Why can’t everyone swim???

[GorgeousFox]

Am interested in understanding what is stopping children from learning to swim? Is it the cost, lack of facilities, time constraints, something else?????

My son did (admittedly very oversubscibed and short) lessons and i take him regularly and try to teach him, but he is not a natural. You know when you lay back and don't move, you can just float? Well, he doesn't he sinks...same with his dad. Must be their lack of fat, or they have metal skeletons. So weird! Anyone else like that?

My dad.

Yet he was a national level swimmer.

It can be done.

But you need to try and move and learn to breathe properly as air in the lungs helps you float.

OP I think that's an amazing idea. Swim England is really pushing for more diversity and inclusivity in swimming and have just launched a new role focussing on this.

I'm sure they be really interested in working with a charity supporting this.

This year they have got integrated programmes and so para swimmers attend same talent programmes as able bodied swimmers.

But people also assume those who are really good come from middle class backgrounds. They don't and also need grants and support to carry on when good.

It's such an amazing sport but does need a lot of work from grass roots upwards to make it more financially accessible.

Because they're not taught.
For any or all of the reasons you listed. Same goes for almost everything in life... Why doesn't everyone know sign language? Why doesn't every adult drive? Why can't every driver change a tyre?

Simply because they don't learn to.

I think it depends on your upbringing and also if there is access to it nearby which doesn't cost the earth!

I was brought up with my mum taking me swimming followed by swim lessons and ended up competitive swimming as a child so for me water confidence and safety is vitally important for my children. My husband couldnt swim properly ril his mid 20s and I taught him to swim so was important for him too that they both learnt young. Both have started swimming lessons by 10 weeks old.
But swimming is prioritised above all else so we don't do a lot of preschooler classes like football etc

I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen it - i thought H was having me on when we first met. He is a lost cause now but i persevere with DS. He likes the water so that is positive. He got a certificate for doing 10m but i could see him keep putting his legs down but the teacher was supervising about 10 others so missed it - he was thrilled!!

Like a pp says, it's really hard to understand how people can't swim once you've learnt yourself. Like driving or anything i guess, so it's hard to teach unless you know how; ends in frustration!

When DS was at the local Primary school, the juniors got 6 weeks of swimming per school year. So if your parents didn't pay for private lessons or teach you themselves you were unlikely to learn to swim.
Our local pool - 5 miles away - has been closed for the last 2 years as it is beyond economic repair. The council have approved funding to knock it down and rebuild but if that ever goes ahead (it hasn't started yet) it will be 2025 before it opens. The nearest pools to the closed one are 10 miles, 12 miles and 9 miles in an area with poor public transport. So lots of children will miss out on ever going swimming.

Post covid, waiting lists for private lessons have grown massively - they were always long anyway.

My child has lessons now, she is 11.- we started when she was 8 y old. Covid stopped it all for 1.5 year.
She hates it, thinking to just stop. Every week she hates it, won’t jump in, won’t put face in higher than her chin. It’s mad.
I can’t swim either, never learned as of medical condition.

Hi OP, I never pushed DS with swimming. He hated hated hated water on his face when young and would often have meltdowns in the bath / would not go in the shower. I took him to pre-school lessons with me in the pool to give him some confidence but the actual lessons were useless - instructor shouting from edge of pool.

I finally got DS into one to one lesson and it was brilliant (but v v expensive - £30 per 30 minutes). I could afford it and the difference re quality of teaching was amazing but then Covid hit. Swimming pools were incredibly slow to open / hire out so we missed 2+ years of lessons. I finally managed to get a spot and we've started up again and guess what, DS loves swimming but it has been a long torturous process.

I'm a dreadful swimmer (no proper lessons in my day) and would like lessons to improve but cannot afford it at the moment because it's important to me that DS learns to swim well.

Yep - my local leisure centre hasn't reopened

My parents didn't think it was important. I can only swim at all because a dedicated PE teacher kept me behind class one day to finally get it into me when I was 12. There wasn't enough time for pupils one on one at secondary school and classes before that weren't much good.

Oh how many times. My Ds aged not quite 13 has been having group and single lessons since aged 4. He has SEN and dyspraxia (like dyslexia but for coordnation). He had has literally 100s of group and signle lessons. He cannot swim a single stoke. He cannot put his head (or indeed his forehead) undrwater. he barely understands the english language.

But apparently everyone can swim.

Oh FFS. I am so tired if trying to fit in with the fucking maintsream.

There's a lot of companies that push starting to swim as a baby and toddler but IMO it's a waste of money as my DS is at exactly the same level now as his peers who've been taken to pools forever thanks to 1 to 1 lessons

I only learned at 11 yrs old because I started at a school where you had to swim in PE lessons. I was very fearful of the water and hated it in my ears and eyes. I did eventually learn and my mother took me to separate lessons elsewhere to boost my confidence. But yes, basically confidence and sensory issues put me off.

Where I grew up everyone had to learn to swim because there were so many lakes and large ponds in the area it was dangerous and irresponsible not to ensure your children could swim.

It was a mix of my dad teaching me and formal lessons once I was about 6 or 7. I am a terrible swimmer but I am outstanding at Not Drowning and moving around safely in the water. I insisted on my children learning, but the resistant one only did so on holiday across a fortnight because he hated being left out of play.

Often it's about motivation.

It’s a very white thing to do. My parents didn’t prioritise it, food and clothing was more important, we had only holidays to family’s houses.

I had the National Curriculum lessons. I’m a very weak and poor swimmer.

People who can’t swim tend to be more cautious around large bodies of water.
They are less likely to choose hobbies/ go on holidays that involve water so they’re probably far less likely than people who do those activities regularly to drown.
In the case of an accident where your car goes off a cliff or somebody shoves you off a bridge or something, a strong swimmer in good physical shape has a relatively good chance of saving themselves, but the shock might cause the person to inhale when they hit the water or they may be injured and unable to swim anyway and I don’t know how useful a few lessons at school decades ago would come in handy.
A person who can’t swim and doesn’t spend a lot of time on boats or hanging about beside a reservoir should probably be ok.

My dh can't swim. Childhood trauma of nearly drawning.
My ds can't swim, because he is totally afraid of putting his face into the water, due to his traits. School swimming was horrible, but thanks to the teachers/instructors, somehow managed. Not putting him through that again.
I'm a very confident swimmer. so I can save them if I need to. And there are life vest, etc, and way to avoid water. So, not really worried either.

It's in the national curriculum so it's interesting that so many kids aren't receiving any lessons through school. I wonder if it gets noted in an ofsted inspections etc.

I took my youngest when I knew there were classes on - I'd watch the teacher and copy what they were doing. Watched loads of u tube videos too

Most mammals can swim - I often wonder why we need to be taught.

Does anyone remember the school swimming programme where you had to jump into the pool with clothes on and take them off in the water and stuff like that? We did that when I was a kid but it doesn't seem to be a part of school lessons these days.

DS had years of lessons. He has ASD and cannot put his face in the water for anxiety. A well meaning swim teacher cemented it by forcibly dunking him. Consequently he never got past level 1/shallow end and we gave up when he was tall enough to be waist deep.
Would welcome any ideas. It would have been better for him to be allowed to learn "badly" in my view so at least he could swim without face in the water. He's 17 now though so would need an adult class.

@dreamingbohemian

I don't think people plan to fall into deep water but yet still they do... and they drown!

Our local pool was demolished pre-COVID and hasn't been replaced.

The nearest public pool is half an hour away.