Are there people who can not swim?

[MaryMorph]

I'm not talking about being scared of swimming. I want to know if some people just can't do it.

My 7 year old son is in swimming lessons now for the umteenth time. He's in private lessons with a woman who came very highly recommended by multiple people. At his last lesson, she sighed and said, "He'll never be on swim team, but I think he'd be able to save himself." After swimming with him this afternoon, i really question that statement. A few years ago, he came home from lessons with a different teacher and proudly annonced, "Miss Eva says I sink like a stone!"

He swims like a seahorse. His feet will not rise up to the surface. Instead of swimming on the top of the water like

_______

he swims like this.
l
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l
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It's pretty pathetic.

He is a scrawny kid---not alot of muscle or fat on him. He has absolutely NO fear of water.

I was so jealous of the moms sitting by the side of the pool reading a book and occasionally glancing up at their fully competent swimming children!

Any suggestions?

mary jo

[wallycat]

He probably has very little body fat. Fat floats and if his little feet/legs are sinking, he is all muscle and very little fat there.
That will change as he grows, possibly.
If he moves his little legs, they won't have time to sink quite so quickly, but he will get tired quickly. They do make little ankle floaty things he might try.

I took swim lessons in my mid 20s and had plenty of fat; floated like a charm.

[PurplePotato]

I don't know. I do know that no matter what I do, I cannot float. I sink like a rock. I have met one other person who was like that.

Maybe he needs to use a kick board to get used to using his legs instead of arms? Maybe learning to use both at the same time is too much for him right now.

[patt]

There are some people who cannot float because they have. negative buoyancy. If he loves the water and has had the lessons, he knows HOW to do it. Relax a bit. You said "...he swims like a seahorse." Just because he does it differently doesn't mean he isn't doing it.

Can he push himself off the bottom to get to the surface? Does he know when he needs to breathe? Can he get from the deep end to the shallow end? Can he bring a toy from the bottom of the play area of the pool up to the top? Can he tread water and keep his head above water if he's relaxed? As long as his head is up, it doesn't matter much where his feet are.

Maybe he'd rather play tag?

Patt

[Shugness]

I was around 10 when I finally learned how to swim, but most of my issue was fear.

One thing that helped me was my father showing me how to "float". I'd stretch my body out, force my feet to the surface, arch my back slightly, and have my neck bent back. My whole body would ultimately be facing directly up to the sky. I could float all day on my back, never moving a muscle. Eventually I figured out I could gently move my arms through the water, and gently kick my feet, and get around that way. Then later on, I got more comfortable about swimming on my belly.

Maybe you could try showing him how to float first, if you haven't already? Just a though, when I've seen people struggling to swim, it looked like they were trying to hard to me. It's one of those "less is more" type of things.

[mkc]

I don't know. I do know that no matter what I do, I cannot float. I sink like a rock.

I'm the same way. I took swimming lessons for years as a kid and never got beyond "advanced beginner". My lower body just wants to go down and it's about all I can do to keep my chin above water even treading water.

-M

[jmarie]

I have a child who took off the first day of lessons and another who was probably around 8 or 9. But she did finally get it. I would continue with the lessons. Loves the water now.

[jjsooner73]

I've helped with swim lessons t a summer camp for 9 of the 10 years I've been there, mind you, I'm not the trained expert, but I do follow his orders and he gives 1-1 attention to all the kids. These are kids with cancer, and there have been some pretty skinny ones over the years, plus a few with above the knee amputations. The ones I've worked with that have had trouble have struggled because of fear. I think they've all managed to float though, regardless of how skinny they are. We teach them to pretend there's a balloon attached to their belly button and that they are laying on a pillow. If they can't relax enough to do this, they generally don't progess.
I must add that this is done at a week camp, so four hour long sessions.

[Andrea_2]

My son is heading into round 4 of swimming lessons. He was the only one to "fail" in his last class. He is also quite scrawny and "swims" in the same vertical manner. We're trying lessons at the Y this time. We'll see how this goes. I keep trying to tell myself he'll get it eventually.

[Canice]

I'm 47 and have never succeeded in swimming.

I was a skinny kid, but back in the 1970s that was the norm, so I have to wonder about lack of body fat being the culprit. I had no problem floating, kicking, or doing any of the things Patt mentioned. I wasn't afraid of the water, and loved being in the pool - I just. couldn't. swim. I took summer swim lessons at the local high school following first and second grades and just hated it. I'm uncoordinated, and the turn head, kick feet, cut water with arm thing was totally unmanageable.
I was always fine and had fun at pool parties (could dive and surface and kick my way to the end of the pool; loved to back float and dive for pennies) but could never truly swim a lap without gasping and flailing.
My first semester of high school I had PE at 8:00 AM and the first segment was a month or so of swimming outdoors in the cold fog while the ginormous, mean teacher yelled at us from the side of the pool, zipped up in her fleece running suit. That sealed the deal: I've been in a pool probably half a dozen times since then, and now I truly do hate the water.

