I've taught adults to swim. A big chunk of it is getting them comfortable in the water, if they've gone that long without learning they just don't enjoy the water the way a swimmer does. They're uncomfortable and uncertain and fun is way the hell out of the questions.

I know I've been able to swim since shortly after I was able to walk, so I have little perspective. But I can't imagine how ducking your face into the water is affected by your buoyancy. It seems weird.

Because if you feel like you're going to sink like a stone and die as soon as you move its pretty scary. And if you're tense you'll never float at all (particularly if you are dense) and you WILL sink like a stone as soon as you let go of the edge.

And a lot of people are freaked out by submerging their faces. I used to spend more time than you'd think with kids sitting on the stairs rubbing water on our faces before they'd even just put the tips of their lips in to blow bubbles.

I loved to swim when I was younger but I would never swim in deep water. This is partly because of fear and partly because my legs just aren't strong enough to make me a really good swimmer.

I taught an adult with a disability to swim once. We would experiment with what was comfortable or strong for HER and then proceed from there with modified strokes.

I always loved the water. I did water baby before I could walk and couldn't be kept out of the breakers once I could toddle. When I started formal swim lessons someone told me "if you can swim in six feet of water you can swim in six HUNDRED feet of water" and it blew. my. mind.

It was the only place where I was graceful (skatin? skipping rope? those others? HAH! not likely) and to this day its hard to get me out. A few summers ago at the shore a teenage cousin and I were in rough breakers for seven hours straight before his mom all but dragged us out to go home.

we had square dancing lessons in 5th-grade PE

We had square dancing, for some reason, in my freshman year of high school. The PE teacher had a record player, and apparently one record, so we square-danced to early Michael Jackson.

Don't stop 'till you get enough

It took me a long time to learn how to ride a bike. I can roller skate forwards, I can swim (I took lessons in a pool, and did some swimming at the beach, but the beach is rather shallow and there aren't currents -- I've heard it refered to as the kiddie pool of beaches). I can't do a cartwheel and I never learned how to dive off a diving board (to freaked out I'd hit my head and die).

As a little girl I took ballet lessons and did well, my teacher always remarked on my grace and how quickly I picked things up, which amused Mom because I'm such a klutz. In middle school I played the clarinet for 2 years and in elementary school did take piano lessons.

As an adult I've taken ball room dance lessons. I know how to tango, foxtrot, hustle, merenege, swing (single and triple time), rumba, waltz, cha cha, and I think there is something I'm forgetting. I had a hard time learning swing, partly because teh instrution for triple time swing sucked, but also because I kept trying to do hustle time. I can sort of salsa if I have a strong lead. I'm in no way an expert, but I know enough to fake certain things.

I cannot line dance to save my life, that includes the Electric Slide.

I can't sing either, even Mom doesn't want to hear me sing, but I sing all the time in the car or at home and sometimes even make up stupid little songs.

I can also crochet. I have terrible hand eye coordination and had to drop out of tennis lessons because I could never actually hit the ball.

See, square dancing I always liked. I'm much better at dances with steps.

Yeah, me too. I have rhythm, I'm just not that graceful.

I do fear sharks, though, which is my main reason for not wanting to swim where the ocean is deep. This may be irrational. However, as I haven't been near swimmable ocean since 1992, I'm okay with it.

Irrational as it is, this is totally me. I don't do to any depths in any ocean and I'm even slightly wary of deeper pools.

I prefer to see the bottom of whatever body I'm swimming in.

if they've gone that long without learning they just don't enjoy the water the way a swimmer does. They're uncomfortable and uncertain and fun is way the hell out of the questions.

This was my mom when I was growing up, and I was really proud of her when she decided to take a beginners swimming class when I was in high school (she was in her early 40s then). She's at least to the point where she can comfortably dogpaddle and even occasionally put her head down and swim half the width of the pool before she has to stop and breath (she never did coordinate the swimming and breathing at the same time thing).

I'm not a particularly good swimmer: I think I had one summer of formal lessons, at age 8. When I've tried to work out by swimming I tend to get a little freaked out, because of the non-rational fear of drowning. It's not like I really think I'm going to drown, but it's like, if I'm running and I get exhausted I can just stop, without risking my life. Swimming? Argh!

Cornell has a rule that if you can't pass a swim test during orientation week you must take swimming lessons freshman year. It's not a bad idea.

The PE teacher had a record player, and apparently one record, so we square-danced to early Michael Jackson.

That RAWKS! Although it's very hard to call over a Jackson album, I'd imagine.

Kathy, that is really cool.

Kathy, that is really cool.

I know! Swimming was always something that she wanted to learn, as well as playing an instrument and getting involved in sports, but going to Catholic school K-12 meant that none of that happened during schooltime, and being a farmer's daughter meant that she had no time for any of that extracurricularly. One of her bitterest regrets was that, due to her lack of time for afterschool clubs and sports in high school, she didn't get named to the National Honors Society even though she had the grades necessary.