For Educational Institutions

Educational Institutions must consider revising their current beginner’s swimming course(s) to include instruction that robustly tackles deep water apprehension and foundational self-rescue skills.

People who fear deep water are more likely to panic when submerged in it, and panic is an established precursor to drowning. We propose a revised course that teaches students to mitigate their fear, avoid panic in deep water, and inculcate basic swimming competence and self-rescue skills.

One of the challenges in water safety is that many people are apprehensive and cannot self-rescue from deep water. A 2014 Red Cross poll of Americans showed that even though 80% of Americans self-reported as being able to swim, only 56% of the “swimmers” were able to demonstrate all five basic water safety competence skills: submerging in water above their head and returning to the surface, floating or threading for one minute, turning around in water to find the exit, swimming 25 yards to the exit, and exit without using stairs or ladder. Based on the survey, only about 45% (56% of 80% of “swimmers”) of people would be able to safely self-rescue from deep water. These statistics and resulting high drowning rates are even more acute in certain communities and for people from low to middle income countries.

Several educational institutions like Cornell, Notre Dame, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Dartmouth, the University of Chicago, and my alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have long recognized the importance of swimming competency for its students. For instance, freshmen at MIT are informed during orientation that they would be required to pass a 100-yard swim test or take a beginners’ swimming class to graduate. These programs are well-intentioned.

Unfortunately, there are alumni who have completed their university’s beginners’ swimming class and are still apprehensive in deep water. Some have an aversion to and avoid deep water as much as possible. Some have even gone on to suffer near-drowning experiences. I know because I am one of such alumnae.

I took the beginners’ swimming class at the university and checked the box to graduate. I even took subsequent swimming classes and water safety training for my offshore job. These were not sufficient to abate my deep-water apprehension, and I had two close calls with death by drowning. I have had numerous conversations with other alumni and current students who share similar stories as mine. Like me, they passed the final swim test and learned how to “move,” but most of them still don’t feel safe in deep water till this day.

Take Action

It is our recommendation that educational institutions adopt the following approaches to ensure that their swimming program caters to all students, regardless of swimming background:

(1) Implement a revised and NO-JUDGMENT approach to their current swim test. A no-judgment approach is important because students must never feel like their graduation is in jeopardy because of deep-water apprehension or lack of deep-water competency. Students should not be afraid to be afraid.

(2) Provide foundational training that tackles deep water apprehension and basic self-rescue competency for those who do not pass the test. There is widespread misconception that learning strokes and swimming laps would eventually lead to comfort in deep water. They don’t. The truth is this: if we practice while afraid, we reinforce fear. If we practice in comfort and control, we reinforce comfort and control. Research shows that by continuing to expose individuals to the object or condition of fear, while demonstrating the non-threat that object or condition may pose, fear gradually erodes. Essentially, apprehensive people need to have corrective experiences in water.

We have developed a step-by-step course that tackles deep water apprehension and that teaches basic self-rescue competency. We train swim instructors on how to implement this course to students. We also provide a companion student course for implementation in beginners’ swimming classes.