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Comment by Raed667 | Hacker News Reader

The stigma is internal I know.

But usually beach time is with friends and acquaintances, people that know how to swim and don't understand at all my experience.

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But those are not the ones that will be around you when you're in a class learning. You can learn in a class with people you've never seen before and you'll never see again, and when it's over, the problem is solved. Nobody needs to know that you went to classes, you don't have to tell anybody.

The only "difficulty" is that you have to not care what complete strangers think about you trying to learn. Your actual friends and acquaintances won't know anything.

I would think if you said, "I don't know how to swim, so I'm going to learn," good friends and acquaintances would be massively supportive?

Yes of course, but that puts me under the spot and everyone becomes an improvised teacher. Its just a combination of social pressure and stress with a stressful situation.

My guess is to make it more sterile and professional by learning alone with a coach.

My 27 year-old girlfriend just took a swim class at the YMCA. In her class of 7, one other person was older than her while the rest were in their teens. She's way more comfortable in the water now and can swim the length of the pool and back which would have been impossible before.

Don't let anxiety hold you back from learning this!

...everyone becomes an improvised teacher.

Swimming isn't actually hard. It's easier than a lot of things that people teach themselves to do. If multiple people offer to help you, pick out the person who seems pretty chill about things and follow her advice.

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