i went to the beach at 4 with my cousins and one of them accidently almost drown me,so i was so scared after that.2 days later my mom brought me to swimming lessons to overcome my fears,and since then i've been swimming and loving it

My mom doesn't know how to swim...so I wanted to learn I taught myself over a course of a summer while our family was on vacation, they made sure to stay somewhere with pools then my dad and sister helped me learn. I live in Nebraska so we don't have alot of bodies of water, so I think that's why I learned later.

We had a pool in our community and I was there every day as a child. My mom used to take me as a baby everyday and taught me before I could walk. At 4 I was on the swim team and the coach thought I was older and put me in the freestyle race when I should have been in kickboarding. I feel so proud of how well I took to the water and still love to swim, but need to get back into the "swim of things" (hehehe). I went for a swim last week and had such a hard time --- I got tired so quickly. The memory of being the best swimmer in my age division really has me wanting to improve

I put "I learned as an adult" because it wasn't until I was 24 that I was actually shown how to swim properly.

My mom had me in water babies, but I guess learned how to swim on my own when I was 3 or 4.

I put down high school for the same reason as sparklestar. I took swim lessons when I was young and able to swim my own "doggie" style across the pool without getting drowned. But it wasn't until high school that I learned the correct technique.

I was about 4 or 5 and started taking the classes at the Y. I did that until I was about 7 or so.

11 I think. I was absolutely terrified of water, and after years my mum broke down and registered me for swimming lessons because she wanted me to know how to swim for safety. I cried for the whole week until my first lesson, but I'm so glad she did it - I love swimming! It really relaxes me, my teacher was great, and I ended up taking lessons for about 8 years after that. I miss it now.

Oh, and I'm still afraid of water, but for some reason I get scared when I'm *above* the water, not in it.

I think I was around 8 months old.

I first started taking lessons when I was 9 months old. I continued every summer till I was 8 or so. Naturally I love the water.

I started in water babies, and kept going all through high school on my school's swim team. I still love to swim.

i was swimming before i could walk - that much i know! i'm a fish at heart!

I still don't really know how to swim properly. I can doggie paddle a little bit, but I never took lessons and I can't swim very far at all. I always wanted to learn how to swim as a kid, but my mom never let us take lessons because she thought we would drown (?). I really need to learn how because my lack of swimming skills is what's preventing me from training for a triathlon.

Sadly, I was one of the ones who put "I don't know how to swim". Apparently, I was a fussy child, and I refused to go to the swimming lessons my parents enrolled me in as a child. Totally regretting being a bratty kid

I developed a fear of water (even showering) and my parents solution was to make me learn how to swim. A summer of swim lessons and synchronized swimming for two years. I am still a little scared of water but I am one hell of a swimmer.

I actually children shouldn't learn to swim (in pools) until they are 5 years old. The lining in the lungs is still developing and if they go into pools (the chlorine) before the age of five, they can develop asthma.

I know I learned to swim before I started elementary school, I might have been 5? so I said kindergarten. I think they just kind of threw me in and I floated, so I wasn't scared of drowning or anything. My dad learned by getting thrown in, and my grandpa would hold him up if he started sinking. We're hearty people, lol!

i was on swim team for about 8 years starting at the age of 5, the youngest age for my league. I've been swimming in general since i was about 2 and a half though.

I don't remember not knowing how to swim, so I must have learned pretty early.

Well I live in Sydney and as an Aussie water safety is paramount cos its everywhere - pools, creeks, rivers, the ocean etc. I started when I was about 3 and I think most of my friends started around that age too.

The missing option, before Kindergarten but after age 3.

Still can't swim. I was so pissed when I got to college and you had to take a swim test to graduate, I had to take 2 semester of swim class to not have to take the swim test. Those classes didn't help any.

I was about eight years old. I took to swimming like fish to water, so to speak. I quickly passed through all the lessons. In a matter of weeks, I was doing the crawl stroke (free-style), back stroke, and breast stroke in the deep end of the pool. Also, I was diving all the way down to the bottom, and pushing back up to the surface. I fancied myself a mermaid.

I learned the butterfly stroke later when I was in competitive swimming.

Swimming was an important part of my life. Collectively, I swam competitively and for fitness for about 20 years. These days, I don't swim as much, but I do has some very, very fond memories.

i did 'floating lessons' when i was still a toddler, about 2-3 years old. so that if i ever fell into a pool i would be able to float and not drown - ha ha!

i learnt to swim probably when i was around 5 ish.

I didn't really learn until I was in elementary school but my mom used to take me swimming all the time with floaties and I had my only little kiddie pool when I was younger. I thought that pool was the coolest haha

Now that I really think about it, my parents weren't very 'hands on' with me... my brother taught me how to swing on a swingset by myself when I was like 4, I taught myself how to ride a bike at 6, and my best friends dad taught me how to swim when I was 6... I was always at her house and they had a pool, so I guess that explains that... but thinking about how I learned many things makes me feel weird since my parents never taught me 'normal' kid things... I did learn to have my own morals and work my ass off to succeed from them, and about sex at age 8 though, which I find to be very useful, since I was never irresponsible with that information as a teen, unlike many of the kids today since their parents don't tell them ANYTHING...

In conclusion, I learned USEFUL things from my parents about life and the world... and all the other fun things from everyone else... hah

I learned to swim almost before I could walk - I was ALWAYS in the water (in a lifejacket) as a baby, I don't even know when I learned to swim...I was always comfortable and capable in the water.

I did waterbabies when I was very small (I only have vague memories of it, so I was probably 2-3 at the time), and the only thing I remember was that I was scared to put my face in the water (but blowing bubbles was fun!), and I refused, flat-out, to jump off the diving board (I was afraid of heights even then!). I was on the swim team later in life (ages 7-13), and even now swimming is my favorite form of exercise.

I tried swimming twice. When I was four I had lessons but didn't dare to swim without my floaties. I tried swimming again when I was eight, then I learnt how to swim!

I was in Water Babies at the local YWCA. My husband was too, and in all likelihood, we were in the same class. We were in the same swim lessons for years before we were even really friends!

Now that I think about it, the major motivator for the girls my age in beginner's swim was the Little Mermaid!!! (that was certainly true for me!)

my mom was a swimmer and so she wanted my sister and me to be swimmers so we learned very young

By the time I was 11 months old, I was apparently jumping into the 13foot deep end of the pool swimming after my dad and giving plenty of heart attacks to surrounding viewers I simply love being in the water. I admit I am not a Master swimmer but I know my strokes, tho I hate doing butterfly.

My little sister, on the other hand, took forever to learn how to swim and used to cling to our backs and necks like a monkey, practically choking/drowning us. But in highschool, when she joined water polo after I did and then went to swim team, she became the better swimmer :\ Go figure. Now she scuba dives.

I went to my first swimming lesson when I was little and the instructor made us open our eyes under water. After that I said I didn't want to go back and so I really didn't learn to swim until last year at 17!