The way I learned to swim was pretty interesting, I remember the moment pretty clearly because of the absolute shock of fear at the time—but it was a rather interesting method. I don’t remember if the teacher tried to teach me in the same failed way you’re talking about here to being with—but whether she did, or didn’t, I couldn’t swim. I was pretty young at the time, so the surrounding memories are a little hazy—though the moment itself is quite clear.
So since I couldn’t swim, and couldn’t figure out how from explanations, the teacher had me pushing off from the wall and grabbing onto this floating barbell thingy—no swimming involved, except for bringing it back to the wall, which I could do because I had something keeping me from going under. I’d then push it away from the wall, push off the wall and grab it, and do it again. The teacher had to fetch it a few times, because it got too far away for me to get to in one push.
Then one day (I don’t remember how long I did the push-off-the-wall thing) I was proceeding as normal, and the teacher came along to watch. And I pushed off the wall again, as hard as I could, to grab the floating thing—and she grabbed it and pulled it back. And with what I realize now was probably a shock of adrenaline, I swam towards it. And she swam backwards with it, and I kept swimming towards it. It was a horrid doggy paddle, of course, but I was swimming.
I don’t think this is an effective method for most things, and it might not work for some people, but it certainly worked for me, in that situation. Problem is, I can’t think of many other situations where it would be effective—bike riding is the only other skill I can think of where this method might work. Can anyone think of anything else?
And I pushed off the wall again, as hard as I could, to grab the floating thing—and she grabbed it and pulled it back. And with what I realize now was probably a shock of adrenaline, I swam towards it. And she swam backwards with it, and I kept swimming towards it. It was a horrid doggy paddle, of course, but I was swimming.
This is actually a fairly standard method. It’s called a progression: you go from something easy (pushing off and gliding to a barbell) to something hard (swimming to a barbell). It sounds like in your case it wasn’t a very smooth progression (there was a big jump in the difficulty level, as shown by your “absolute shock of fear), but it worked.
Don’t they teach floating before swimming any more? I’m probably missing something, but it sounds like the process is being made unnecessarily difficult and frightening because the student must learn floating and rudimentary swimming at once. We learned the dead-man’s float, then the flutter kick, then the arm stroke, and finally breathing. Learning to float was the easy part; co-ordinating the three motor components was what was hard.
Learning to float was the easy part; co-ordinating the three motor components was what was hard.
Assuming, of course, that people can properly teach floating. In my own case, though many tried to teach me it, none succeeded till long after I had learned to do a front crawl...
Floating to gliding to kicking to front crawl is one progression. Swimming in deep water with your head up, i.e. doggy paddle or treading water, is a separate skill and has to be taught differently. Let me think… In Preschool A and B, the first swimming levels, I teach assisted floats, i.e. the child doesn’t have to hold themselves up because the instructor does, but they have to have the correct body position. In order to pass Preschool C, the child has to do unassisted floats on their front and back. In order to pass Preschool D, they have to tread water for 5 seconds in deep water. So that comes after floats, but it’s not the same skill exactly, and it’s not what progresses into front crawl.
I had a similar experience learning to do back flips in gymnastics. My coach was always there to catch/support me while I was upside down, until the day he wasn’t.
No shock and fear, though; I didn’t even notice that he hadn’t caught me until I was already the right way up again.
The way I learned to swim was pretty interesting, I remember the moment pretty clearly because of the absolute shock of fear at the time—but it was a rather interesting method. I don’t remember if the teacher tried to teach me in the same failed way you’re talking about here to being with—but whether she did, or didn’t, I couldn’t swim. I was pretty young at the time, so the surrounding memories are a little hazy—though the moment itself is quite clear.
So since I couldn’t swim, and couldn’t figure out how from explanations, the teacher had me pushing off from the wall and grabbing onto this floating barbell thingy—no swimming involved, except for bringing it back to the wall, which I could do because I had something keeping me from going under. I’d then push it away from the wall, push off the wall and grab it, and do it again. The teacher had to fetch it a few times, because it got too far away for me to get to in one push.
Then one day (I don’t remember how long I did the push-off-the-wall thing) I was proceeding as normal, and the teacher came along to watch. And I pushed off the wall again, as hard as I could, to grab the floating thing—and she grabbed it and pulled it back. And with what I realize now was probably a shock of adrenaline, I swam towards it. And she swam backwards with it, and I kept swimming towards it. It was a horrid doggy paddle, of course, but I was swimming.
I don’t think this is an effective method for most things, and it might not work for some people, but it certainly worked for me, in that situation. Problem is, I can’t think of many other situations where it would be effective—bike riding is the only other skill I can think of where this method might work. Can anyone think of anything else?
This is actually a fairly standard method. It’s called a progression: you go from something easy (pushing off and gliding to a barbell) to something hard (swimming to a barbell). It sounds like in your case it wasn’t a very smooth progression (there was a big jump in the difficulty level, as shown by your “absolute shock of fear), but it worked.
Don’t they teach floating before swimming any more? I’m probably missing something, but it sounds like the process is being made unnecessarily difficult and frightening because the student must learn floating and rudimentary swimming at once. We learned the dead-man’s float, then the flutter kick, then the arm stroke, and finally breathing. Learning to float was the easy part; co-ordinating the three motor components was what was hard.
Assuming, of course, that people can properly teach floating. In my own case, though many tried to teach me it, none succeeded till long after I had learned to do a front crawl...
Floating to gliding to kicking to front crawl is one progression. Swimming in deep water with your head up, i.e. doggy paddle or treading water, is a separate skill and has to be taught differently. Let me think… In Preschool A and B, the first swimming levels, I teach assisted floats, i.e. the child doesn’t have to hold themselves up because the instructor does, but they have to have the correct body position. In order to pass Preschool C, the child has to do unassisted floats on their front and back. In order to pass Preschool D, they have to tread water for 5 seconds in deep water. So that comes after floats, but it’s not the same skill exactly, and it’s not what progresses into front crawl.
I had a similar experience learning to do back flips in gymnastics. My coach was always there to catch/support me while I was upside down, until the day he wasn’t.
No shock and fear, though; I didn’t even notice that he hadn’t caught me until I was already the right way up again.
There’s a reason this technique is called “sink or swim”!