Familiarity with the water is key. Spend some time just playing around, splashing about. Once you can get used to putting your head below water, you will find that moving deeper is a natural next step.

In addition, it helps to live near the ocean, or a lake, or some other outdoor water venue. Because you cannot learn to swim without a place to swim. Plus if you are near an outdoor venue, you can usually hike around and do other things, which makes the day more exciting and will enhance your all-around swimming experience.

Finally, I suggest you learn to swim with others around. This is not just a safety tip, though if you cannot swim, then swimming along may result in you drowning. And trust me, drowning is completely counterproductive to the idea of learning to swim. But the key to having friends around is not just that it is safer, it can make an otherwise dull, thankless activity much more fun.

You can play games like Marco Polo while you learn to swim. Or your friends can play dunking games where they push you under water. This scary experience can help minimize your fear of water over time as you realize that it is not that bad actually.

In closing, I wish you luck is this difficult task. Learning to swim may save your life someday. And we all can get behind that.

Learn more about this author, Brad Kincaid.
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