The Glitch in Swimming Lessons
The Learn to Swim industry focuses on teaching people to go from here to there. But that’s not what saves lives. What saves lives is the ability to go from here to there AND the ability to rest in deep water. Every person needs to be peaceful going nowhere in deep water.
When people drown, they’re trying to get to a destination and they can’t: they lose their bearings, run out of air, swallow water or get a cramp. They get tired. Inhale under water. Water enters their nose. They realize that they’re in deep water and they think they’ll sink. They panic. They freeze. They can't move. They're not "there."
It doesn’t matter if they learned a stroke. They can't use it.
Most swimming lessons don’t teach people to be still in deep water. They don’t teach people how to be in control. Inadequate swimming lessons are a big part of the drowning problem.
Eighty percent of US drownings are by adults. LTS doesn’t address adults. Drowning Prevention in the US doesn’t either. This is another part of the drowning problem.
If people can peacefully stop and rest in water over their heads, the situations above don’t happen—or they’re manageable because people are in control. Being in control is safer than being out of control.
We can change the LTS landscape for adult swimmers, kids, and instructor training. My school has taught adequate lessons for 41 years. I wrote the book on it.
If adult swim students can rest in deep water, they say, "I can swim." They’re safe. They're right, they can swim, whether or not they use formal strokes.
The main goal of swimming lessons is drowning prevention. And drowning prevention relies on the ability to rest in water over one’s head.