YMCA swimming
Posted by ForSinningOnly@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 42 comments
How many of us have a traumatic experience from swimming at the YMCA in the 1980s? I took lessons there as a kid, and recall at least twice feeling like I was about to drown. No one appeared to be paying attention to us kids, aside from yelling at us to figure the shit out ourselves.
beansoupscratch@reddit
As I read this in the parking lot of the YMCA after swimming..
I never went to the Y growing up. My mother had us take lessons at the local public pool and then we had a pool in our middle school and high school.
I love to swim and I feel bad for those who had traumas.
BorgAdjacent@reddit
I think i still have a minnow pin somewhere with the card it came with
Astronaut6735@reddit
I was terrified to jump off the diving board for the first time. Swim instructor lined us up and made us jump one by one off the diving board. I got up there, stood at the edge, and was holding up the line. Next thing I know I'm being picked up and thrown into the pool đ¤Ł.
2PlasticLobsters@reddit
Mine was in the late 60s, but my experience also wasn't positive. Mostly I remember my father yelling me afterward, to keep my fingers together. I've always been uncoordinated & it was really hard for me to kick & stroke at the sme time, much less also breathe at just the right time AND keep my fingers together. But I'd had a few weeks of lessons, so I was supposed to be Olympic level.
I also remember they had us put on some wort of show at the end. We did some sort of water ballet to "Doggie In The Window". I didn't want to, but my parents made me. They said I'd be glad I did when it was over. I wasn't. I most remember being cold & confused.
I'm still a crappy swimmer. I can keep myself from drowning, but that's it.
ForSinningOnly@reddit (OP)
SAME!! I can tread water and maybe swim from the middle of the pool to the ladder. Donât even ask me to go under water!!! I tell people itâs bc I canât get water in my ears.
katiefoxlily@reddit
To this day the smell of chlorine brings me right back to that pool and that horrible teacher
Chibi-Skyler@reddit
Our local college had a Learn-to-Swim program. Once you got past Beginner level, you learned to jump in or risk being tossed in by the instructor. Into 9 feet of water.
ONROSREPUS@reddit
I still swim at the YMCA, two times a week. I learned how to swim with my mom helping me in the lake. Pool is much nicer then the nasty lakes we have around us currently.
yanknga@reddit
Could have been worse. I learned not long ago that the older generation males as kids had to swim naked at the Y. Boys were not allowed to use swim suits.
Stubborn_Strawberry@reddit
......fuck
yanknga@reddit
Exactly my reaction when I first heard about this. It absolutely shocked me.
Coho444@reddit
I remember having to do that as well. One of the counselors was a pdf and we knew not to swim close to him and to go underwater if he came close. He couldnât swim good. lol It was a ymca camp. Glad me and my best friend had street smarts at 12 yrs old.
ONROSREPUS@reddit
hmmmmm no suspicious at alllll.....
yanknga@reddit
The podcast called The Dollop did a very funny episode on this naked swimming.
-Odi-Et-Amo-@reddit
At least you got a formal lesson! My dad taught me how to swim in my uncles backyard pool. Lesson 1 was, if you donât want to drown, youâll figure it out.
PlantMystic@reddit
That was what my WW1 Veteran Grandfather said about his time in the Navy.
Necessary-Peace9672@reddit
I hated having to wear a bathing-cap! The rubber pulled and dragged my hair.
PlantMystic@reddit
I couldn't wear those my hair was too thick and there was too much of it.
iwritesinsnotcomedy@reddit
I was a really good swimmer and advanced to competition level while still in elementary school. However, I was also a very hairy Italian and they wanted me to start shaving my legs and arms in 5th grade. That turned me off to swimming.
In terms of trauma ( and my hairiness), I stated developing a lot sooner than the other guys and when an older dude saw my bare body, I got the nickname âsteel wool.â
Nickname still lives on today.
PlantMystic@reddit
aww you poor kid :(
PlantMystic@reddit
I remember the teacher LYING to me to get my head under water. She said that Cookie Monster was under the water and I had to stick my head down there to see him. I just looked at her like she was nuts. What a f-ing liar! Look lady, I might have been a kid, but Im not stupid!
Kindly-Might-1879@reddit
I took lessons at the Y in â78. I was 8 and still remember the impatient teacher splashing water in my face until I went under. I guess that was the approach then, to give you no option but to drop lol.
