Who likes swimming

[Aspie_With_Attitude]

There's something that most Aspies like, swimming. I do love my swimming and I like being in water and I am a very good swimmer. I usually use local pools, at the age of 38, my pool has a hydro-therapy warm water pool that ban children under age of 16 unless accomplished by a legal guardian.

How many like swimming and like swimming in pools?

Some Aspies do have discomfort like they want to wear goggles since they're sensitive to amount of chlorine used in the pools and even the salt+sand can effect the eyes of the Aspie.

Through my enjoyment of swimming, the most unusual discomfort I have with pools is swimwear. The management at the pool let me swim in my full length tracksuit pants instead of conventional swimwear, I feel more comfortable in my trackpants instead of shorts. Most Aspies do like swimming in t-shirts I gather.

Are there any Aspies who like water, swimming? What water or swimming discomforts to do you have?

 

[Bolletje]

I like swimming, although I prefer swimming in the sea to swimming in pools.

 

[Thinx]

Yes I love to swim. Usually I swim about a kilometre that's 20 x 50 m lengths or if the pools divided, 40 x 25m. I have had a couple of weeks break as I had 3 x colds then a tooth abcess, I suspected the colds were from germs in the pool but could be wrong. The tooth issue was just a broken crown but was painful. Going back next week. I find the exercise calming and stress busting. I don't swim fast just up and down, time to think. I go about twice a week usually and more in summer. I think it's very good for my fitness too .

 

[Nervous Rex]

I love anything with water - swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving. Waterfalls, pools, rivers - yes, yes, and yes. Heck, I even like playing with a sinkful of water when I'm doing dishes.

We have a pondless waterfall in our back yard. In the summer, I like to lay in a hammock and just listen to the water running.

 

[tlc]

I like looking at the water, and listening to it. But I really do not like being in it. So no swimming here. Not afraid of drowning. It's just too much work to stay afloat for it to be enjoyable. Some people can float. My grandpa, me, and my daughter all sink like a rock. A running joke since Grandpa was in the navy, he couldn't swim. Going underwater I just black out so I don't do that. Also I freeze when I get wet, or even go near the lake to begin with. And public pools just seem too boring, I mean what am I supposed to do? It's just water. What's the purpose of swimming from point A to point B? I do love the chlorine smell. But I'd rather find a dry clean beach with pretty scenery and pick rocks or play in the sand.

 

[FreeDiver]

I think my username says plenty about me. But if you really wanted to ask me what is the best way for an aspie to get the maximum enjoyment out of being in the water is freediving. When you're down under. You can fly like Peter Pan. It's quiet and serene. Feeling the water currents flowing on your skin as well as feeling the pressure as you dive deeper is just euphoric. Plus. if you like doing full body stimming. Being buoyant in the water allow you to flex every joint and muscle in you body without fear of falling or bumping into anything.

 

[Gracey]

I used to adore swimming. Anywhere. Any (non toxic) body of water and I’d want to be in it, amazed I didn’t sink and could propel myself along in all manner of different ways.

As I got older the purpose of swimming changed from wonder and experimenting to weightless resistance exercise.

Then I put on so much weight I was too self conscious to show it off in a public swimming pool.
Which is a bit of a shame because swimming would have been a beneficial exercise (no strain on joints)

Perhaps the next time I’ll swim is with the hoards of grandchildren I hope I’ll get. I’ll be an old lady by then, nobody will be judging my ‘packaging’ I hope to get the grandchildren as enthusiastic and excited about staying afloat in water as I was.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Perhaps the next time I’ll swim is with the hoards of grandchildren

The hoards of quiet grandchildren

 

[Gracey]

The hoards of quiet grandchildren

Engaged (in activity)curious and content children aren’t particularly noisy
Don’t need a noise to think.

Can redirect ‘noise’ to something more pleasant, singing, chanting times tables by rote, making up new words out loud.

