My nan can't swim. One of my best friends can't swim. An improbably high number of people I know can't swim.
I've kept to my February resolutions as best I could and as a result have swam 4 miles this week. Aside for it taking a long time and resulting in me becoming completely exhausted - there isn't much you can do whilst swimming but watch the other people in the pool (and compliment them on their tattoos).
Sometimes this pays off, you get hilarious moments to recall to your friends - such as the ginger in the too small bikini top popping out underwater, or two Chinese guys swimming into each other because neither of them were following the lane rules; but its just as easy to come across something you wish you hadn't - namely one of my cognitive lecturers; and not the fit female one, the middle-aged guy with horrible dress sense. Thank God he wasn't wearing Speedos or I'd have never gone back again. And would have had to drop cognitive psychology.
One of the things I notice most often though, it that on weekends there are children's swimming lessons happening in the inside lane; then I realise just how much of my ability to swim comes from my own teaching - at least if these lessons are anything to go by. I never swim front crawl, my backstroke is not brilliant (I kind of weave, but I have it under control) and my breaststroke technique has been supplemented by watching other swimmers and finding what works best.
My main issue is that most of the children that take swimming lessons (and that's like 99% of all children, ever, if you think about the schools that also go during the week) aren't going to go onto swim competitively. In fact, I know of many people who haven't swam more than a length since they finished with their school swimming lessons at the age of 11. It's good to know how to swim - in case you want to take it up as a non-impact form of exercise - but mostly because there is the possibility that could drown in a lake or something if you didn't know how to. It's also something nice to do on holiday to cool down in a hot country (not that I'd know much about that).
This is where my problem lies with how children are taught to swim. If I'm about to drown in a lake, I'm not going to front crawl with my face in the water. In fact, I'm going to do my bloody best to keep as much of me as possible dry and free from algae and other lake dwelling creatures. Similarly, I'm picking my stroke based on what will get me out with the least effort whilst allowing me to see where I'm going - so backstroke is already out, and possibly breast stroke as well. While I understand the importance of teaching many strokes to children so they can choose which stroke to employ during these situations, teaching them 'proper' technique that involves having their head underwater for 80% of the stroke is not really something that I would consider advisable if you're only preparing them to save themselves from drowning in a lake!
Also, knowing how to turn at the end of the length like Olympic swimmers do (something I was never taught) is not going to help in the slightest - unless you're going to swim competitively - yet I saw the instructors teaching a bunch of 8 year olds how to do it.
Basically, past the basics of being able to get themselves out of a sticky situation, parents should just stop wasting their money on expensive lessons for their kids. And they'd get that basic level in school.
Resolutions Update:
1. Swimming well, even if it does make me exhausted.
2. I knew I had something else to do tonight. The hoovering will have to wait until the morning, but the tidying will commence shortly.
3. Bought a new foundation brush last weekend, so it isn't due for a clean until next weekend.
4. Reading is mostly up to date, just one more journal that will be done on Tuesday.
5. Skipped one lecture on the 8th February. And nothing since.
