I dunno how to swim. I can only swim doggy style but I get tired a lot. I don't feel that fear anymore but I don't know how to start. +Rep for any good, online guides or advices that really help
Swimming pools are generally a good place to start Get lessons or summat. They're generally run at local pools in the form of group lessons - once a week or twice a week or something. Oceans are a good place to start, but you lose the privilege of having someone to save you from drowning/water that's free of sharks/pirates/boats/octopus/angler fish/crocodiles/currents/waves/death/jellyfish/sea spiders.
At your local swimming pool is imo the best place to learn how to swim. What I remember from my swimming lessons, which was very helpful is you know in swimming pools on the edges theres always a place where you can grip? Well hold onto that with both hands and try get your feet up in the water, by kicking both of them. Keep doing this until you can do that with your feet off of the ground, near the top of the water. Once you've accomplished that, try doing it without the wall, put both your hands infront of you one on top of each other then start kicking your feet, you should be able to move forward. Next step is just learning how to incorporate what I've just told you, with arm movements. Reading instructions on how to swim isn't the best way to learn though, try getting some swimming lessons, it'll be much more easier and you'll be taught by a professional.
Definitely learn to swim at a swimming pool =] Unless you're near a beach that has nice calm water and an excellent lifeguard system. Don't risk it in the ocean - you hear all those awful stories about tourists who can't swim jumping into the ocean on the Gold Coast... doesn't end well. Anyway, I would recommend l_scorpio's idea of holding onto the edge of the pool. Go one better and invest in a kickboard (popular method of swim-teaching here in Australia) because it's awesome for two reasons - 1) it floats and 2) it's mobile, unlike the wall of the pool. If you don't have some goggles, it's a good idea to have them too (because pool water in eyes is yuck). So start of with a kicking motion, holding the kickboard either to your chest (underneath the water, so it supports you) or out in front of you so your arms are outstretched (so you can put your face under water if you want to). Once you're confident with this, try a freestyle motion with your hands (while holding onto the kickboard with one hand at a time). Eventually you'll become confident with a simple kicking technique, so you can try the breaststroke kicking (some people call it a frog-style of swimming, heehee) with the kickboard. I hope this helps, it's kind of hard to explain the motions but hopefully it's given you a bit of a starting point. The main thing is to feel totally at home in the water, but just remember not to go out of your league. It doesn't matter if you start off in the shallow end of the pool, you've gotta start somewhere =] When I was learning, I didn't really like going so deep that I couldn't feel the floor with me toes =P Please report back on your progress, it's be great to see how you go =B
How old are you ? Just go in a pool and try to swim with your arm ?? ... lol! Go learn with a friend ? ... Sorry internet cannot help more than a person !
Well for my school, they just ask all of us to get in the pool and learn ourselves. Luckily I took swimming lessons in the past.