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.”
Just like many physical things, not really.
A huge part of your brain is dedicated to motor skills and hand eye coordination. You aren’t going to improve or learn these things until you actually do them. It’s neurological, you can’t move a muscle you don’t have neurological connections for, it’s a learned skill. And you cannot learn it without actually doing it and making those connections.
Imagine never letting a baby crawl, and you just teach them about crawling, walking, running…etc once they’re old enough to understand. But they have never moved yet in their life.
They would essentially be disabled, none of the neural pathways necessary for the movement they need to do have been developed. These would need to develop from scratch, by struggling and failing.
Everyone here that says yes and then mentions practice is not getting your question.
The spirit of your question would be reading about it and understanding the theory and then dropping yourself in the middle of a lake. And either you learned and you swim to shore or you drown.
I’m sure most of the people here that are mentioning practice would understand that you would just drown and that you would not actually have learned how to swim.