Learn to swim part II

See earlier article for part one where I talk about jumping into the deep end of the pool, treading water, the backstroke, and the front crawl. When I published the first part, I didn’t actually know the breaststroke yet, but I thought I could learn it in the lessons I had left in August 2024. I was so very wrong. Just, like, comically wrong. Learning is hard.

5. Swim two laps using the breaststroke

I still can’t do this, guys.

The breaststroke is difficult because you have to turn your ankles outward and keep your knees outside your ankle. It’s the most technically complex of the strokes. Timing is key.

I’m not coordinated, so breaststroke is a real challenge for me. You have to breathe out through your nose when you’re underwater, which is not how I do it for the front crawl stroke, so I had to learn a whole new skill. And frankly, when I finally turned my attention to learning the breaststroke, I was three years into consistent swimming lessons and sort of done with the whole thing mentally, so I took some time off.

In the two years since, I’ve tried some more learning of this stroke and it still confounds me. I’ll keep trying, but not very hard. Mark says nobody cares about this stroke.

6. Touch the bottom of the deep end of the pool with my hand

This sub-bucket list item of touching the bottom of the deep end of the pool with my hand seemed impossible. First, I’m very buoyant and float easily, so getting down under the water is physically not that easy.

Second, and more importantly, I learned you have to exhale out all your air and then you’ll sink. Which sounds insane to me! If I breathe out all my air, won’t I not have air? That was my fundamental disconnect.

I touched the bottom of a five feet, two inches deep pool in July 2023 by kicking off the side of the pool, exhaling out most of my air, and then fighting like mad to get to the bottom. A year later, I was able to touch the bottom of a ten foot deep pool pretty easily. Now, years later, I do it without thinking; My favorite thing to do now is swim between people’s legs. Practice.

7. Jump off a diving board

Jumping off a diving board is like jumping into the deep end, except on steroids. I’m not afraid of heights, but the water at the end of the height made this one tricky. There was a diving board when we went to Glenwood Springs hot springs. I saw it, gathered up all my courage, climbed the ladder and then, before I had time to think, I jumped. I completed this goal in May 2024. The board was not super tall, maybe a few feet, but it was a majestic moment.

We’ve visited Glenwood a few times since then and I’ve jumped more. By early 2025, I was diving headfirst into a deep pool from the edge. Persistent, steady practice.

8. Go scuba diving

I took scuba diving classes in Denver at a deep pool. I’m all about the classes. It was scary at first, but if you trust the equipment, I guess it’s okay. I told you about this. I did it in May 2025.

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Cost

I spent $497.75 on swimming lessons, taking eleven sets of lessons, two days a week, 30-45 minutes a day, four weeks at a time over three plus years from the Denver Parks and Rec center.

I can’t tell you how euphoric it is to learn something new, especially something you thought was impossible. It shakes off the plaque in the old brain cells and makes you feel alive again. I highly recommend.

You have to change your identity from a non-swimmer to a swimmer and that mindshift shift takes time.

I always felt like I was missing out when I was traveling because I couldn’t swim. Now I play in the pool, in the deep end. I jump in and I actually have fun. It’s amazing!

After all that, am I comfortable in the water? The answer, if I’m being honest with myself, is still no. I wouldn’t dream of going surfing or jumping off a high diving board. I now have a very healthy fear of the water instead of an incapacitating fear of the water.

And I know I say this a lot, but I don’t think I would have been able to achieve this goal if it weren’t for early retirement. I tried and took swimming lessons all throughout my adulthood. I couldn’t juggle so many balls while working, and a ball I initially hated – swimming – would drop pretty quickly when other things came up. Based on past experience.

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What about you? Are you a good swimmer? Can you do all of the items I listed in these articles? Is there anything else I should add to the list? I could probably do with a few more lessons.