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.”
You can improve a skill by visualizing your performance of the skill.
But you need to have the experience beforehand to be able to understand what you’re visualizing.
So - absolutely not.
There’s enough people locally who die that it seems reasonable for me to project that thousands die globally each year because they have no clue how to swim, but other people are there having fun in the water and how hard could it be?