Systemic Teaching Errors in Swimming Lessons Prevent Learning to Swim and Add to the Drowning Rate - Miracle Swimming School for Adults Calls for Change

'If swimming students and instructors worked toward the same goal, many drownings could be prevented.'

SARASOTA, Fla., Dec. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Three significant errors in traditional swimming instruction have actually prevented swimming students from becoming safe in water and by extension, contributed to the high number of drownings in the U.S. according to Miracle Swimming School for Adults (MSSA) of Florida:

1. Swimming students and parents presume that learning to swim means becoming safe in deep water. The main swimming instruction agencies presume that learning to swim means learning strokes. While learning strokes makes many children safe in deep water, it is not true for adults. Adults comprise 80% of drownings in the U.S. (CDC 2020). These agencies do not teach students how to be safe in deep water. Instructors seem unaware of the error.

2. The agencies teach that a correct float, which is one of the keys to learning to swim, is horizontal. However, many people are supported by the water (float) in a diagonal or vertical position, which are also correct. Many instructors tell such floaters to make their bodies horizontal which requires them to raise their legs, causing their faces to submerge and leading to frustration and failure. Some instructors don't teach floating at all.

3. The swim test given to "swimmers" to demonstrate that someone is safe in water fails to demonstrate safety. Many people believe they can swim because they pass the test. The test allows nervous "swimmers" to pass by floating for only one minute. Nervousness in deep water is not safe. Someone who's afraid in deep water can't swim. Someone who can swim is not afraid in deep water. An afraid (nervous) swimmer is closer to panic—the biggest danger in the water—than someone who is peaceful in deep water.

MSSA will hold a masterclass online for swimming instructors, parents, and the media to learn how to guarantee that swimming students emerge from lessons safe in deep water, and to identify other errors in swim instruction that delay or prevent learning to swim.

Learn more about Miracle Swimming's masterclass by visiting Miracle Swimming's Facebook page. Follow MSSA on social media: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn.

Media Contact: 
Melon Dash, Founder
1-941-921-6420
[email protected] 

SOURCE Miracle Swimming School for Adults