can you just read a book, and follow its instruction to learn swimming?

United States
May 21, 2009 3:29pm CST
Can you simply follow the book's instruction or guideline on learn how to swim? You just put yourself out to the pool, and waving your hands and legs as hard as you can to swim. Can you do that?
3 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
21 May 09
I've known how to swim since I was a small child so it comes naturally to me but learning from a book? Yes, I believe that you could learn from a book if it was well written. Swimming is more than just waving your hands and legs as hard as you can. You have to cup your hands for one thing and your arms have to move in a particular way to pull you through the water. It's the same with your legs. You have to kick like scissors in order to propell yourself through the water.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
22 May 09
I wonder how someone could describe the feeling of swimming through water in a book though, to someone who has never done it before. It seems like that would be a very difficult book to write. I definitely envy people who learned to swim very young. In the college swimming course I took we learned both with worksheets and also of course by doing. Usually the worksheets were more for techniques on specific strokes.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
22 May 09
I think swimming is generally better learned by doing than by reading a book first. Although I know some people love to read about everything and anything and won't try something new without first reading about it. I think you might be able to read about techniques that would improve your swimming, but that would be pretty scary to just read a bunch about swimming and then one day just dive into the water and go for it.
• China
22 May 09
I think it's hard to learn swimming just follow the book's instruction.When put yourself out to the pool,the body will sink.