So 20+ years later I put my kids in swim lessons before they were 2. I wanted them to have no fear and no recollection of being unable to swim.
Legitimate_Working11@reddit
Worst experience I had at the Y were creepy old guys hitting on me while I tried to swim.
mstrong73@reddit
Sure did, I very clearly remember being shoved off then diving board by my instructor. I had a bubble on and was in no real danger but damn it was terrifying. No clue how old I was. Years later I was a YMCA camp counselor and we went to that pool for the first time since those lessons and it all came back to me.
froction@reddit
My only YMCA-related trauma is related to very...not-shy...old men in the locker room.
Speaking of, I'm almost 50 now, how come my balls don't hang down to my knee?
GrandPriapus@reddit
Up until about 25 years ago, one of our YMCAs had naked swimming. At the time it was exclusively for older men.
froction@reddit
Our downtown one did until sometime in the 80s.
EyeSuspicious777@reddit
Our neighbhood had a public pool. The neighborhood bully nearly drowned me and then my big brother punched him in the face and gave him a bloody nose.
After that, my brother was banned from the pool for the rest of the summer.
Almost 50 years later, I still look up to my big brother as some sort of heroic protector.
Carrollz@reddit
I have nothing but great YMCA experiences however I had swim lessons elsewhere that I loved mainly because I got a smarties after class except that I had an intense fear of water even though I enjoyed swimming seeing the depth sometimes caused me to panic (and it still does, to this day I can't drink water from an opaque cup without panicking!) so one day my instructor wanted me to swim back and forth over the deep end and I was really struggling with the fear and refused and offered to do the same at the shallow end without touching or even work on my dolphin kick or other underwater swimming towards the bottom of the deep end but the instructor insisted and said I better do it "NOW!!!" which just ramped up my anxiety and then he grabbed me and held me down under the water and wouldn't let me up. I'm not sure exactly what happened from the top side while I was flailing about under water (what felt like) fighting for my life but eventually I was able to get out and was immediately taken out of class by my parents and never went back. I had nightmares about it for a long time afterwards.
Fair-Wing5577@reddit
I had a similar twrrifying experience with lessons at my municipal pool when I was very young. The instructor held me under the water and wouldn't let me up. I'm not sure if they thought they were trying to "teach" me how to hold my breath or they were sadistic.
Carrollz@reddit
On the one hand I'm sorry to hear you had a similar terrifying experience, on the other hand it's kind of nice to hear it wasn't just me. I really adored and admired my instructor and took it very personally at the time. I was very stubborn and recognized it as a trait that tended to irritate many adults so a part of me just felt like my instructor must've really really hated me!
elphaba00@reddit
Not me, but my husband. Apparently the instructor just threw him into the pool. After that, his mom started taking him to a woman who did private lessons at her house.
Ronniedobbsfirewood@reddit
I remember intense games of shark where the older kids would hold you underwater for a bit too long when they caught you.
ForSinningOnly@reddit (OP)
YES! I was always petrified of any dunking game, and as a result made my kids scared, too. I can hardly go to our neighborhood pool if kids are there.
Phranc68@reddit
Get off the rope!
CaterpillarDry2273@reddit
yes I remember a lesson on having to tread water and they were yelling at us to keep going and I wanted to rest on the side.
PDM_1969@reddit
They had a "portable" pool that was brought to our neighborhood and my parents thought I should learn. As a young lad this thing looked like a huge metal dumpster full of water.
They freaking tossed me in and it was sink or swim...I threw a bloody fit...ended up terrified of the concept of swimming...didn't actually learn how to swim until I was a teenager because of it
poss-um@reddit
I made it to
I made it to Flying Fish!
tanhauser_gates_@reddit
YMCA for my family was the best thing ever.
pocketdare@reddit
I learned to swim at a little summer pool near me. At least it was outdoor!
Nicole_Bitchie@reddit
I grew up with grandparents with a house on a lake. I technically knew how to swim before we started lessons, but my parents did it anyway. I donât remember having any negative experiences, but the thought of having to tread water for 12 minutes to pass the final test was scary at that age.
WhatRUaBarnBurner@reddit
At 8 years old i was a later learner.
My instructor was great with kids and very encouraging. All these years and I remember her name is Sue.