Why teaching kids how to swim is incredibly important

USA Swimming set a
Guinness record for the world’s largest kickboard earlier this
year.
Mike Lewis / USA Swimming
Foundation

• Drowning is a leading cause of death for
  children.
• An alarming number of children don’t know how to swim
  or have weak swimming ability.
• USA Swimming Foundation both supports up-and-coming
  competitive swimmers and promotes swimming instruction for
  younger people.

Summertime is water time. We head out for the seaside or the
lakefront, we hop into rowboats and sailboats and powerboats, and
we spend time cooling off at pools.

But as much as we love water, the stuff can be dangerous.
Particularly for children.

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“from 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 fatal
unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the
United States — about ten deaths per day.” 

Approximately one in five drowning deaths involve children 14 and
younger, the CDC adds, and “for every child who dies from
drowning, another five receive emergency department care for
nonfatal submersion injuries.”

I was taught to swim early in life, through frequent lessons at
public pools. I’ve been swimming now for over four decades, and
although I’ve never encountered anything dangerous, I’ve also
enjoyed the confidence that comes from knowing I can handle
myself in the water.

I have three children, and they’ve all learned to swim. My
daughter is the most capable, but both my sons are able to deal
with pools and the ocean. My youngest is still working on his
skills, but he’s coming along and he has a healthy respect for
water.

The bottom line is that while I’m not fanatical about learning to
swim, I don’t think anyone who isn’t physically disadvantaged
should enter adolescence without being able to float, tread
water, and undertake a basic breaststroke or freestyle.

I recently had the chance to discuss the issue with some serious
swimmers to see what they thought about the topic.

8 in 10 child drownings happen in front of parents

“Water is a magnet for children,” said Rowdy Gaines, who has won
three Olympic gold medals in swimming. “But we’ve found a cure
for drowning, and it’s pretty simple.”

Gaines believes that when a child learns to walk, they should
learn to swim. And that’s not just for the kid’s benefit — it can
provide parents with peace of mind. The 59-year-0ld former
Olympian and well-known swimming analyst for broadcast TV serves
as an ambassador for USA Swimming Foundation. He reminded me that
80% of child drownings happen in front of parents; hot tubs and
bathtubs are notoriously dangerous.

“There’s a 88% reduction in risk if they take swim lessons,” he
said.

Reece Whitley, rear, and
Olympian Cullen Jones with a young swimmer.
Mike Lewis / USA Swimming
Foundation

What starts out as a safety measure can, in Gaines’ case, become
a fantastic career. But it call also lead to lifetime of fitness
— a full-body workout that’s a noted calorie burner and less
stressful on joints than running. I used to play a lot of squash,
another noted fitness-booster, but my back and knees ached after
an hour on court. So I took to swimming five or ten laps as a
sort of therapeutic cool-down, to great success.

Gaines told me that there are what he calls “swimming-kid
personalities,” so parents shouldn’t get too hung up on whether
their child isn’t gliding around like a dolphin right away.

“Some kids have a slower process,” he added. “It’s around their
emotional capacity.”

You also want to carefully select your instructor. “If you take
em to the wrong provider, it can create fear,” he said. “But if
you do it the right way, your child will learn how to float on
their back, which is an essential lifesaving skill.”

I’ve seen the swimming-kid personalities up close. My
mermaid-like daughter swims without effort, learned quickly, but
doesn’t like to swim laps and has no interest in competition. My
older son is more awkward, but he’s been getting stronger in the
water as he’s aged. My youngest son in the slow learner, but he
knows his limits and has benefitted from one-on-one private
lessons.

Even great swimmers have something to learn

None of my kids are going to follow in Gaines’ wake and pursue
aquatic glory. But 18-year-old Reece Whitley is. The
6-foot-9-inch African-American swimmer was a junior standout and
is now at the University of California, Berkeley. In February at
the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming Championships, he
notched a pair of first-places in two different sections, and his
has the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in his sights.

I talked with him about his life and career as USA Swimming
Foundation was kicking off Water Safety Month in May, with some
alarming stats in the foreground.

According to the organization, “nearly 64% of
African-American children, 45% of Hispanic children and 40% of
Caucasian children have no/low swimming ability, putting them at
risk for drowning.”

Like many kids, Whitley wasn’t an immediate success in the water,
but he was determined.

“I learned at age seven,” he said. “But I failed a deep water
test at summer camp. I don’t like to be told no, so I told my mom
I needed swim lessons.”

Although his rise in junior swimming has been relatively swift —
he’s was on the national junior team at age 14 and was
named Sports Illustrated Kids’ SportsKid of the Year
in 2015 — he admits that he wasn’t that great when he was
young and that he only began to accelerate when he turned 13.

“We emphasize how important a life skill it is for people of all
ages,” he said, a reminder that if you didn’t learned to swim as
a kid, it’s never too late.

“It’s a life skill and and a survival skill,” he said.