How to Start Learning If You Never Learned To Swim

If the popular phrase going around on TikTok and other social media, poor chap never learned how to swim, describes you, you have come to the right place!

I will tell you something: swimming has no age limit. Whether you are 35 or 90, you can still learn how to swim.

You can even teach yourself how to swim if you have a private swimming pool, or you can hire a trainer to give you private swimming lessons.

Is learning how to swim for the first time hard?

If you did not learn to swim when you were young, you might ask: Is learning how to swim for the first time hard?

Learning how to swim as an adult is not hard at all. You need consistent practice, and you should start on the shallow side of the pool. Also, have someone watching you to ensure your safety, and never swim in bad weather. 

In this age of the internet, it is definitely possible to learn how to swim by yourself, or if your partner knows how to swim, he or she can teach you.

If you have kids, you should teach them how to learn as soon as they are four or five years old.

You can refer to our past article on the best age to teach your child how to swim. Also, learning how to swim alone need not take too long.

Swimming involves learning how to breathe in water, how to kick, and how to stay afloat in the water. Once you have mastered those three things, you can swim alone.

Probably, the question that you must be asking is: How can I learn to swim fast? Here, we shall cover the first thing that makes your first swim a success.

Usually, it takes an adult about 20 hours of pool time to learn how to swim. So the more consistent you are, the better.

Also, learning how to swim at 40, 50, or whatever age is possible is fun. Swimming is not an age-limited activity.

You poor chap never learned how to swim? First-timer swimming tips

Getting used to swimming takes some time, especially when you are a grownup. Kids can catch up fast because they are agile, but you will need some time. Therefore, once you decide to learn how to swim, set aside enough time.

Keep reading to see several tips that can make it easy to learn how to swim. Some of these tips also apply when you want to teach yourself how to swim.

1. Buy the right swimming gear, including goggles

In the water, you are as good as your swimming gear, and you should never swim in home clothes. Not only do they absorb water and chaf your skin, but they also introduce bacteria to your swimming pool water.

If you are a man, you can choose between board shorts for swimming or swim trunks.

For women, the choice is usually between one-piece or two-piece swimsuits. Thankfully, there are swimsuits for women with sagging breasts, for overweight, slim, and all sorts of people.

It is also important that you get a pair of swim goggles. Most first-timers feel fazed because of the water getting inside their eyes. With the eyes protected, you will feel more confident, and you can swim longer and harder.

One of the problems that many people encounter when learning how to swim for the first time is that water gets into their eyes.

Pool water has many bacteria. Besides, the chlorine added to the water to kill bacteria is irritating.

With close-fit goggles for swimming, you will be able to keep the water out of your eyes and swim easily.

Do not swim naked, and certainly do not swim in your regular clothes. Cotton shorts can ride up your crotch and make you quite uncomfortable.

You can also learn how to float using floating aids such as armbands. Once you have learned how to float well, you can get rid of the aids.

2. Learn how to float first 

Swimming is mostly about keeping afloat and propelling yourself forward. Thus, if you can’t float, you cannot swim. You should learn how to tread water while swimming, which is basically floating vertically.

But before you get to treading water, first learn how to float on your back while swimming.

To do this, start by holding onto the rails on the pool and letting your legs float behind you. Feel the buoyancy of the water and build your confidence.

Here is a video to help you learn how to float:

Floating will make you feel weightless. But it is the basis of good swimming. Thus, when you practice swimming at home, remember to perfect your swimming technique.

As you get used to the idea of floating, you can let go of the rails and float alone. Learning to float makes you feel more secure, and you will soon start exploring other ideas.

3. Practice as often as possible

Getting swim instructions for beginners and getting started is just the beginning. You need to practice as often as possible. Many people ask: How long does it take to learn to swim for adults?

It can take as long or as short as you want. If you are consistent, you can learn how to swim in the deep end in 20 pool hours. But do not limit yourself to this time only. Rather, you can even take 40 hours.

