Not everyone has had the privilege of learning to swim at a young age. In fact, in a survey carried out by Gallup in 2019, which ran 150,000 interviews in 142 countries, 55 per cent of people aged 15 and older admitted to not being able to swim.
Worldwide, only one in three women can swim. And the worst rates tend to be in lower income countries, with the highest income countries enjoying the highest rates of swimmers.
Even in the UK where swimming is a relatively low cost sport, the closures of municipal swimming pools means that one on four children cannot swim the statutory 25m when they leave primary school. In fact, 31 per cent of the adult population in the UK – about 14 million adults – are unable to swim 25m.
Barriers to learning to swim
There is an evident socio-economic barrier to learning to swim. In landlocked developing countries such as central Africa it is understandable why swimming is not a regular pastime. However, for a modestly well off UK family there are less reasons why learning to swim is not a priority when children are young.
For example, if you were to Google ‘swimming lessons Cambridgeshire’, there ae a wealth of different options that come up. However, they tend to be private, relatively expensive, and a long way from the town council pools of the seventies and eighties, when sporting facilities were cheaper and more plentiful.
Worryingly, in the UK, it is reported that almost 2000 pools could be closed by the year 2030 unless the government comes up with more investment. In the last couple of years 65 have closed down.
For this reason, many thousands of families across the UK do not swim regularly for the simple fact that there are no decent, affordable, local facilities where they can take their children. Add to this the shocking state of open water resources, such as rivers and lakes, which are suffering from sewage dumping and are therefore not suitable for swimming. As a result, a whole generation of children are growing up without being able to learn this vital skill.
Aqaphobia – a growing fear
As they get older, it becomes more and more difficult to break through the fear and take the plunge. Up to 70 per cent of people who have never learnt to swim admit to a fear of water (aquaphobia). While a healthy respect for water is essential when learning to swim, a deep fear of water will prevent someone from even getting close to a body of water.
That adult was likely to have developed their fear of water as a child, possibly as the result of a traumatic experience. The problem is, an adult with aquaphobia is more likely to pass this fear down to their child, and make less effort actually ensuring their child learns to swim as well. And so the cycle continues.
Is there a perfect age to learn to swim?
While the perfect age to learn to swim varies from person to person, experts all agree that earlier the better. Anyone who has seen how quickly babies adapt to the water will immediately understand that survival in the water is actually a primal instinct. When a six month old baby is supported tummy down in the water, they have a swimming reflex that sparks arm and leg movement as if they are swimming. Nurtured from this early age they will row into strong, independent swimmers. However, if you are an adult who has never learnt to swim, rest assured it is never too late. Learning to swim as an adult can be very rewarding and beneficial. It may require you to overcome certain fears, but the progress you make will more than make up for the discomfort, and give you a massive boost in self confidence.