Sorry, that doesn't answer the question as to why your DS is vertical in the pool, but I am definitely a person who never "got" swimming.

[Casey1230]

I'm the same way. I took swimming lessons for years as a kid and never got beyond "advanced beginner". My lower body just wants to go down and it's about all I can do to keep my chin above water even treading water.

-M

Me too.... I took lessons at the pool for years as a kid... lived in So. Ca. at the beach! No fear of water, water skied for years... but can't swim on belly..... can't master the breathing OUT of the water and arm motion.... can float all day tho......

[1grl1by]

I think like a stone and it's not from lack of body fat. I could probably save myself, but not others, if necessary and I didn't freak out.

My dd is part fish, she has been swimming since she first went in a pool at 6 months and swam competitively for ages. Dh and I look at her in wonder and can't figure out where she gets it.

[gertdog]

My almost-7-year-old was hopeless in lessons last year and over the winter when other kids his age were taking off. Arms and legs flailing everywhere, no floating. But something clicked in the past few weeks and now he's making some great progress. (I taught lessons years ago, and I am teaching him this summer...we made a deal that, if we joined the community pool, the first 20 minutes of every visit would be a swim lesson with me.) I don't necessarily think it was anything I'm doing differently than his previous teachers, it just seems like he suddenly "gets" it.

In any case, I'd keep going with lessons a bit longer if you're willing. I always found it interesting how many parents brought their kids for lessons until age 6 or so, then quit.

Get him to the point where he can tread water with his head up for a minute or so, jump into the pool and get himself to the side, and get himself into a back float from a front position. It doesn't have to be a pretty float, just one that gets his mouth out of the water so he can breathe, and doesn't expend energy. I don't know how big the pool you spend time at is, but if he can get across it without struggling, that would be ideal. If he's doing those things, the best thing is to just let him swim and spend time in the water, while you keep a close watch. The more time he spends, the more likely he'll be to develop his swimming ability even if it's not picture-perfect.

(And even then, don't be too jealous of the book-reading moms. It only takes a moment for things to go wrong in the water. In a backyard pool where my kids were the only ones in the water, I might read a book while supervising, but I wouldn't at a community pool with lots of kids in the water, lifeguard on duty or no.)

[Cafe Latte]

I didn't think DS2 (now 17) ever really learned to swim. He took lessons but preferred to play in the water. I always "thought" he could save himself, but you never are sure. FF when he entered HS, and there would be mandatory PE and swimming for 4 weeks, I worried and offered to send him for private lessons. I didn't want him to be the only kid in class who couldn't make the lap. He refused. Well, he just got his life guard certification this year. I still don't know how or when he really learned to swim. He is 6'7" now and his feet look like flippers, so maybe that helps, but I really didn't think he was that good of a swimmer. My point is to stick with the lessons because somewhere down the road what he learned will click with him.

[Missi]

Dare I say get a different swim teacher? I agree it will have to eventually "click" for him, but perhaps someone more experienced with problem swimmers might speed that along.

[MaryMac]

Dare I say get a different swim teacher? I agree it will have to eventually "click" for him, but perhaps someone more experienced with problem swimmers might speed that along.

I would like to add that when my son was that age he couldn't/wouldn't swim. We belonged to a pool that had a swim team and all of his friends were on it. We would go to practice every day and he wasn't making progress. One day one of the college aged coaches asked if he could spend time with him, I said of course, after two days my son was swimming in the deep end and after a week doing flip turns. He had taken many lessons, but this one older kid made all the difference to him. Maybe it was just the timing or an older guy but we were all happy. He'll be 22 at the end of the month and I can't tell you the last time he swam, but I know he can as he was on a swim team for about 6 years.
Hang in there!

[Anne]

Keep trying. Swimming is a life skill well worth having.

I can float - vertically with the top of my head just breaking the surface if my lungs are completely full of air. I can 'float' on my back with just a gentle skulling motion. I can swim well but I'm not as much on the surface as most swimmers.

[BucknellAlum]

My DD has to pass a swim test to graduate HS and she is convinced she will be the first student they waive this for. (She has another think coming!). She hates the water and she too is very thin. In fact, i think her problem is that she hates to be seen in a bathing suit, as she does not fill i tout quite like some of her peers.

That is probably not an issue with the OP's son, but when she was 7 she didn't get swimming either. I don't know if it was too much work, or the wrong kind of work (because she had plenty of endurance on the tennis court) or what. I would say to continue and don't give up yet. Seven isn't that old, sure there are some kids who are like fish, but many are not. I do know friends told me that joining the swim team was the best thing for their kids - so if yours likes the water, maybe that would be helpful. All that practice in the water may end up teaching him proper technique.