The first lessons will be hard. But don’t give up. Keep working on it. Of course, before the first lesson, you can check out a few tips online.

4. Love the water

The first instinct when you are learning how to swim for the first time is fear. After all, you don’t know how to float, kick, or even breathe. You will also find water getting into your nose or mouth.

But don’t fear! If you are really apprehensive about swimming for the first time, get someone to train with you. That way, you can ask them how to react to a certain situation.

To overcome your fear of the water, first get inside the pool, in the shallow end. Get used to the buoyancy of the water.

To help you get started, try swimming in waist-deep water where you are confident that you can stand up fast if the need arises. As you build your skills, you can try deeper water.

5. Learn how to swim in standing water

You should never learn how to swim in moving water. The best place to learn how to swim is in the pool and in the narrow end too.

But if you do not have access to a public swimming pool, you can also try swimming in a shallow lagoon or a pond. Wherever you decide to begin learning how to swim, you definitely need someone to watch over you and probably train you.

If you have a swimming pool at home or have access to a public swimming pool, start learning in the narrow end of the pool.

You cannot learn how to swim in the ocean. In another article, we saw that you can experience breathing problems when swimming in open water. This is not something that you want to encounter on your first day in water.

You cannot learn to swim in a river. It would be easy for the water to sweep you away. After learning how to swim and getting some practice, you can try swimming in as many places as you want, including the sea.

6. Learn the easiest swimming stroke first

The breaststroke is the easiest swimming technique that an adult can begin with. There are five main swimming techniques.

But the breaststroke is unique because it keeps your face out of the water. Thus, you will not have to struggle to keep the water out of your nose and mouth. This technique involves lying on one side with your legs below you.

At first, it is going to feel a bit hard not to sink. However, we suggest that you ease into the style ever so easily by becoming one with the water rather than fighting it.

Even compared to freestyle, the breaststroke is the easiest swimming technique to learn. At first, you will find it a bit slow because you are likely to kick and pull at the same time.

But after getting the basics of this swimming technique, you will find that you cannot kick and pull simultaneously. Rather, you have to pull with your hands first and then kick to swim faster.

Once you have learned the breaststroke swimming technique, you will find it easier to learn the other four swimming styles.

Can you learn to swim later in life?

There is absolutely no reason why you should not learn to swim when you are older. As long as your motor skills, posture, and balance are good and you are not incapacitated, you can definitely learn and swim very well.

But the learning period between two adults who have never swum before can differ. Some will learn fast, and some will take their sweet time.

This comes because swimming has many aspects. For instance, some people learn how to float easily, and some take time. As we said in the article on why you cannot float on your back, more muscle and a lower body fat percentage can make it hard to float.

The learning duration will also depend on your consistency. For instance, if you can swim three times a week, you will take longer to master the skill than a person who swims six times a week.

The most important thing is consistency. Show up daily if you can. Whether you are 90 or 60, just show up.

There is no age limit for swimming.

How do adults swim for beginners?

Well, not to sound as if I am mocking them, but they should swim like kids. By this, I mean they should start on the shallow end of the pool, and they should have someone who knows how to swim watching them.

You must go through the baby steps of learning how to swim. This includes things such as wearing the right gear, you know, swimming goggles, swimming cap, and others.

On the first day, you will not do much swimming, as you will be getting familiar with everything—the water and the gear. This is also a good time to get into waist-deep water while holding the rails and getting used to its buoyancy.

After you overcome your fear of the water, you will be able to proceed to swimming, like letting go of the handrails and trying to float horizontally in waist-deep water.

Conclusion

Those are our six tips for learning how to swim for the first time. You can definitely teach yourself to swim.

If you have been asking whether you can learn swimming at 40, yes, you can. In fact, you can even learn how to swim for the first time when you are 70, as long as you are in sound health.

Learning how to swim is good, but to get better, you have to keep swimming. Practice as often as you can.