Five Swim Skills Every Adult Should Have
Five Swim Skills Every Adult Should Have
Most adults who say they can swim have never tested it in the conditions that actually matter. Here is a more honest checklist.
Book adult lessons →There is a large group of adults who would say, without hesitation, that they can swim. Many of them learned as children, can manage a length of a pool, and have not thought about it since.
That is a reasonable definition for a pool on a calm day. It is not the same as being able to look after yourself in water, and the gap between the two only becomes obvious in the moment it matters. These five skills are a more honest test.
Not can you swim, but can you cope
Almost every water emergency involves someone who could swim, in circumstances they were not prepared for: fully clothed, cold, tired, disoriented, or unable to touch the bottom. These skills are about coping rather than swimming.
The five skills
Read each one and ask honestly whether you could do it today.
Float on your back, calmly, for several minutes
Not thrash, not tread. Rest. This is the one that turns an emergency into a wait, and a great many competent swimmers cannot do it.
Tread water without exhausting yourself
Efficiently, in water over your head, long enough to assess a situation and decide what to do rather than for ten frantic seconds.
Roll from face down to face up
Getting from a face down position into a breathing position. This is the actual life saving movement and it needs to be automatic.
Swim continuously for a sustained distance
Not a sprint. A steady, breathing, sustainable pace that could cover the distance to a bank, a boat or a ladder.
Enter deep water and return safely
Get in, orient yourself, and get back out. Sounds trivial and catches out a lot of people in unfamiliar water.
Bonus: do all of it in clothes
Almost nobody has tried this, and almost every accidental entry into water happens fully clothed. It is very different.
Why back floating is the one that matters most
If you only fix one thing, fix this. Every bad outcome in water comes down to being unable to breathe, and a calm back float solves that completely and at almost no energy cost.
It is also the skill most commonly missing in adults who consider themselves swimmers. Plenty of people can swim a decent freestyle and cannot lie still on their back without their hips sinking, because they were taught strokes and never taught rest.
It is the reason our program starts with water safety and floating in Level 1, before any strokes, for children and adults alike. It is not a beginner skill you leave behind. It is the foundation you keep.
How to test yourself honestly
In a safe, supervised setting with somebody present. Not alone, and not in open water.
Try the back float first
In a pool, with someone there. Lie back and stay still for as long as you comfortably can. Note what actually happens rather than what you expected.
Time your treading
In water over your head, in the deep end, with somebody watching. Aim for relaxed rather than long, and see how long relaxed lasts.
Swim without stopping
Steady pace, breathing normally, and notice when your technique starts breaking down rather than when you have to stop.
Book a lesson for the gaps
Whatever came up short is the thing to work on. Adults usually fix these faster than they expect, because the underlying comfort is already there.
Adults fix these quickly
This is the encouraging part. An adult who can already swim in a rough sense and is comfortable in water usually closes these gaps in a modest number of lessons, because the hard part, being at ease in the water, is already done.
Private lessons are one on one and are the most efficient way to do it, since an instructor can spend the entire session on the specific skills you are missing rather than working through a curriculum you mostly already have.
It is also the exact skill set that military swim tests assess, which is why our military swim test prep focuses on the same ground.
Frequently asked questions
What swimming skills should every adult have?
I can swim a length. Is that enough?
Why is back floating so important for adults?
How long does it take an adult to learn these?
Are these the skills tested in a military swim test?
Related reading
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