One of the things about running a swim school is that my social media feeds have become saturated with swimming related posts. Unfortunately, those posts often involve drownings. While reading one of those posts the other day, I began wondering about drowning statistics for teens and adults. While there is no official database for worldwide drownings (and drowning is one of the most underreported causes of accidental death), I was able to find some striking statistics from the CDC and other lifesaving organizations.
After age 5, incidents of drowning for youth drops drastically...UNTIL age 15, where it spikes for the next 5 years. Male teenagers are twice as likely to drown as females, and African American teenagers are a whopping 5.5% more likely to drown. Why is this? What would cause such a spike in young, healthy teens drowning?
One of the largest factors is an overestimate of their swimming abilities. Teens feel invincible, and therefore, take risks that could have severe consequences. Another factor, unfortunately, is underage drinking. Alcohol consumption and watersports are poor companions. Finally, embarrassment and peer pressure leads to a majority of these tragedies. Teens who have never learned proper swim technique will often try to hide it from their peers when invited to the beach or pool. They can often hang out in the safe shallow water without being noticed...but if they get out of their comfort zone, it could be disastrous!
Adults who are weak swimmers face many of the same issues. Alcohol certainly can affect an adult's judgement around the water, as can embarrassment and peer pressure. A startling number of adult drownings occur when they overestimate their abilities and attempt to rescue a loved one in trouble (see my blog about rip currents for more about this).
So how can we reduce incidents of teen and adult drownings? Swim lessons are just for kids, right? No, they aren't. Although, suggesting swim lessons to a teenager or adult brings up memories of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer takes Karate lessons and ends up fighting a class full of 6 year olds, its not like that with swim lessons. We group students by age and ability, or teach parents and their children together.
My goal at Janes Aquatics is to help promote the sport of swimming, and educate ALL AGES of folks about proper swimming technique and water safety. It is NEVER too late to take swimming lessons. Please don't hide in the shallow end because you're embarrassed to take swim lessons. Get in touch with me and learn about our private lessons for teens and adults.
Coach Jeff
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