[Suzan25]

Well, I am really old and I couldn't swim when I was younger. I was thin, too. However, even when I was pregnant I couldn't swim. But I was a champion back floater!! Go figure. Anyway, I don't know what got into me one day on vacation I just decided that I needed to stop missing out on the fun, I guess. I'm still not really sure what I was thinking. I was 42 years old and jumped off a boat into the ocean off Cancun. Cheesh! I think back now to what might have happened but it didn't and I swam for the first time in my life and haven't stopped since. I am an avid snorkeler (sp) and take every vacation in the water!! Just saying it might be something internal...or not. Sorry, I'm so helpful, aren't I?

[heavy hedonist]

It could be a subtle sign of something else-- like imperfect depth perception, or some unseen odd muscle problem that leads to an altered coordination.

My hubby-man's parents thoguth he wasn't trying hard enough in baseball and swimming, at 7 years old-- till the doctor discovered eyesight issues.

[Bawstinn]

Actually that sounds pretty normal to me for the age range.

DD is 6 and has been taking lessons at the Y (on her own) since she was 3. She is in a class with kids her age and I would say that they all pretty much swim the same way - more vertical. She does do better when she is one her back then when on her belly.

DS is 3 and we took parent tot classes and the next round he'll be on his own. His teacher is the same one that DD had. She told me (as we were watching DS 'jogging' around the pool supported by a noodle) that boys have a harder time that the girls do learning how to keep their bottoms in the air.

Anyway, what I guess I am trying to say is that I wouldn't sweat it. DD jumps off the diving blocks into the deep end, can swim half the length of the pool, is learning the back stroke but can't keep her bottom in the air most of the time.

[MaryMorph]

All of you stone sinkers are giving me the wrong answer!!! You're supposed to say, "It was bad for a while, but then I suddenly got it (right around age 7!)"

He loves the pool. We'll keep him in lessons and hope that it either clicks or that he improves enough to really be able to save himself in his current seahorse style.

Thanks for all of the input (even if it wasn't what I wanter to hear

mary jo

[catharine]

he swims like this.
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There's a guy on my triathlon team who calls himself "the vertical swimmer." He has very little body fat and struggles with his body position like your son. Oh, and he's an Ironman (x3).

As he gets older as develops more core strength, it may help.

[SusanMac]

Have you tried putting him in a wetsuit? That forces your feet up in the water & would get him used to the sensation. Just a thought

[AvrilH]

Mary: It was bad for a while, and then all of a sudden I got it (around age 8).

I kid you not. I was like your son. Took lessons for years, never really achieved but always loved the water. Then one summer I got it! My family spent the summer at a private campground. There were daily swimming lessons. That was my fourth summer there, and I think I had 2 swim badges up to that point. That summer I earned a badge a week until I caught up to and surpassed my older brother who had been steadily achieving.

I was on a swim team two years later and swimming is still my best sport.

As an aside, I am confused by the comments about eye sight. I have no depth perception and terrible left side peripheral vision. It is for those reasons I love the pool! Don't throw a baseball at me - it WILL hit me - but I can do anything you want in the pool.

Good luck Mary. Keep up with the lessons.

[heavy hedonist]

x

As an aside, I am confused by the comments about eye sight. I have no depth perception and terrible left side peripheral vision. It is for those reasons I love the pool! Don't throw a baseball at me - it WILL hit me - but I can do anything you want in the pool.

So can the hubby-man, now that he has corrective lenses-- but a child who doesn't know their problem, and is being reprimanded during competitive swimming, takes things differently, obviously.

[RiverFarm]

Reported.

[donleyk]

Mary Jo, thanks to spam for bumping this up. I've been thinking about your son. How are lessons going?

[Kristena]

My first semester of high school I had PE at 8:00 AM and the first segment was a month or so of swimming outdoors in the cold fog while the ginormous, mean teacher yelled at us from the side of the pool, zipped up in her fleece running suit.

I had her Sophomore year, pre-period PE. An entire semester of volleyball.....nothing but volleyball at 7 am. I wonder whatever happened to her? Betty Blodgett, where are you?

P.S. I'm not going to the reunion in September; are you?

[MaryMorph]

I suppose he's gotten a little better. He's gotten the OK from the lifeguard staff to go off the diving board (which is what he really wanted to do).

Our pool tests each kid and gives them a wristband of red, yellow, or green based on their abilities. When Nate asked to be retested to go off the board, I was standing along side of the the manager while he was assessing Nate's ability. His statement was, "I've never seen anything quite like that before. He's all over the place." He stayed in a yellow band (but, as I said got the diving board green light so he's happy.)

The lessons and the trips to the pool continue. He'll get it some day!

mary jo