
Originally Posted by
melondash
To grow USMS, we need to provide a way for beginners to begin. Currently, there is no program for this, though the April Adult Learn to Swim month is a start. Beginners are adults who are afraid in water or those who aren't that afraid, but who don't "know the water." Both of these populations are unaware of how the water works. There are 109 million adults who are afraid in water just in pools in the U.S. (46% of the adult population). That means they cannot swim: someone who knows how to swim is not afraid in deep water. There is an established program to teach adults who are afraid in water to swim which is highly successful. It should be plugged into ALTS month... all year.
A second thing we need to grow USMS is to define the term, "knowing how to swim." Half the country thinks knowing how to swim means being able to do freestyle. The other half thinks it means being able to rely on yourself for your safety in deep water, whether you can do freestyle or not. That means many people who think they can swim actually can't. In LTS, safety has to come first. If a boat captain took a load of tourists offshore on a sunset cruise and the yacht capsized, the captain would not be asking, "Who can do a tidy freestyle to shore?" He/she would ask, "Who is safe out there and who do I need to worry about?" The ones who can be in the water and keep their wits about them, waiting patiently for rescue are the ones who can swim. The ones who are losing it are the ones who have no idea that water holds them up and that they can rest there. They have no idea how to prevent panic because they have not learned any more than, "Don't panic." And that has not been learned.
Knowing how to swim means being able to rely on yourself for your safety in deep water, whether you can do freestyle or not. Once someone learns to swim, then s/he has attention to spare for learning strokes: s/he's no longer focused on survival. Strokes are simply advanced techniques of swimming which add tremendously to efficiency.
The third thing we need to grow USMS is coaches and instructors who know that teaching strokes and mechanics does not help someone overcome their fear of deep water. We have so many teachers who teach people to stroke in shallow water, but this does nothing to make them safe in deep water. Telling people, "The deep works the same as the shallow" does not help! If people can do laps in the shallow but can't swim or be safe in the deep, we have not taught them to swim. We have taught them to stroke. People are not satisfied with this. It's the old, "Yes, but." "Yes, I can do freestyle, but, I can't really swim yet: I'm afraid in the deep."
It takes 48 hours of classes for an adult who's afraid in water to go from being afraid to put his/her face in the shower to being completely free in deep water for 10 minutes, or however long they want to be there. Imagine if all USMS coaches knew how to teach this. It takes 30 hours or less for people who can swim to learn freestyle. It takes 42 hours to learn back, breast, and fly...legally. It takes a month or two to help people overcome their fear of being on a masters team. But if there were groups for these newbie graduates to step into, comprised only of others like them, then we'd have a step-by-step ladder for anyone to enter swimming and become masters swimmers.
This is what is needed.
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