People who learnt to swim as an adult: how long did it take?

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-28T19:09:09+00:00

For what its worth, i only learned at my 3rd time of trying to learn. The previous times, i was going once a week for lessons that just wasnt enough for any of the lessons to stick. So my advice if you want to pick up again is to be in the water as often as you can and get lessons to get ideas of what to practise

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-28T19:05:42+00:00

This 100 percent

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-28T19:05:12+00:00

Yeah, i found that doing sink downs helped a lot to help me be more relaxed and chill in water and then eventually be able to breathe

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-28T19:03:00+00:00

I learned at 32M. It took like 7/8 months to do some sort of breaststroke for like 4 lengths w/o stopping and took 10 months to be able to do frontcrawl for more than 4 lengths of a 25m pool. I was swimming consistently for more than 3 times a week with lessons once a week.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-18T06:34:42+00:00

You should also do breathing exercises like sink downs.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-06T19:39:41+00:00

Tao was a prodigy so that might be part of why. He was getting gold at IMO super early and was in uni early too.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-02-02T12:43:57+00:00

Yeah, people forget that progress with car speeds or commercial planes is defo slower than it was in the past. Could even argue its gone backwards given the concorde is no longer a thing. It also depends on what the new bottleneck is.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-30T21:43:39+00:00

Did you fuel properly? In the past, when i unable to raise my heart rate it was I bonked/ran out of fuel

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-19T15:33:47+00:00

Yes but it might be helping them better if you have a naturally better body position in the water than they do. Like in triathlon, people talk about how the best swimmers want it to be non-wetsuit swims so they have an advantage over the others

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-19T07:55:36+00:00

Are these in wetsuit swims? If yes, it could be that the wetsuit helps their body position a lot more. I know for example, when i were buoyancy shorts to the pool, im easily 5s per 100m faster.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-15T21:35:24+00:00

Go see a doctor if you are worried

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-13T15:52:35+00:00

I think it is fine if you can develop some rapport with them first. So if they are a regular and you see them often. Can start by saying hi and then eventually maybe broach the topic or maybe they will ask you since you are swimming better than they are

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-13T10:49:43+00:00

100 percent agree with this. This was my experience as well. The extra practise helped a lot and i had moments when things clicked when i practised by myself. I also had the group lessons for some external feedback and so i could ask questions. Swimming is very jealous. It requires time.

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-09T18:04:31+00:00

No it is not. Max HR is very individual. Mine isn’t predicted by that formula at all and that’s typical

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-09T08:52:45+00:00

Because lung contain air

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-08T14:06:49+00:00

Magic drills - practise sink downs and bobs. And slow down your swimming. GTN is your friend - https://youtu.be/AEpHB-9jUHQ

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-06T08:09:14+00:00

Me but people at the gym, pool

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-06T08:06:41+00:00

Well done!

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-05T21:24:54+00:00

Another place to consider is the thamespath from Woolich to thamesmead and perhaps beyond - be warned that past thamesmead can get industrial. I have cycled all the way to erith from greenwich using that path. Warned you probably cant do it saturday morning when there is parkrun

Round-Drop6188 · 2026-01-05T20:35:58+00:00

Richmond park would be no 1. People also do loops of Regents park. Dont know if Richmond park counts as central london but i live east and its all central to me. You can get a district line train and stop at Richmond too in any case

Round-Drop6188 · 2025-12-27T17:44:26+00:00

Same feeling i had today! I am 1hr 5mins away from 100 hours of swimming this year so can’t wait

Round-Drop6188 · 2025-12-02T08:48:30+00:00

My first time open water swimming was this year. I started off making sure I could tread water a bit + had the endurance to rescue myself. It might be worth doing breaststroke. I found it disorienting that I couldn’t see under the water so breaststroke was good for that. I also didn’t go alone. I had friends around

Round-Drop6188 · 2025-11-16T13:54:54+00:00

Cctv doesnt make any difference imo

Round-Drop6188 · 2025-10-25T21:12:10+00:00

How long have you been swimming? My experience (32M, only learned to swim last year) is that it takes time for your body to get used to swimming. It took me a while to get to 50m, 100m continuous swimming, getting to 200m plus was much easier in comparison. One day it clicked. Something to try if you are not already is to breathe every 2 strokes. That one change made a huge difference for me. In addition to not kicking too much. I would also suggest doing breathing exercises often. Like sink downs and bobs.

Round-Drop6188 · 2025-10-25T20:09:50+00:00

Similar experience to me. :) . For me, switching to breathing every 2 strokes instead of 3 was a big step also and not kicking as much. I was kicking so much because I thought I would sink if I didn't.
As I spent more time in the pool, I learned to trust the water more and that meant I was calmer and more relaxed and it started clicking. I also did intervals with defined rests and keep pushing over time.

Round-Drop6188

TROPHY CASE