Noise doesn’t have to be a chaotic racket.

I also know I can hand them back

 

[Progster]

Yes, I like swimming.
I like going to the beach to swim if it's quiet (no people close by), but I don't like walking barefoot over the rocks and sand because I have sensitive feet. I keep my flipflops on until I'm well into the water. Also, I don't like that the water is cold.

 

[Streetwise]

yes I like swimming when I don't have pain from nerve damage ,I liked swimming in a natural pool in a hot spring in northern Australia would've been better if there wasn't anybody else.

 

[Mia]

Fresh water lakes and rivers, and the ocean on occasion. Pools not as much, where I live, pools are the only way to swim in the winter.
Spent a good portion of my childhood in the water.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

WTF , its so fun, me and my father we both love to swim !
I love water overall, when i was younger i could stay an hour in my bath/playing.

It is fun to see that we can have a lot in common.
When i was younger , with running, swimming was my favorite physical activie, i just loved swimming.

But i think i also get the very anxious nature of my mother, one day we did a litte trip and a boat to swim in deep sea.
But this day, I was unable to see the bottom of the sea, so ofc...i panicked and imagined that see monsters /anything could attack me from below , and it made me so anxious i had to go back on the boat.

Since that day i feel so insecure that i dont realy go to swin in sea too far when i cant see cleary the bottom.
But i still love to swim, just dont do it much anymore, plus, now when i go to deep my head HURTS so bad, it realy reduced my fun.

 

[Aryanna]

I like swimming! But I didn’t know it was an aspie thing! Where did you hear that?

 

[Suzanne]

I just have never mastered the art of swimming and hate getting wet and it takes a lot of self prep to shower.

 

[Sabrina]

I swim an hour everyday and love it!

 

[Streetwise]

I just have never mastered the art of swimming and hate getting wet and it takes a lot of self prep to shower.

I found swimming very hard! I walked up and down the shallow end for months !then sort of hopped !I thought I would never do it !but one day my legs came off the bottom !I was shocked!
I loved it after that ,I'm the same as you with a shower I force myself to get under the stream try to enjoy it !I just prefer a flannel - Strip wash .
never liked wearing a swimming costume wish I'd said can I wear shorts and a T-shirt .

 

[Mia]

But I didn’t know it was an aspie thing! Where did you hear that?

Apparently children with autism are often attracted to water. And will walk in without knowing how to swim. I did, when I was quite young and someone picked me up out of the water, as I was walking somewhere underwater thinking I could breathe. This is not an uncommon thing for children with autism to do. At the time I recall liking being in the water because it muted sound and some sensory distractions. It completely calmed me.

Not every child reacts this way, but many with autism do. Scientists who study autism, recommend that autistic children take swimming lessons as soon as possible, because of the visual/sensory stimulation of water, that many are attracted to. Their sense of personal safety, is often low when they are young.

I've been unable to find any actual studies or research on this, attraction to water. Unfortunately the studies done mainly relate to children with autism who wander into pools and rivers and lakes without being able to swim. That's why they recommend swimming lessons as extremely important.

 

[Adora]

When I was young I was obsessed with wateri,i was known to to try and rip off my clothes and run straight to water if i even heard a tap dripping and I thought there was a river near by,but I never learned to swim properly and developed a fear of it,while I still like water and I even live next to a canal I don’t go swimming in it,but I do enjoy walking along a beach in the water and find it soothing so there is still that sensory feeling of it that I enjoy.

 

[tree]

@Mia
That reminds me.
I used to walk into the water up to my nose
in the waves of Lake Michigan when I was little.
I didn't know how to swim.
I liked jumping up and down with the force of the waves.
My mother sometimes got me back out of the water
because she said if my lips were blue, it was time to
come out for awhile.

I learned how to swim, years later, age 12, at school.
The gym teacher invited me to the synchronized swim team,
but I didn't want to join a team. I liked swimming, but
not teams.