In the International Baccalaureate Program there is this "fun" little project that you have to complete between your freshman and senior year in order to move forward in the program and since you don't get a lot of time to pick an idea so I panicked and picked something completely random then I put no passion towards. Learning how to swim.
The initial plan was for me to go to swimming classes, learn how to swim document the process and then try out for the swim team....it seemed like a pretty solid plan until this pandemic popped up. Covid-19 destroyed my plans by post-postponing things to an unknown date to this day. Since businesses were closing down and we were basically on house arrest taking swimming lessons was out the window in the snap of a finger. I definitely was going to be terrified trying out for a swim team being self taught, with little to no help. I also did not have access to a pool now so it seemed like everything that could go wrong but things started to look up for me. I have a video which goes into better detail about the things that went wrong the find out more button will direct you to it.
You'd thing that at this point I would feel defeated but I just wanted to try harder. I took this as a perfect opportunity to convince my mom to buy us an above ground pool... and there was not way she was going to say no if it was for school. In short I manipulated her into buying me and my siblings a 18 ft wide by 4.5 ft deep pool for approximate 500 dollars at Walmart. So at this point I didn't have to much to worry about a pool because now I had one. (Below you will find a link to the pool I bought and The video that was mentioned in "what went wrong" will explain how I built the pool). Now that I had a pool I needed to figure out what I was going to replace my initial goal of trying out for the swim team with since I didn't have a professional swimming instructor. I realized that all of my goals revolved around me and couldn't possible help anyone else. I hated that so I decided to change my goals and make a website that described in detail my experience and how it can help people like me.Everyone learned differently and one thing noticed when learning how t swim and gathering information on the internet every video every website said the same thing so at a certain point I was all on my own.
Step One: Get your equipment... as in a pool, googles, as well as things to help you float above the water, such as pool floats and swimming boards
Step two: Get comfortable with the water, My video goes into detail but get comfy with the water and being in it
Step three: Float above the water by sucking air into your lungs
step 4: Tread the water by floating up right still in the water
Step five: Move in the water with steady arm movements and leg movements
Step 6: Practice Practice Practice
My pool is a 18ft by 4.5 ft deep above ground Coleman pool. I got my pool in store at Walmart for around 500 dollars so before you purchase this one try going to your local super Walmart and see if you can find it there.
In case the pool I have isn't to your style here are some other links.
Check out this great video
This is one of the first videos I watch when I was gathering information on how to swim. A prime example on why I was a dummy learning how to swim is because I had no idea that if you fill your lungs with air that you will float no matter what, but if you let all the air out you will sink.