I learned late. My self learning moment was instead of holding the wall edge and kicking, I held my hands lower, flat against the pool wall close to surface and kept myself up by kicking. After that moment something clicked and I could swim. I tried using that to teach my kids and it failed miserably so we hired an instructor for one-on-one lessons, worth it.
"Something's wrong! Murder isn't working and that's all we're good at." ~Futurama