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
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 skiâ€. 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.
“Never teach your wife how to: drive, play golf or shoot guns.” May as well add swim to that.
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.
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.
likely benefit you in the evenings.
You mean like giving me more time to ride my bike? Sweet
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.
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.
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”.
Don’t do it. Find her a coach.
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.
Looks like our gym offers private swim lessons pretty cheap. Floated the idea past her but she wasn’t impressed.
Wish me luck
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!
Do not do it. If you want to stay married hire a coach.
I like the swim smooth stuff. Good balance between technique and fitness. The swim drills are good.
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
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. 
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.
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.
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.