If a person reads a lot of theory about how to swim, different types of techniques, other people’s written experiences etc., can they swim if thrown in a deep swimming pool? Or, at least, be able to swim enough to reach the steep end and save themselves from drowning?
By “a lot”, I mean spending over 6 months to a year, gaining theoretical knowledge. And when we throw them in the pool, they are willing to try it, as in, “I have learnt enough, and I am willing to try it out.”
All these “absolutely not” responses are silly, IMO. I speak as someone who’s quite a good swimmer. Practical experience is important to get good, certainly. But if your main objective is simply to not sink and to have a basic ability to propel yourself, I think that’s stuff you can manage quite easily starting from pure book learning. The “not sink” part is key, because that will give you the time to actually experience what it’s like moving around in the water and clarify what that book learning told you.
You probably don’t need 6 months of study, at that point your time would be better spent finding an actual pool. The sorts of basics I’m talking about here that would be useful is stuff like how to float with your face in the air so you can breathe, and once you’ve got that part down how to efficiently kick your legs to propel you rather than just flailing around uselessly. Learn those key tidbits, drill on just that, and then if you find yourself unexpectedly tossed in water you’ll know what to do to not die and get yourself back to the edge.
There’s also the mental load to take into account.
If it’s your first time in water, you’re prone to panicking.
Especially when your head gets submerged for the first time.
So I think even if you integrate all the theory, you still need to be very careful and slow on your first try for this to succeed.
There’s a difference between already developing motor skills and then trying to improve those motor skills by learning from the skills of others.
And having not developed those motor skills and then trying to learn them from the experiences of others.
If you have never crawled or walked your entire life, you can’t learn how to crawl or walk just by reading about it. The neural pathways literally don’t exist for you to be able to balance and move. You would need to actually do the physical actions to develop those neural connections for those motor skills to develop.
A significant part of our brain is dedicated to controlling our body, not just to knowledge and thinking. Those portions of our brain largely develop alongside us actually moving and practicing motor skills.
You could learn technique and what you’re not supposed to do as long as you have all the prerequisite motor skills relate to that information. If you are missing the prerequisite motor skills then you will not be able to.
That last part is where many of these “Absolutely not” answers are grounded.
Someone who is able to walk around and control their breathing already has those prerequisite motor skills.