kirkg
Auton Daisy
"Hello, Sweetie!"
Posts: 442
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Post by kirkg on Jul 2, 2011 18:32:41 GMT
Just curious how many of us actually know how to swim, and how many actually took lessons back in the day or whenever?
ME? I took red cross swimming lessons every summer as a kid, and I was an aqua baby. You couldn't get me out of the pool.
Taught swimming and lifesaving in Boy Scouts, and worked as a lifeguard two summers, etc.
Skills have dwindled quite a bit as I've aged, but I'm still confident: I'll survive if dropped into the Tardis' deep end.
How about you?
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Post by clocketpatch on Jul 3, 2011 0:40:42 GMT
I'm another aqua baby. It makes me sad when people don't know how to swim, because it's as close as you can get to flying.
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Post by aquabluejay on Jul 3, 2011 5:35:12 GMT
I can swim. Not quite up to Dad's standards, but I can make it across the city pool the long way, so I'm good.
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Post by magnusgreel on Jul 3, 2011 9:51:12 GMT
Not me. I am a rock, I am a lead weight. I took lessons, but they were always tense times for me. In the end, it seemed I had a problem with the breathing part. Whatever I did, whenever I got my face up out of the water to take a breath, I'd inhale water. I tried to establish whether other humans can close off their nasal passages at will, while breathing in with their mouths. Some people I asked claimed they could, but some said no that's not it, nobody can do that, and they still swim. Really, people should have been able to get together on a coherent answer to that question, I think.
I managed to get across the deep end once. If my life depended on it, maybe. I think I just lucked out, though.
PS-- I have no idea why noseplugs didn't solve this. I think the water must have still been inhaled by mouth. Maybe noseplugs made me feel a bit claustrophobic or something. Maybe I thought a noseplug would make me look goofy. I just don't remember.
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kirkg
Auton Daisy
"Hello, Sweetie!"
Posts: 442
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Post by kirkg on Jul 3, 2011 17:57:56 GMT
Yes, Magnus, we only breathe the air. ;D We start by training little kids to put their face in the water for seconds at a time before standing up again. Was that the step that you missed, Magnus?  (Oops, I promised myself that I wasn't going to comment or tease about people's answers. Oh well...might as well finish this one now... ) I had never thought about some people not being able to close off their nasal passages. Guess I just do that by instinct these days. I swear I'm not a mutant. No, really!  |
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Post by clocketpatch on Jul 3, 2011 18:11:46 GMT
Kirk, please don't tease. It's hard to relay subtle emotions across a text based medium and generally leads to confusion if you don't know the person you're talking to very well. ;D
Close off your nose? Hmmm... I don't know. I think it's more a matter of continually breathing out (or at least not breathing in) while your head is submerged. It's got something to do with gravity I think. Like, when you have a cup full of air and put it upside down in the sink, no water gets into the cup because there's air there - so no water gets up your nose as long as there's air there to block it - but tip the cup up and you see the bubbles come out. Likewise, if you turn over on your back to look up at the surface or attempt to do a somersault you get that unpleasant water-up-the-nose thing.
Have you tried swimming in a more natural environment? Like a lake or pond? When I was learning to swim the chlorinated water stung so badly on my eyes and nose that I flat out refused to go further than the knee height until I got some good quality goggles.
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Post by magnusgreel on Jul 3, 2011 19:02:29 GMT
Oh, the water never stung me. And the moment when the problem came was when I was doing the perfectly ordinary, most common sort of swimming, whatever that's called, and I turned my head to the right side, and lifted it enough out of the water to breathe in through the mouth. Hack hack, cough cough. It was almost as if my mouth weren't clear of the water.
See, here we already have a difference of opinion amongst swimmers on whether they can close their nasal passages off! This is exactly what happened before!
If I somehow got well and reasonably fit, and tried again, I think it would be one of those many situations I find myself in, where I have to throw away people's instructions, and figure it out for myself.
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Post by Maggadin on Jul 3, 2011 19:20:13 GMT
Whatever I did, whenever I got my face up out of the water to take a breath, I'd inhale water. I tried to establish whether other humans can close off their nasal passages at will, while breathing in with their mouths. Some people I asked claimed they could, but some said no that's not it, nobody can do that, and they still swim. I do this, too! I'm a total aquababy and yet, I somehow can't avoid getting the water in my mouth, nose, and ears. I've always wondered how that didn't bother other people. I also get a lot of water in my ears when I shower. Maybe I've just got big ears or something? |
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Post by clocketpatch on Jul 3, 2011 21:45:53 GMT
Ah, the front crawl. I've just concluded that stroke is a sadistic way of keeping otherwise competent swimmers from passing their levels. I prefer doing the underwater frog kick myself or just treading water in place.
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Post by aquabluejay on Jul 4, 2011 5:36:22 GMT
I liked the elementary backstroke... Until I got to relaxed into it and rammed my head into the edge of the pool. Hard. Ow. Now I'm supper paranoid whenever I do it.
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Post by magnusgreel on Jul 9, 2011 0:47:06 GMT
Ah, the front crawl. I've just concluded that stroke is a sadistic way of keeping otherwise competent swimmers from passing their levels. I prefer doing the underwater frog kick myself or just treading water in place. Interesting, I'll remember that. |
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