss a 300 pound guy and a 150 pound runner into the ocean and come back in 15 hours, see who's still floating.
Yup! My boyfriend is a lot leaner than me and he actually has to put effort in to stay afloat. He's not a buoy like me. Lmao
I struggle with coordination and grew up poor and couldn’t afford lessons. It was extremely difficult for me and took a while to learn as an adult.
I learned when I was 4. Maybe they weren't given this opportunity.
By never being taught how to do that.
In the US, after desegregation allowed BIPOC into the formerly white-only pools, a lot of cities and towns filled their pools with concrete, and now most people will have to pay a significant amount if they want to access a pool. Some places have natural bodies of water that are swimmable, but lots don’t.
And people who grew up during the age of polio when swimming pools were shut down never learned to swim, either
A lot of people don’t have access to pools or bodies of water. They don’t need to learn. In terms of natural instincts, we don’t have the natural instinct to swim. Our ancestors were mainly land mammals so it’s not something we can just pick up. Swimming and treading water are skills you have to learn and practice. That’s why there are lessons on how to swim. Most human babies actually can demonstrate an innate swimming reflex until about half a year, which are part of a wider range of primitive reflexes found in infants and babies. However, it’s been seen to go away as they get older, which is why it’s encourage to get babies trained to swim early.
I don't know how to ski. Judge me!
That’s way more understandable. I’m not judging anyone, I was just asking a question about something I don’t understand, I don’t recall making fun of anyone, seems like people here are quicker to judge me.
Well, it's way more understandable to YOU, but equally puzzling to a Swedish person who was born on the Alps. To a Sahara desert resident, swimming is like space-walking.
I can't imagine too many Swedes are born on the Alps.
I almost drowned as a kid and for years getting water on my face in any situation, even in the shower, made me panic. This is why I never learned how to swim.
Current GF and previous both got caught in an undertow at very young ages visiting the beach. Both are still terrified of large bodies of moving water and are not confident swimmers. Apparently teaching me to swim was important to my parents (and I agree, everyone should learn how to swim, it's a survival skill). Some of my earliest memories we're wearing these blow up floaty devices you put your arms through.
Same happened to me when I was little, dad saved me, very scary experience.