Learning to
swim as an adult

9 million of us adults in Britain don’t know how to swim and 95% of us black adults don’t swim regularly, according to Sport England. Some of us had swimming lessons at school and some of us didn’t have that opportunity, either way, it can feel embarrassing and vulnerable being at a pool or a beach and not knowing what to do, or even feeling too nervous to get in the water.

So why aren’t we swimming? Well there’s a few reasons:

1. Social class is a major barrier to swimming. Those of us on a low income or living in a deprived area are less likely to have the time, resources or access to pools (there’s an increasing number of pool closures), lessons and equipment.

2. Cultural perceptions and attitudes could be getting in the way, maybe we come from a culture where restrictions are placed on women: how we dress in public, how we style our hair, how and who we spend our time with. 

3. We may have had a scary near-drowning experience growing up that put us off.

4. Perhaps we developed a learned fear of water from family members who also couldn’t swim and discouraged us, or even believe the myth that black people can’t float because of heavier bones.

5. Some of us feel self conscious about our bodies.

6. The way we experience water, pools or some natural environments through our senses, could be overstimulating.

7. A lack of representation. Some of us just feel ‘it’s not for us’, because we’ve never seen someone who looks like us, swimming. 

Despite all of this, it’s never too late to for us to take the plunge and decide to learn to swim (pun intended)!