21st Century Swimming Lessons, Inc. has a new message: when teaching swimming, use the appropriate definition of swimming- and teach a method that works for all
SARASOTA, Fla., Aug. 19, 2011 — Swim instructional agencies sound the same call every year: teach your child to swim. Sarasota, Florida's non-profit swim school, 21st Century Swimming Lessons, Inc., has a new message: use the appropriate definition of swimming. And, teach universal steps that all can learn.
Most people say they can swim. What they mean is they can stroke across the pool to get to the side in shallow water if they must. This is not what "knowing how to swim" means in the world of water safety. In aquatics, knowing how to swim includes "the ability to rely on oneself for one's safety in deep water."
When swimming lessons began in 1912, the goal was to teach people to move to the side of the pool to get out in case they fell in. This is why swimming tests for the next 99 years consisted of swimming a length of the pool. If someone could swim the length, then surely he/she could swim to the side and get out. But according to 21st Century Swimming Lessons, the test should have been to rest in deep water for 5 minutes calmly. If someone can do that, s/he must understand how the water works (it holds him up), know how to remain in control rather than panicking, and know how to float. These are the ingredients for safety if one falls off a dock, into a backyard pool, or is carried down the street on his front porch in a storm.
The century of swimming to the side of the pool to pass a test has had dire consequences: people who passed this test thought they could swim. Though many, many people have learned to swim, just as many, if not more, have not. According to a 1998 Gallup Poll, 46% of American adults are afraid in deep water in pools. Thirty-nine percent are afraid to put their heads under water. Sixty-four percent are afraid in deep, open water. If one is afraid in water, he cannot swim – even if he can do strokes.
The reason that half of the population didn't learn to swim is that they were not taught the basics: the traditional "Beginning Swimming" class curriculum is too advanced for half the population in the United States (and elsewhere). There are so many steps skipped in swim lessons – if you're someone who doesn't "know" the water" – that it's virtually impossible to learn the traditional way. People panic. Thus, the need for a new paradigm: seeing a person as not only a body and mind, but also as a spirit; you have to "be here and stay here" to prevent panic.
Today, over seventy percent of drownings in America are by adults (CDC, 2010). Many of them had likely taken swimming lessons but never learned to swim.
As of September, New York City and Charleston, SC will have a resource that few other cities in the world have: classes for "ultra-beginners." Adults who are new to the water or who realize they have a fear of it are taught with groundbreaking steps that cannot fail. Miracle Swimming Institute developed these steps in 1983 and gave the nation a new paradigm for teaching and teaching swimming. Today, 43 instructors worldwide teach it.
Columbus, Ohio will add the classes in January. Classes are already available in Sarasota and Brandon FL, Berkeley, San Jose and Thousand Oaks CA, Seattle and Bellevue WA, Dallas and Fort Worth TX, Allentown PA, Piscataway NJ, Kailua HI, and Annapolis MD as well as the Philippines and England.
Media Contact:
M. Ellen Dash
21st Century Swimming Lessons, Inc. and Miracle Swimming Institute
941-921-6420
http://www.conquerfear.com
Email
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