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Can you learn to swim in a few weeks?

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Reply 20

amiyafoster

Yes! it's possible. I learned to swim in just 2 days

Reply 21

melondash

For someone who is terrified in water, it takes 3-4 weeks of dedicated time (learning time and rest time) to learn to swim. That is if learning to swim means becoming comfortable and competent in deep water so that you can rest there indefinitely and move around at will with informal strokes. It does not include formal strokes.

It could take less time. It could take more. It depends on whether you let yourself go at your own pace (which is the most efficient way to learn) and whether you have the correct steps. There are universal steps that must be taken to overcome fear and learn to swim. They have been taken in myriad ways.

Someone who claws their way through the water desperately is not swimming. They're clawing. Or stroking. Knowing how to swim implies comfort, peace of mind, and safety in deep water but it does not necessarily imply pretty strokes. Safety comes first in water. Efficiency (strokes) must come later.

The misunderstanding of how to learn to swim if you're afraid in water is profound, both in the population of non-swimmers and that of instructors. An afraid adult who is taught strokes as though strokes will help them overcome their fear or learning strokes is learning to swim has literally no chance of success. Only an unfortunately misinformed instructor would teach such a thing to an afraid adult. But most are misinformed. It's sad to say. With all due respect, it must be said.

An afraid adult needs to know they're safe every moment; that learning will proceed at his/her pace; that s/he has permission to ask every question without fear of being belittled; that there's no such thing as cheating, like holding one's nose or putting one's hands on the bottom of a .5m pool to learn to float. These are steps to help a non-swimmer be willing to try, knowing they won't get hurt or panic. This is non-negotiable. Everyone needs to know how they float, whether they float, and what a float is. Because the definitions of "how to float" and "how to swim" are conflicted or even incorrect, few afraid students are successful. Yet they know there must be a way and it's true.