See this Explainer column from Slate.com, saying that 37% of American adults couldn’t swim 24 yards, and that “almost 54 percent of children between 12 and 18 can do no more than splash around the shallow end of a pool”.
I understand how people can’t do the breaststroke, or freestyle, or something that requires special technique (I can’t do those myself). What I can’t quite understand is how people don’t know how to do basic doggy paddling to stay afloat - it just seems instinctual. But, there you have it - a lot of people apparently can’t.
So those of you who can’t swim…what happens when you get into deep water? Do you just not know how to move your legs to keep afloat? Do you panic and kick too hard or something? Tell us about it.
I can float all day without any effort and swim at least a couple of laps in a pool, but my husband can’t float and swimming for him is swimming for his life (and no, there is no method to make him float better - he is of a dense construction, and he just doesn’t float). He might benefit from taking some lessons and learning proper technique, but swimming for him will never be like it is for other people.
I have been able to swim great since I was three but it took my oldest daughter years to learn even with lots of professional lessons. I can’t completely understand why some people can’t swim because it is one of the easiest things for me but I think I know by watching people having trouble. They basically try way to hard when they get in water over their head and panic and wear themselves out creating a drowning risks and the fear feeds back into the problem. People claim the problem is that they can’t float but that isn’t it because most swimmers don’t float that well either.
They just have a hard time judging how hard an effort to make to keep their nose and mouth above water enough to breath. It doesn’t take much effort at all to if you know the type of arm and leg movements you need to make but they don’t know that so they try harder and get into more trouble as they panic and wear out.
I don’t get this one either. I’m a straight up sinker and I adore the water. It isn’t hard to stay afloat, just wave your arms about slowly in the water and that’s it.
I can’t swim at all. Never learned how to do it when I was young. Now I’m 38 and the last time I went near a body of water recreationally, I was probably still in middle school. It just isn’t part of my life, so I haven’t learned.
I mean, I don’t know - toss me in deep water and maybe I’d figure it out by instinct. Maybe. shrug
Take away my flotation device and I will flail in a panic until I drown, despite several attempts at swimming classes as a youth. The minute I start to sink panic takes over and the flailing begins. I couldn’t seem to help it.
Sometimes I think the overwhelming fear might be result of going to an aunt’s funeral when I was a toddler. She and her husband (and her not quite delivered yet baby) drowned. It was a family tragedy I was aware of all my life.
I wonder what the figures are for Australia. We have had the government run Swimsafe program in this state, at least, for 30 years. In that time 1.5 million kids have learned to swim. Both my sons went and everyone I know that has children has had them taught. The lessons don’t cost much and are usually held in the school holidays. I have never heard of a kid not being able to learn to swim.
I think swimming for many people is an awful lot riding a bike. Once you can do it, it’s soooo easy that you don’t even think about all the little adjustments you make with your body even with “simple” stuff like treading water or doggie-paddling. Meanwhile, people who can’t swim hear advice from swimmers like ‘just relax’ or ‘just paddle like a dog, it’s natural’ or whatever, and manage to just swallow gulps of water and tire themselves out.
I’m not a non-swimmer, but I didn’t learn how to ride a bike until middle school age or so. I hated falling, I was scared, I got so nervous every time I tried. Finally I got sick of not being able to ride, and just worked on it until I got it - and what you can’t really communicate is all those subconscious adjustments that are subtle and natural because you just know what you have to do to stay upright on the bike. Non-bicyclists overcorrect and fumble and panic, much like non-swimmers in the water.
Hell, a huge number of Americans probably can’t even walk 24 yards.
As for swimming, there are some families that simply don’t swim. If you don’t learn it and start doing it when you are growing up, you probably never will.
I was raised in a non-swimming household. We lived in land-locked central Indiana so water opportunities were few and far between. I finally learned to float and dog-paddle in my 30’s but I would still flail and drown if I ever got in trouble.
I have skinny legs so no matter how I kicked, I couldn’t move. However, a couple of years ago, a coworker told me “kick” means to move your entire leg from the hip joint, not just from the knee.
Thickness of legs has little/nothing to do with it. If your ankles are not very flexible, kicking won’t provide much propulsion. Some people actually move backwards when kicking.
I think its a shame that so many people don’t learn to swim at an early age. Just seems like a good skill to know in life. I’m not saying everyone should be able to swim a quarter mile or anything - but at least to know how to float with little effort and have some degree of self confidence in the water. But I do suppose that if you’re from a land-locked state, its a much lower priority.
I’ll buy a non-swimming household, but not being landlocked as an excuse - I grew up in land-locked Saskatchewan, and we swam frequently - backyard small pool, local lakes, public swimming pools, etc. There was a river nearby, too, but we didn’t swim in it for some reason.
Swimming is instinctual. I cannot think of a mammal than cannot swim.
Human babies swim fine (more). They hold their breath, paddle around and are not fussed about it at all. Seem to like it actually.
Most people float…particularly Americans which tend to be overweight. If you are very lean and muscle-bound you may sink and literally must swim to stay afloat. That level of low fat and lots of muscle is not common such that you’d sink (though I have seen it).
Bottom line is the danger is panic. People who “know they can’t swim” spaz, burn energy real fast and drown (weird process and one others may not even notice happening in front of them). Even people who are not good swimmers can stay afloat…it is easy with minimal energy.
I am amazed that in this day and age there are people who cannot swim. I think ALL kids should be taught it at the earliest age possible. That is not to say they need to be taught proper freestyle form…just taught to be comfortable in the water.
Six teens in Louisiana drowned last weekend. That is a tragedy that never should have happened (and not to be cruel but WTF are people who can’t swim doing in the water?). This was an eminently avoidable tragedy. Every kid should be taught the very basics of swimming at the least. I can see no reason in the US why this shouldn’t be so.
Me: Former lifeguard, avid scuba diver, high school swimmer/diver and all-around fish.
I’ve watched Whatsit Jr. struggling along in his swimming lessons, and the thing with floating is that you have to relax your body and lean your head backwards into the water in order to do it. If you keep trying to lift your head up, it forces your torso down into the water and you sink. So I can easily imagine that someone unfamiliar with the water or with limited swimming skills, wouldn’t be able to manage this in a survival situation.