Here is some more detail from the BSA Aquatics Supervision manual:
It is my understanding that they want to test the ability of a swimmer to be able to safely jump off a dock or pool deck and commence swimming. Note that there is no height requirement—even the edge of a pool meets the requirement. If a person can do this, they should also be able to deal with inadvertently falling into water over one’s head.
Also, at summer camp, the swim test is not given in a pool. You have to jump off the dock into the lake.
I learned to breaststroke when I was sixish, with my family in a pool. For years, I would swim with my head out of water, until Boy Scouts and learned to put my head underwater. I learned the backstroke and sidestroke, but never the butterfly.
In college, I even took a swimming class to try to learn the crawl stroke, but my kick refuses to cooperate. Holding on to one of those kickboards, I actually would go backwards and the harder I would kick, the more I would go backwards.
I love watersports, I can swim a reasonable distance (about 3/4 mile) but pretty slowly. I do however respect open water, I would never consider going paddleboarding or similar without a PFD and in the UK I would always wear a wetsuit or drysuit (cold water shock, cold incapacitation and hypothermia are all killers regardless of how good a swimmer you are, and you never know when you might end up in the water).
I can’t really do any formal stroke, I guess, so my situation is the opposite. I can keep myself afloat in the water. I can move from one spot in a pool to another. I can back float. I can stay alive.
But as far as those specific techniques I’m pretty clueless. I think I can do a half-assed back stroke.
I started swim lessons so early I barely remember it. So I’ve always been pretty comfortable in the water.
My son finally graduated from a three pack flotation device to a two pack, and they briefly got him into a one pack today.
But he won’t put his face or ears underwater, which is holding him back. I said when he started that I didn’t care if it took him five years to learn, he’s gotta learn. But now I’m beginning to wonder if five years was an underestimate.
I wouldn’t mind so much if it weren’t so expensive.
I was good enough just to barely get an A in freshman year swim class in high school.
I consider myself a terrible swimmer, and all the tests cut short just before I was about to drown. For example, I can’t tread water in a relaxed way that allows me to go on for more than a minute. Many people have tried to teach me, and the only place I’ve ever felt totally relaxed was in the Adriatic Sea, where I actually float.
OMG. My brother would always make me laugh during the test. You can’t laugh and tread water at the same time, at least I can’t! Bastard almost drowned me.
I learned to swim at about 4 and would go swimming every chance I had. I swam for an AAU swimming team for a couple years while in junior high. My high school did not have a pool so that meant no swimming team. The swimming coach from a neighboring high school recruited me and a friend to swim for his school but our school refused to let us represent another school. We swam as independent competitors in a couple swim meets and set times in our events that would have easily qualified us for the state swim meet. The state group for high school athletics refused to let us swim at state because our high school did not have a swim team. At summer camp in the Boy Scouts I swam the mile swim 6 times in 4 days. I can still swim today but a lap in a hotel pool is about as far as I can go.
Because anybody can accidentally fall off a boat, a pier, or just into the deep end of a pool. Particularly a child. If you’ve never extricated yourself from this kind of situation it can be quite frightening, and dangerous. Your weight and velocity send you much farther down than people normally swim. It’s nothing like swimming at the bottom of a five foot deep swimming pool. To pass the Advanced class when I was a kid (these were offered by the Parks and Rec department, at the high school pool, in summer), you had to jump off the high dive.
I learned to swim as a small child. I still know the mechanics of the process (muscle memory and all that) but I’m so physically out of shape that if I’m ever in a situation where swimming is required, I’d just drown.
I learned in day camp, and it wasn’t easy, since back then I had no fat on me and did not float well.
Lucky, for when I was in college passing a swimming test was required for graduation. They gave it to you early, and if you flunked you had to take a swimming class. I made it, but they weren’t rushing to put me on the swim team.
When my mother-in-law was in college, in the late '30s, she had to pass a swimming test also, but failed over and over. They finally stuck a large pole in her bathing suit. The coach took an end, and they assisted her in doing the lap.
According to the American Red Cross, while 80% of Americans say they can swim only 54% can accomplish these basic tasks in the water.
Jumping or stepping into water over your head
Floating or treading water for one minute
Rotating in a circle and finding an exit
Swimming 25 yards to the exit
Exiting the water, including without using a ladder if in a pool
My parents made a point of making sure I knew how to swim and sent me off to the Red Cross for lessons. I’ve swam in rivers, lakes, and the ocean but certainly never in rough seas. One thing I’ve never been able to do is dive into a body of water head first. Maybe that’s something I need to conquer when I turn 50.
The waters I boat on require I have a PFD on board for each adult, and they must know where they are kept. Children younger than (?) have to wear theirs.
I always tell friends they should wear theirs if they cannot swim, because if they go overboard I won’t be jumping in to save them.
