Do you and your kids know how to swim?

[TPFKA@W]

I was surprised at the statistics. Forty percent of Caucasians can't, 60% of Hispanics can't, and 70% of African -Americans can't.

I learned very early with lessons and my parents both could swim.

Can you swim, did your parents swim and can your kids swim?

[Big RR]

Yes to all 3; I'm surprised the numbers are as high as that too.

[MajGenl.Meade]

A (white) South African euphemism for blacks is "non-swimmers"

I can swim but I detest the activity

ETA: my son can swim - no idea about my step-daughter but I suspect not so much. My (middle class) mother could swim; my (working class) father could not. Despite some swimming lessons at school when I was about 8, I really taught myself to swim when I was 15/16.

[Guinevere]

Good lord yes. I started swimming at 3 years old (my father and my grandfather both had boats -- so my parents got me to lessons early). It's a basic life skill, and something that gives me great pleasure.

Cornell still requires that its entering freshman pass a swim test and you will not graduate until you pass:

The university has only two requirements for graduation that must be fulfilled: the swim test and physical education courses. A student’s college determines degree requirements such as residency, number of credits, distribution of credits, and grade averages.

The Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education has established a basic swimming and water safety competency requirement for all entering freshman undergraduate students. Normally, the test is given at the Helen Newman Hall and Teagle Hall pools as part of their orientation process. The test consists of a feet-first entry into the deep end of the pool and a continuous 75-yard swim using front, back, and optional strokes. Any student who cannot pass the swim test is required to register for PE 1100 - Beginning Swimming as his or her physical education course before electives can be chosen. A swim test hold will be placed on the student’s record until he or she has passed the swim test or fulfilled the requirement by satisfactorily completing all attendance requirements for two semesters of Beginning Swimming and having the recommendation of the instructor. Students unable to meet the swim requirement because of medical reasons should contact the Office of Student Disability Services. Students who have religious or other reasons must petition the Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education for a waiver of the requirement. When a waiver is granted by the Faculty Committee on Physical Education, an alternate requirement is imposed. The alternate requirement substitutes one of the following courses: PE 1626 - Wilderness First Responder or PE 1265 - Wellness and Fitness for the original swimming requirement.

[oldr_n_wsr]

We all can swim. We had the Mineola pool that was my home away from home when I was growing up. I passed the Senior Lifesaving course at age 11. Was on the swim and diving teams. Made sure my kids took swimming lessons when they were young. They didn't like it at the time but now are thankful I made them learn the many ways there are to swim effectively and efficieantly.

[Sue U]

My parents could swim, the SU and I swim, and our kids swim (our girls have been on the swim team at our community pool since we joined two years ago).

I'm also surprised by the high numbers of non-swimmers. It seems like most everyone around here can (and does) swim. Are there regional differences?

[oldr_n_wsr]

I too am surprised at the numbers. I always knew that minorities had a higher percentage of non swimmers, but 40% and higher for all peolpe is highter than I would have guessed. As Sue U said, would be nice to see geographical breakdowns.

[Long Run]

Yes to all three for me and pretty much everyone I know. If this is based on the Red Cross study from earlier this year, there is a big disparity between what people think of their swimming ability and what they can functionally do. http://time.com/106912/red-cross-swimming-campaign/

The racial disparity is well known, but it appears to be based more on cultural factors than access to a pool: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefau ... TabId=1796 If the parents don't swim, then it very unlikely the children will, and there is usually a high fear of drowning which leads to avoidance of the water. Seems like swim lessons would be an excellent elementary school PE requirement.

[Lord Jim]

Yes to all 3; I'm surprised the numbers are as high as that too.

Ditto...

I wonder what the percentage is on how many don't know how to ride a bike...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Less than those who can't spell it

[oldr_n_wsr]

there is a big disparity between what people think of their swimming ability and what they can functionally do.

I don't doubt that. While I did teach my kids how to stay afloat and get from one end of the pool to the other, I sent them to lessons to learn different swimming strokes and techniques. They were both able to stop taking lessons when they were able to swim across the lake up in Pa. (about a mile across).

[Crackpot]

I can swim if a gun is held to my head. My wife and swim and my son is learning. I suspect the ability to swim is party linked to the availability of swimable water.

[TPFKA@W]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... _swim.html

This says it seems tied to income. My husband came from a very poor family, 4 kids and an alcoholic non-working father, I came from blue collar working parents who were slightly more well off.
His mother pulled the kids across town in a wagon for swimming lessons. My parents took me to the local pool for lessons.

I would boil it down to priorities.

[Gob]

Can you swim? No

Did your parents swim? No

And can your kids swim? Hatch is a strong swimmer, Hen used to compete at swimming.


I remember when I was a small kid, being in the sea at our local beach. My old man would wade in, up to his ankles, smoking a cigarette, and shout at me to "throw yourself in" and "just stick your head under, it's easy!".

[rubato]

Can you swim? Yes

Did your parents swim? Yes

My grandfather loved swimming every chance he could. When he went back to Denmark for part of his college education he jumped into the cold sea and in Ethiopia he was famous for handing the rifle to someone else and saying "if you see a crocodile, just shoot at it" and then jumping into the river to paddle around. Now you would think that something someone did all the time they would get pretty good at it wouldn't you? And he did swim a lot. He set an annual goal ranging from 50 to 100 miles which he would complete by swimming 5 days a week at the local college pool. And with not a lick of style. He did some kind of leisurely crawl stroke rolling his head over to one side to breathe and churned his arms around with the regularity of a paddle-wheeler. He knew they layout of the pool so well that he continued when most of his eyesight was gone. I was dispatched to pick him up one time and he didn't recognize me at 6 feet.

The swimming must have been good for him since he made it to 97.

The only time I've been swimming in the ocean in recent years was a trip to Maui where we snorkeled.

yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

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I wouldn't swim in the forbidden sea either.

[Jarlaxle]

I can swim (though haven't in close to 15 years)...Liz can, but she has the fundamental problem of density. Seriously: in fresh water, she sinks! My mother is a good swimmer (she was a lifeguard).

[BoSoxGal]

I learned to swim very young - 3 or 4? - we had an above ground pool when I was little and then an in-ground pool later on (my mother was office manager for a pool company, the only reason we could afford it).

My grandparents had the house in Chatham, where I spent time in the water even as a baby - I'm a very strong swimmer and know all the strokes but never had any lessons.

Parents and grandparents were all swimmers; don't have kids but if I did, they'd be swimmers too.

I can't imagine not knowing how to swim - it's one of my favorite activities and without it, I'd never have been able to learn an even more favorite activity, scuba diving.

[Reality Bytes]

Yes to all 3 - I learned to swim before I started school my parents took me to the pool from a few months old. When I did start school swimming lessons were compulsory, we used to be taken to the Cold Knap Lido - which was an unheated outdoor pool that was always breathtakingly freezing. I was doing lengths whilst my classmates were learning to float.

Brahms and I followed the same tradition with Xeno we started taking him swimming from about 6 months old, he had his 25 metre badge before he started nursery school. I even still have his toddler swimming trunks with all his early badges on which I brought out to show him only recently when he was here with Owen. He and my DIL have continued the tradition another generation as my grandson has been going swimming since he was 4 months old and started "lessons" about a month ago he's the youngest in the class the other babies are all over 6 months.

We are all off on holiday next week and chose the hotel because it has a water park on site so we'll all be swimming daily