Swimming. Did they make it harder to do recently?

[markm]

I get this mostly left wing click bait feed as my home page when I open my work browser. I've noticed the heavy amount of reported drownings lately.

Most recent example of many... 3 adult males drowned saving a child. There's story after story. Goobers drown at our lakes in AZ here.

Are people too dumb to swim anymore?

[ggammell]

You’d be surprised how many people don’t know how to actually swim. Add the urgency of an actual problem, you ride to the level of your training.

[pointblank4445]

Good question.

My $0.02...at the risk of getting all nostalgic.
Used to be every other small town around here with 1k+ people had a public/park district pool that was the summer babysitter.
Back in the day you had to pass swim tests to enter the deep end, another to go off the diving board and earn your privilege to do certain things.
Swim lessons ran all the time for all levels and swim team/meets were popular.
When you became 15/16, you probably became a lifeguard by way of passing a 500m swim test for entry into a (then) 60-hour course.
That was summer in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's

Pools are far less popular for a variety of reasons. Part is due to lack of lifeguards (though the requirements are now much lower) and having to contend with other things.
These small-town pools that used to be social hubs are slowly dying out.

It does seem that there's a shift away from aquatic activities for some reason.
Swimming is weird like that, some of us do it for fun...others struggle just to avoid death.


When the subject of the mentally ill man who drowned in (AZ?) in the river, I was shocked to learn how many of the people in my agency could not "swim" when we discussed this event as a group.

[sinister]

1) Lots of children never take ANY kind of physical fitness training in school any more, let alone an elective like swimming.

2) Certain demographics never have nor take the opportunity to swim.

3) Lots of liberal-leftists immediately want someone else (i.e., government) to DO something about it -- for the children (*sob*) -- just like gun control.

[titsonritz]

My $0.02...at the risk of getting all nostalgic.
Used to be every other small town around here with 1k+ people had a public/park district pool that was the summer babysitter.
Back in the day you had to pass swim tests to enter the deep end, another to go off the diving board and earn your privilege to do certain things.
Swim lessons ran all the time for all levels and swim team/meets were popular.
When you became 15/16, you probably became a lifeguard by way of passing a 500m swim test for entry into a (then) 60-hour course.
That was summer in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's

That was my summers in the 70's and early 80's. Mom dragged us kids to swimming lessons every year, it wasn't an option, just like school..."You are going, you are learning and I expect good grades." Hated it when I was a little kid, didn't want to get out of my warm bed to go get in a cold ass pool, but as the years went on and the classes clicked off, then came the swim team, swift water rescue and lifeguard...man o' man at 15/16+ there weren't many better place to be than the pool, river, lake or ocean.

It was the same deal with my kids, no option. They didn't take it quite as far as I did but they are both capable swimmers, son is big time into snow boarding and surfs on the off season, daughter was mentioning swim lessons for her 3 year old and live 1/2 a block from the local pool, so the granddaughter is doomed to forced education, too. Wouldn't trade all the fun for anything in the world, not to mention the lifesaving skill. It just blows me away people don't make a point to learn to swim, let alone send their children out in the world unprepared to do the same. Ignorance and fear, again, just like gun control.

[chuckman]

Used to be that if you went to a North Carolina state college/university, you had to pass a swim test to graduate. Can't swim? Well, that's your 3 hour PE class. NC is second or third in the country for drowning, and that has not budged, even with the swim test requirement.

To me learning to swim has nothing to do with recreation and everything to do with knowing a lifesaving skill.

[ST911]

I get this mostly left wing click bait feed as my home page when I open my work browser. I've noticed the heavy amount of reported drownings lately.
Most recent example of many... 3 adult males drowned saving a child. There's story after story. Goobers drown at our lakes in AZ here.
Are people too dumb to swim anymore?

1) Lots of children never take ANY kind of physical fitness training in school any more, let alone an elective like swimming.
2) Certain demographics never have nor take the opportunity to swim.
3) Lots of liberal-leftists immediately want someone else (i.e., government) to DO something about it -- for the children (*sob*) -- just like gun control.

This. Greater numbers of kids are raised in areas without pools/lakes/outdoor programs or raised by people who don't do those things. (Then add stupidity, alcohol...)

It's a life skill. Our kids have been in the water since infancy.

[markm]

I scanned the bait feed yesterday after posting this and found 2 stories where people drowned. Every summer here someone at the lake decides to take a short swim and then just goes under. I get alcohol being a factor, but good God. Even if you get a cramp or something... just float on your back until you recover.

[chuckman]

We have a river and it attaches to a quarry. Every year there is a handful of drownings, almost always with 'less advantaged' people who weren't swimmers and who had no access to pools (almost all of the pools in our city cost something to get into).

Our beaches have been awful with rips this summer, already 10ish have drowned on the coast.

[markm]

Getting into a rip and going into panic, I can kind of see.

On the flip side, there was a click bait (I didn't read) about a boat Capt. who fell overboard and swam 14 miles to safety. I'd love to safely test how far/long I could swim.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/new...f41a7c91ed68dc