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teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage
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My wife decided she wants to start swimming and she wants me to teach her how. I don't see this going well. The last person I taught was myself.. over 10 years ago.

I'm looking for tips and suggestions for me as an instructor as well as stuff I can give her to read or watch.

Can any fish help out?

Edit: she knows how to "swim" and is comfortable in the water.... Just none of the main strokes



sometimes you just have to eat the cake
Last edited by: VO2Matt: Jul 11, 18 14:35
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Don’t.

I’ve taught skiing for two decades and the rule of thumb amoung professionals is that you should NOT teach a significant other to ski.

I had another instructor argue the the point with me stating, “that’s not true I taught my ex-husband how to ski”. I smiled, acknowledged the superiority of her argue and headed out on the hill.

The moral, sign her up for lessons, it’ll be cheaper than a divorce.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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"Never teach your wife how to: drive, play golf or shoot guns." May as well add swim to that.

Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [tri-tele] [ In reply to ]
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THIS ^^^

And don't try to teach her how to drive a stick shift, either!

Find the best local coach and give her lessons as a surprise gift.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Find a local coach. Vet him carefully. Find a handsome bloke in his 20s with a foreign accent who is tan and fills out a speedo nicely. That'll keep her motivated and likely benefit you in the evenings.






Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [Tri-Banter] [ In reply to ]
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Tri-Banter wrote:
likely benefit you in the evenings.

You mean like giving me more time to ride my bike? Sweet



sometimes you just have to eat the cake
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, nope, nope....nope!

Its a trap!

there...marriage saved.

Well, maybe. You still have to figure out a way to "bow out gracefully." which has equal opportunity to go badly.

NOTE: "Honey...I can't teach you to swim because we will end up divorced." is a bad approach.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Personally I really liked the Total Immersion stuff when I was in, I'm guessing, a similar swimming place to her. The trick is, if she wants to keep improving times, not to use it too long and turn into a habitual over glider. If you start her with that then recognise the point where she's got a good basic stroke and then switch to the Swim Smooth stuff. Or if she's no interest in times then stick with TI and be crazy graceful but not crazy quick. To be fair I did it a long time ago and it may be a bit different now. But as a method for teaching yourself a smooth stroke with good rotation I thinks it's great. It is a set of exercise that may seem a bit odd but are quite interesting and having someone help you work through them and talk it through with can only help.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
Well, maybe. You still have to figure out a way to "bow out gracefully." which has equal opportunity to go badly.

NOTE: "Honey...I can't teach you to swim because we will end up divorced." is a bad approach.

I tried to remind her of the time we took dancing lessons before we got married. "Oh.... that was just witty banter".



sometimes you just have to eat the cake
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Don't do it. Find her a coach.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [Tri-Banter] [ In reply to ]
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Tri-Banter wrote:
Find a local coach. Vet him carefully. Find a handsome bloke in his 20s with a foreign accent who is tan and fills out a speedo nicely. That'll keep her motivated and likely benefit you in the evenings.

Let's hope she doesn't end up doing "dry-land workouts" with the young bloke in the nicely filled Speedo.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Looks like our gym offers private swim lessons pretty cheap. Floated the idea past her but she wasn't impressed.

Wish me luck



sometimes you just have to eat the cake
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [spool] [ In reply to ]
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spool wrote:

Let's hope she doesn't end up doing "dry-land workouts" with the young bloke in the nicely filled Speedo.

LOL

Still cheaper than divorce!

Eliot
blog thing - strava thing
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [renorider] [ In reply to ]
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Do not do it. If you want to stay married hire a coach.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [OddSlug] [ In reply to ]
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I like the swim smooth stuff. Good balance between technique and fitness. The swim drills are good.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Don’t do it. if swim coach or clinic is out of the question record her swim stroke let her look at YouTube or something
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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VO2Matt wrote:
My wife decided she wants to start swimming and she wants me to teach her how. I don't see this going well. The last person I taught was myself.. over 10 years ago.

I'm looking for tips and suggestions for me as an instructor as well as stuff I can give her to read or watch.

Can any fish help out?

Edit: she knows how to "swim" and is comfortable in the water.... Just none of the main strokes

I agree don't. Send her for swim lessons. Besides, all she will do is learn your bad habits if your try to teach her. My wife didn't know how to drive a standard transmission and wanted me to teach her. It ended up as a yelling match so I hired a professional drive instructor and she could do it after just two lessons after about ten attempts with me. Saved our marriage. :-)
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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When I was a pro ski instructor we had an unwritten courtesy rule in the locker room - you take my wife out for a lesson and I'll take your girlfriend. We'll ALL live to ski another day! The ultimate essence of teaching any performance is criticism and NOBODY deals well with criticism from their SO - no matter how objective or well meaning it is.
Last edited by: trimule: Jul 13, 18 20:51
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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I've been teaching and coaching swimming for 20 years. I did reach my wife to swim (we're now divorced). It was a frustrating experience for both of us. I'm currently teaching my daughter aged 8 and going through the same thing. Unfortunately if not seen it met a swim teacher here that I think is very good so I'm repeating the same mistake I made 15 years ago.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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I think I speak for everyone when I say you need to post some videos of this.


I don’t think I’ve ever seen a topic ST all agreed on the same answer.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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I once tried to teach a girlfriend how to surf. It was high tide at a beach, head high with a reasonable shorebreak to push through. I valiantly went on ahead, ducked a few waves and sat there 20ft out tutting in disgust as she repeatedly got twatted by the shorebreak, before shouting at her - "You're not fucking trying!" and then paddling off to go surf.

Try that approach and let us all know how it goes :)
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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My wife was a nationally ranked Jr Oly swimmer. She's still at the pointy end of any tris she does, and this is with little to no swim training. I started swimming about 7 years ago, literally couldn't make it across the pool without stopping when I started. She watched me swim exactly once, made one observation (I didn't agree with) and that was that. I figured it out on my own.

It doesn't help that I absolutely kick her butt on the bike and run, so she wants to keep that advantage in the water.

You can practice together, but don't teach. That pretty much goes for everything.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [Sullbk] [ In reply to ]
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Sullbk wrote:
Don't do it. Find her a coach.

Yup. +1

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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Is there a local Masters program you two could do together? You could do it together and pass the coaching part off to the Masters coach...

Otherwise I don't know, I've worked with my wife a little and she's not super serious about swimming as it turns out. Maybe a good thing?

I got her a waterproof ipod shuffle and she loves it... it's our joke that she spends more time on deck getting her cap, earphones. music going... but whatever she enjoys doing a few laps with it.
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Re: teaching my wife to swim... Help save my marriage [VO2Matt] [ In reply to ]
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You can teach her haha just have a good attitude about it and don't laugh at her. Be a good husband

She might be hesitant to do a coach because its embarrassing to learn to swim at first for most people..lest the proper way

Just figure out how she learns..visual, example, detail instruction, etc.
Have fun with it.

just don't teach her bad habbits




THAT said - I still abide by the three F rule. If it flights, floats, or f*cks - lease it, dont buy it. So you already broke that logic haha
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