It’s a lifeskill!

 It goes without saying that the sport of swimming is relatively unfamiliar territory for many people, by which they have only a basic capability of keeping themselves alive in the water or have never learned to swim at all which is absolutely crazy! I grew up being fortunate enough to be taken on holidays abroad throughout my childhood to soak up some sun where I quickly became accustomed to the simple solution for cooling down - jumping straight in the swimming pool! It was from those moments where I realised that I loved being in the water and was determined to learn how to swim.

 

Myself, my cousin and my sister enjoying time spent in the pool in Spain! (I no longer need armbands…)

While I have fond memories of being in the pool for hours on end on holiday, it wasn’t until recently when I realised that much of the closest company I keep actually can’t swim. This occurred to me on a boat in Greece one year ago while on holiday with some friends. I had jumped off the boat into the sea to refresh, only to surface and turn around to see two of my friends still stood on the boat reluctant to jump in, all because they couldn’t swim. I was concerned to say the least, and it reminded me of the fact that swimming isn’t just an activity we can do for fun, its also an extremely important lifeskill that we should all be able to do and needs to be taught!

 

It wasn’t until recently when I heard talk of various local authorities all over Scotland making proposals to close some of their pools, all of which were key facilities in dependent communities who rely on them to stay open in order to learn a very important lifeskill which can effectively save your life in certain circumstances. I think that this has been a poor call from local governments as they are further depriving children and adults of the opportunity to learn to swim, especially since “accidental drowning” caused 57 deaths in 2021 (BBC).

 

Overall, I think swimming is a very important life skill to learn and needs to remain accessible for everyone and their communities. I will be further discussing the potential impacts these budget cuts in a later post so please stay tuned to read!