If not, why haven’t you learned how?
Yes swimming is a core part of the nz childhood. We had swimming lessons throughout school and my parents enrolled me in swim classes very early.
I’m terrible at formal swimming but I can survive and get around comfortably in the water
Nope. Couldn’t afford lessons, no one had a pool and I lived in a predominantly black city. I’d like to one day just for safely but I usually just sink like a rock.
How is living in a predominantly black city relevant?
There is a relatively unknown (outside of the black community) bias against swimming. Slaves were traumatized to be hydrophobic to prevent escape from slave ships and then there was segregation of pools until relatively recently. This is fortunately fading now, last I checked.
According to statistics they’re less likely to know how to swim. Less swimmers means they’d have less places to swim.
But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.
A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.
Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had “taught themselves”.
- Source: Why don’t black Americans swim? (bbc.com, Sept. 2010)
Yeah. Because in Australia they take swimming and water safety very seriously. I don’t think I know a single person who can’t swim at least a little.
As an Aussie I remember meeting foreigners when I was a youngster, and just being totally bewildered that they couldn’t swim. To me, it was as if they had said they never learnt to run, or how to open a door.
My next lesson came when I took a foreign friend who could swim to the beach. I swam out past the breakers and bobbed around wondering where they were… Turns out that not everyone grew up around waves, and they didn’t know you could dive under them. So they were still back by the beach, waist deep, just getting smashed around constantly.
Yeah, this is basically how it goes. It depends what country you grew up in. Canada is the same way, almost everyone who grew up in Canada can swim (not necessarily well, but able to manage). This is partly due to the number of lakes that exist near populated areas so swimming is a common passtime and boating accidents are a fairly high cause of accidental death. There are some countries where it is much more rare.
Nearly everywhere in my country mandates lessons, so yeah
How does that work, is it done through school?
There was some discussion about it here (Canada) last summer
https://globalnews.ca/news/10610765/bc-mandatory-swimming-lessons/
Here in Denmark it is through school.
I started taking lessons about a year ago. I’m glad I have. At least I feel like I might have a chance if something happens and I end up in deeper water than I can just stand in.
Yes, my mom made us take swim lessons up through lifeguard lessons, and some of my brothers were competitive (like very competitive) swimmers. I got my kids lessons through the drownproofing, not more.
Kids drown here every year, it’s not important to have paid lessons but very very important to know how to swim.
Yes. In sweden every child has been taught to swim for almost 100 years.
Wow, you have some very old kids 😵😆
Look at Sweden, again dunking dunking on the rest of us without even trying. ;-)
Yes. Am Dutch
Yup, learned as a child and was absolutely bewildered as a teenager when I met people who couldn’t. Made sure my kids knew how as well. Child drowning injury and deaths are sadly high in the US.
Here in Germany we learn that in school in 3rd or 4th grade (ca 9-10 years of age).
For some reason I don’t remember ever doing such a course. I never got a “Seepferdchen”. I learned to swim on my own at some point or with help from my parents.
… unless there are not enough teachers, or not enough public pools, or…
The indoor pool I learned swimming closed a decade ago and since then there is no public indoor pool in the city anymore.
My dad watched his brother drown when he was a kid and was unable to save him Ray Charles style and made sure he taught me to swim before dipping out
I couldn’t swim until I was maybe 10 or 11 and it was awful. Thankfully my parents moved and my school mandated lessons - but I wasn’t confident until maybe my late teens/early twenties?
I think kids should learn as early as possible and it makes me a bit sad that my niece and nephew haven’t learned yet (and are unlikely to as their schools don’t teach them and my sibling doesn’t seem interested in getting them lessons or teaching them). We live on an island with a lot of water inland - it’s more important than other stuff like riding a bike!
Yes. My dad tried to tech me but he was not patient enough so he showed me some things and then just left me in the water to go sunbathing himself. But somehow this seemed enough so I kept at it and could swim a bit, then over the years always a little better and so on. Still today my technique is quite bad but I can swim forever, just not as fast as other people.
No, almost drown when I was a kid and have massive panic attacks getting into the water. In the last few years I’ve been able to get chest deep without hyperventilating but can’t really seem to float out anything like that without letting go of the side.
You got that shit if you made it chest high. Keep going!
Trusting the float on the back makes sense to be a hard one. It’s counterintuitive, the water comes over your face when you start, and you can’t hold on to anything. Might be worth getting a personal coach for a session just for that if you haven’t already. Someone supporting you might help with the anxiety as long as they’re encouraging and not pushy.
Yes, of course, it’s a basic life skill.
