I have never taught adults, but I taught hundreds of kids when I was a lifeguard. Some of them still had to be coaxed into the pool after the fourth lesson. Some jumped straight in before they had permission, every time. Some learned faster, some learned slower (and the fear/fearlessness continuum didn't seem very correlated with the fast/slow learning continuum).
Swimming is a matter of technique, and the techniques take time to learn, and years to master. I'm not sure they're ever perfected. I was well known for my form and it was still something that required periodic tuning even at my peak, when I spent 3-4 hours every day in the pool, observed and corrected by coaches. Give yourself time to learn.
I agree with other replies suggesting that somebody 'learning' crawl stroke after a single lesson is somebody who had learned it before. Consider that a competitive swimmer who starts serious training at age 10 has a massive disadvantage compared to one who started training at age 5, and that disadvantage is durable for many years and in some cases will never be overcome. The technique is not just a matter of mastering the motions, it's developing instincts, poise, and familiarity such that your stroke is not destroyed or disrupted just because you took a wave in the face when you expected to be able to take a breath, for instance. I mention all this just to illustrate that there's a lot of learning that can go into swimming, and a lot of skill levels one can attain - comfort, competence, ease, skill, grace, and competitive form, to name some - and so you should absolutely give yourself time to learn. It's not useless to compare yourself to other students, but I don't think the comparison to that particular fellow student was a fair one to you.
The replies in this thread about sidestroke made me think a bit. I think the reason sidestroke is disregarded by the swim instruction industry is that it's a dead end that teaches a lot of limiting lessons about swimming; maybe a bit like counting on your fingers is regarded by math instructors. That's not to say it has no merit or that it's useless, but its uses are fewer than those of the competitive strokes, and its only merit is that it is easily mastered, mainly because it doesn't offer much. It's probably seen as more productive to put the learning time toward learning strokes that can do everything sidestroke does and much more.
Swimming is a matter of technique, and the techniques take time to learn, and years to master. I'm not sure they're ever perfected. I was well known for my form and it was still something that required periodic tuning even at my peak, when I spent 3-4 hours every day in the pool, observed and corrected by coaches. Give yourself time to learn.
I agree with other replies suggesting that somebody 'learning' crawl stroke after a single lesson is somebody who had learned it before. Consider that a competitive swimmer who starts serious training at age 10 has a massive disadvantage compared to one who started training at age 5, and that disadvantage is durable for many years and in some cases will never be overcome. The technique is not just a matter of mastering the motions, it's developing instincts, poise, and familiarity such that your stroke is not destroyed or disrupted just because you took a wave in the face when you expected to be able to take a breath, for instance. I mention all this just to illustrate that there's a lot of learning that can go into swimming, and a lot of skill levels one can attain - comfort, competence, ease, skill, grace, and competitive form, to name some - and so you should absolutely give yourself time to learn. It's not useless to compare yourself to other students, but I don't think the comparison to that particular fellow student was a fair one to you.
The replies in this thread about sidestroke made me think a bit. I think the reason sidestroke is disregarded by the swim instruction industry is that it's a dead end that teaches a lot of limiting lessons about swimming; maybe a bit like counting on your fingers is regarded by math instructors. That's not to say it has no merit or that it's useless, but its uses are fewer than those of the competitive strokes, and its only merit is that it is easily mastered, mainly because it doesn't offer much. It's probably seen as more productive to put the learning time toward learning strokes that can do everything sidestroke does and much more.
Statistics: Posted by Gattamelata — Fri Apr 26, 2024 4:19 am — Replies 63 — Views 3898