Never too old! I used to teach an adult swim class and loved it, as they listen better than kids! I will tell you that first few lengths are always the hardest, even for advanced swimmers. There are a lot of good swim teachers out there and my mom taught until her 90's. Where are you located?

Absolutely, given the context of your question. There are plenty of pools and swim coaches willing to work with us older folks.
However, I must say that swimming correctly means different things to swimmers and triathletes than to a non swimmer. I have been racing triathlons for 38 years and still do not swim “correctly”. 😜

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Team Zoot So Cal

Find a pool that has masters meets and find a coach that can watch you from the deck.

If I’m lucky I’ll be able to swim “correctly” by age 64, I’m 33 now!

There's a guy in my AG who learnt to swim after the age of 65.
Dammit

Yes and it’s too old to try to live correctly too. Just call it a life and be happy you lived that long!!!!!

Milton Ontario Canada

I'm sure we have some here up that way who can chime in.

I remember taking with this wonderful man a number of years ago in Kona, and he didn't start the sport until later.

https://www.ironman.com/...avey-dies-at-85.aspx

You'll have no issues getting into and being quite proficient in swimming. Hopefully someone will help you here...

Never too old to learn to swim better.

Get an instructor who understands where your strength and flexibility are at and can adjust their approach accordingly.

Learning to swim 1000m non stop is very doable.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I am self taught, but relied on books. Understand the physics, stay horizontal, reduce drag, high elbows, and press chest and head a bit into water. The older swimmers I see tend to lose upper body strength from all biking and running. Check out Swim Smooth website and others. Inch by inch , it will be a cinch. Good luck.

Nope, never too old! I started swimming at 29 and could barely swim 100 yards without a ton of rest. I remember back then that my goal too was to be able to swim a comfortable 500Y. It took a while, but eventually I stuck with it. Now swim with Master's and am by no means the slowest.

Once you start to learn, keep learning. I see a lot of people around me who swim "okay", because they learned and then stopped learning. If you enjoy swimming and/or tri, continue learning, and you'll find it much more enjoyable.

If you like learning by video, I found https://www.goswim.tv/ to be a great resource early on.

never too late! At age 97, Mo is awesome.

https://www.cbsnews.com/...low-down-2019-09-12/

What is "swim correctly?"

With correct form , efficiently, confidently ...
I never learned as a child and although I can ride 100km and have ran a 2.39 marathon , it is something I would like to do.

Never too old! See if your local Y has adult swim lessons; they can teach proper technique so that you can swim laps comfortably, and then after that it is all about repetition like anything else. Just getting to the pool and building up endurance.

Hope this helps, good luck!

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Dad wanted to do a triathlon last September at the age of 63 after 15 ish years on the couch. Couldn't complete the 400m swim (breast stroke) and was picked up by a rescue boat. He refused to accept that reality and decided to get in shape. Learning how to swim was always going to be the challenge as he was quite the run/biker In his 30s.

So we went to the pool. He was completely gassed after 25m every time in the pool and after a few weeks without improvements I realized that his dream of one day doing an ironman wouldn't fly the way we were doing things.

How we adjusted: started with both fins and a snorkel. Implemented a lot of core/strength work outside of the pool. Reached the point where he was able to swim unlimited with snorkel + fins -> alternated between snorkel and no fins and fins and no snorkel. In March/April he had 5 weeks off from work and swam 5-6 days a week. This is definitely where the biggest improvements happened (since you mentioned that you will have a lot of time this is relevant).

Did Marbella 70.3 with a 54min swim at the end of April (he completed the race and was super happy about it).

Continued to work over the summer and did IM Copenhagen in August with a swim time of 1.47. He will start to work with a swim coach now as he dreams of breaking 40min in Marbella next year.

I don't know if this is of any help but wanted to share it with you in case it is helpful. Good luck

Just get in the pool and swim. When I start this journey a while back, I would swim the length of a 25 yard pool, stop, rest for a bit, swim back, rest, etc. You will eventually be able to swim longer with less rest. Also, take a few swim lessons from a swim coach.

agree with this. I started out training for my first sprint and it was resting at each wall. eventually it got better. swim lessons definitely help with technique of course.

That was/is me. I knew how to swim but swam a lap in the pool for the first time in my life in April. It was rough, more like mobile drowning than swimming. My daughters are all-state high school swimmers and we've swam at the same time and they swim two laps for every one of mine. I got a little better. Did my first triathlon and I wasn't last in the swim. In fact, I was a bit better than the bottom quartile. Someone suggested "total immersion swimming" and I got a book on it from the library that helped quite a bit. Kinda plateaued in the past month, but I don't swim that much. I'll try to keep at it over the winter.

Your goal of swimming 300-500 meters is quite modest really, I bet if you put your mind to it you can far exceed that. I didn't start swimming seriously until my late 50s, I had only a rudimentary freestyle stroke and couldn't swim more than a couple hundred yards straight at that time. In my last Olympic triathlon a couple of weeks ago I placed in the top 7% of the field in the swim leg at age 65. I did have in my favor that I was always very comfortable in the water, and had a decent breaststroke. And I've worked really hard consistently over the ensuing years, have taken clinics and spent several years with a master's swim program.

I'd strongly recommend getting some instruction to help you on your journey because swimming is such a technical sport. While you may not be able to match my progress given your starting point, if you stick with it and persevere you won't be swimming just a few hundred meters, you'll be swimming a couple thousand. Good luck!

swimming is much more about technique than physical strength. so, by being too old, you're really asking whether there's an age beyond which you can't learn. where the pathways for learning are just gone. where, for example, you're beyond the capacity to acquire another language.

i'm 62, and i'm at the age where i ask myself whether i have another one in me. another one what? i don't know. another business. another skill. perhaps for those who've lost a life partner, another relationship. i think it's normal to have those questions. and the answer in all cases is yes if you choose to do so. you - with your current athleticism - have the capacity to swim, strongly, 10x what your current goal is, and to do it with style, if you want to.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Absolutely you can do this. As a personal trainer, I have taught a man near your age to swim. My experience with 25 meter swimmers is that they hold their breath under water. If this is the only lesson you get, then concentrate on a better breathing pattern of blowing out under water and breathing in when your face is above water.

As you gain the mental and physical habit, your distance covered will increase and anxiety will decrease. If you can afford lessons, get them. You will improve faster.

Good luck!

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DFL > DNF > DNS

With the right combination of conditioning and technique you can get there. It's hard to say which aspect will hold your progress back the most but I would be keenly aware of how easy it is to learn the wrong things. You have a clean slate, no bad habits to unlearn, don't muck it up and have to correct it later. Get some poolside instruction above all else.

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

Heck no! Learn the proper technique to have a much more enjoyable experience. I see people flopping around in the pool, and it does not look like fun. Take a few lessons from a reputable coach to get your technique in order. Swimming is all about technique! I am 66 and swim with a Master's team and a TI coach with all levels and many 'adult onset' swimmers. Go forth and swim!!

OP here ,
I had my 1st swimming lesson today and learned more in 15 mins than I thought possible..
The instructor asked us (It’s a level 1 “ Learn to swim course ) to show her If we could swim at all .I can swim 20 metres by Breaststroke and I was one of the most advanced lol.
She then asked us to take a pool noodle bend it put it in front of us and just use your legs to kick .Well I never moved forward while kicking !,.Learned that my feet were pointing down .By the end of 30 mins I had moved forward 10 feet .
40 years of running and cycling has possibly given me inflexible feet ...that I need to correct
Very happy that I made the choice to have lessons and I cannot wait for next week .