Do you know how to swim?

[jymbee]

Read a statistic this morning that I found hard to believe:

Only about 35% of Americans know how to swim, and only 2% to 7% swim well,...

When we were kids, long before there was a swimming pool in town, we had several favorite "swimming holes" in local creeks. Have to admit were I to drive by any of these spots today and actually saw people swimming I'd be pretty surprised. After all, lots of critters and no chlorine. But I can't think of any kids my age that didn't at least know how to swim! Have things changed that much?

Article here

[creekbend]

In my Youth, I went swimming in the way that you previously described.

[MIKE R]

I can swim. Don't know the proper techniques or names but I can move along quite well doing the frog swim.

[jerrybob]

Avid kayaker here......if I couldn't swim.....might not be here! Taught the kids to swim real early.....our 1.5 year old granddaughter took swim lessons this past summer......that stat. is a bit of a surprise.

[Lou66]

I think you are talking about the breast stroke Mike.. I don't remember learning how to swim,, I just always could,, We had a spring fed creek that was damed up.. cold in the summer and warm in the winter.. Lou

[Ted Summey]

Sure I know "how" but am only an okay swimmer despite the swimming lessons my parents paid for. sort of like the singing lessons except my lack of swimming skill doesn't hurt anyone else. I did a lot of "swimming" in swimming holes and at the lake growing up.

My three kids swim well and were on the high school swim team. They got their swimming skills from their mother who was a lifeguard in high school and college.

[dave1949]

I know how to swim, not very elegant. I stick to a side crawl and backstroke. My Mom made sure all of us kids got swimming lessons. I think they were from the Red Cross at the local swimming pool.

The number who can't swim doesn't really surprise me. Our town budgets money every year for parents who want to enroll their kids in a swimming class, it often goes unused. Given the number of lakes and rivers around here, I would be making sure my kids can swim.

[don45640]

My brother and I could swim,but we were heavier than water......yes,it happens! We could sink right to the bottom if we wanted.That made swimming more tiresome for me and my older Bro,while our younger bros floated just fine.
So I CAN swim,but it tires me with the extra effort it takes to stay afloat.Of course I haven't swam in years,and I've gotten fatter,so maybe I'll float now? LOL! don-ohio (:^)

[dmccarty]

I grew up in FLA. I don't know how anyone could grow up in FLA when I was a kid and not know how to swim. I spent more time in and on the water some days than I did awake on land.

I think many people don't know how to swim which surprised me when I first saw some statistics. UNC had a requirement that all students take a swimming class to graduate. I think I just read they got rid of the requirement or were talking about doing so. Years ago I read that the requirement was from WWII when UNC had a big Navy ROTC program but I have also read that the requirement happened when some UNC students drowned many, many years ago. Nobody seems to know why the requirement exists anymore.

Later,
Dan

[Ted Summey]

ECU had the required swim test until Fall of 2011. Way back when I went there we had to pass the swim test that included a 100 meter swim, a one minute float on your back and 15 minutes, yes 15 minutes, of drown proofing which was a deadman float/treading water sort of thing. For a tall skinny guy that displaced enough water to fill a small bucket, floating was nearly impossible. If it weren't for the very nice female blonde grad student who worked with floating challenged, I would still be trying to pass that test.

We heard the same legend about the test being required because some students drowned. Seemed like there were all kinds of detail to the story but my memory fails me now (30 years later).