The child detaches his feet from the bottom and moves vaguely within the water's boundaries for a few meters. When he stops, he says, “Dad and Mom, I can swim!”. The swimming trip ends in a cheerful atmosphere with an ice cream award at the swimming pool or beach café with lifeguard training near me.

That's how learning a lot of swimming skills started, isn't it? Parents have a significant role to play in enabling their children to access water and in developing swimming skills.



How is swimming skills defined?

When has it been achieved? Is it a journey made in a particular style of swimming or a sufficient amount of knowledge of the skills used in swimming (floating, diving, kicking, hand movements)? On the other hand, swimming skills are thought to help in hazardous waters and reduce drowning deaths. So what is enough swimming skills to survive?

The health hobby or competition in the pool has different requirements than the swimming skills needed to survive in open water. In this case, it is also a matter of perceiving the circumstances and assessing one's skill level in relation to the circumstances or risks involved. Unfortunately, according to the information studied, men in these situations underestimate these risks and overestimate their skills in managing the situation.

In Finland, swimming skills are generally measured according to the Nordic definition of swimming skills : you swim 200 meters without stopping, of which 50 meters on your back. Starting this test is done by jumping into the deep water.

In England, on the other hand, a schoolboy who is able to swim can swim 25 meters in some recognizable swimming style. In Germany, a beginner can swim 25 meters and dive from deep water in the shoulder of an object, and more advanced ones swim 200 meters in 15 minutes and dive to two meters.

Thus, it can be seen from the differences in the requirements of different countries that there are many different views on the art of swimming. Personally, I feel that swimming is something that a swimmer knows so well that he can apply it in different circumstances. It is therefore a matter of sufficient training and experience. Swimming is like a “fish in the water,” taking you with yourself in an aquatic environment with American lifeguard Association Vienna Va.

In Finland, the development of swimming skills has been monitored for 20 years. According to the latest swim skills survey conducted in 2017 , 76 percent of sixth-graders are swimmers. According to a 2011 study of adult swimming skills , 68% of 15- to 64-year-olds were able to swim. If you look at the swimming skills of the extremists in the study group, then 86 per cent of those aged 15–24 and only 49 per cent of those aged 55–64 could swim.

During the childhood of the oldest generations, learning and practicing swimming skills has been possible for a few. In the Nordic comparison, in 2011 we held the top position both in the number of low-skilled adults and in drowning statistics in proportion to the population

The most significant factors in the development of swimming skills in the long run have been the expansion of the swimming pool network in the 1970s and the consequent transformation of swimming into year-round activities, as well as the start of swimming lessons organized by primary schools.

Swimming skills are otherwise still enshrined in the foundations of the primary school curriculum and should be provided to pupils in sufficient numbers to enable them to swim after primary school.