Swimming: an elitist pastime?

[Rii]

But to be honest, my idea of going to the beach is sitting in a beach side bar enjoying a martini.

Not a big fan of sand myself; but the pool is another thing. There are few sights in this world more captivating than the toned female form in motion underwater.

I think we're gonna have to agree to disagree.

Plenty of guys too.

 

[scotpens]

I think swimming should definitely be taught in school. If that's not a crucial life skill, what the fuck is? It's shameful if a 15-year-old can't swim at least enough to keep himself above water until somebody can help him.

As George Carlin said, swimming isn't a sport. It's what you do to keep from drowning.

I was forced to learn as a kid. My parents tried on several occasions to teach me to swim, but it never took until I got to Boy Scout camp. There, you were taught to swim by being pushed off the dock into 8-foot-deep water. You either figured it out pretty fast or were horribly embarrassed because you had to be rescued.

Ah, the time-tested sink-or-swim method. A bit brutal, but it works!

Swimming? Not elitist.
Golf? A little.

There are plenty of public golf courses in my neck of the woods. My boss plays golf, and he's not exactly rich. Personally, I don't find golf elitist at all -- just a silly game of whacking a little ball with a long stick and then chasing it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnFbCCgTo4[/yt]

 

[iguana_tonante]

I'm not an American. In my country it's definetely not an elitist pastime. It's taught in primary school and at public pools there are usually many people with a migration background.

Yes, I think it's a very American thing. Here it's not taught in schools, but almost everybody learns to swim at a young age, usually by their parents or taking a few swimming lessons. Going to the pool is neither elitist or posh. Actually, it's a very common thing: it's cheaper than going to the gym, for example.

Beside that, Italy is surrounded by the sea from 3 sides and we have a load of lakes and rivers, so it's exceptionally easy to find a place to dive in. I'm a reasonably capable swimmer, and most people I know are at least able to keep afloat easily.

Now, I have noticed that there is some disparity in the reports of accidental drownings of recent immigrants (especially from Africa and the Middle East), compared to nationals and long-time residents (say, Polish or Romanian people), so I'm afraid that maybe we are going in the same direction of the US in this instance, but I hope the second-generation immigrants will avoid this problem.

 

[enlisted person]

I used to be a member of the Y and swam almost daily, well swam is not exactly right I would dog paddle (no overhead swimming due to rebuilt shoulder) and move about the pool and sometimes cover a mile in an hour, or just tread water from 30min to an hour. During my knee problems I learned a lot about bones and things and black people in general have a higher bone density, which does make them heavier in water but there are lots of good black swimmers out there than can leave me behind. I do think its elitest because of the cost. I quit going because of the cost. Nearing 70 bucks a month for me and the bride, plus the fact that the kept scheduling swim teams in the evening at the busiest time when the average dues payer wanted to swim. The cost and upkeep of a pool that you can swim in makes it prohibitively expensive for average person.

 

[enlisted person]

I'm not an American. In my country it's definetely not an elitist pastime. It's taught in primary school and at public pools there are usually many people with a migration background.

Yes, I think it's a very American thing. Here it's not taught in schools, but almost everybody learns to swim at a young age, usually by their parents or taking a few swimming lessons. Going to the pool is neither elitist or posh. Actually, it's a very common thing: it's cheaper than going to the gym, for example.

Beside that, Italy is surrounded by the sea from 3 sides and we have a load of lakes and rivers, so it's exceptionally easy to find a place to dive in. I'm a reasonably capable swimmer, and most people I know are at least able to keep afloat easily.

Now, I have noticed that there is some disparity in the reports of accidental drownings of recent immigrants (especially from Africa and the Middle East), compared to nationals and long-time residents (say, Polish or Romanian people), so I'm afraid that maybe we are going in the same direction of the US in this instance, but I hope the second-generation immigrants will avoid this problem.

What is American is the cost and the bullshit. Here swim lessons for a kid cost quite a bit and its like a status thing where Mom and Dad have to be there to watch little Joey learn to swim. You can tell that the Dads don't want to be there but the wives think its a must, like some of the wedding bullshit, which makes it cost a lot more than it should and excludes a lot of kids.

 

[Goliath]

I learned to swim at a young age, in school, as part of my Physical Education classes, IIRC.

I was never very good at it, and I don't particularly enjoy it, but I can make it from one end of the pool to the other. And I could probably swim to the nearest lifeboat or piece of floating wreckage, in an emergency. But I wouldn't go near any kind of deep water without a life jacket.

I don't recall anyone ever suggesting that swimming was elitist here in Canada. Public pools appear to be quite common, and lakes are ubiquitous, especially here in northern Ontario. In fact, the university where I teach overlooks a lake.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

"Fear of drowning or fear of injury was really the major variable," says Prof Carol Irwin, a sociologist from the University of Memphis, who led the study for USA Swimming.

Typically, those children who could not swim also had parents who could not swim.

"Parents who don't know how to swim are very likely to pass on not knowing how to swim to their children," says Ms Anderson.

In focus groups for the study, Prof Irwin said many black parents who could not swim evinced sentiments like: "My children are never going to learn to swim because I'm scared they would drown."

My dad is an ok swimmer, and my mom doesn't know how to swim. When I was a child, I wanted to learn how to swim, and my mom said no because she thought I would drown. I explained to her that I was less likely to drown if I learned how to swim. (I'm white, by the way.) She saw the logic of my position, and I finally learned how to swim when I was 9.

I took to the water like a fish, and by the time I was 14, I was the community's youngest lifeguard. I was on the swim team in high school. I don't really see swimming as an elitist activity; when I was a teenager, the place to go was the public pool. Everyone went. In my apartment complex now, the pools (there are three of them) are full of people of all ages and races.

It's probably a regional thing. I'm in California.

 

[JonathonWally]

Swimming? Not elitist.
Golf? A little.
Tennis? You're getting there.
Polo? Oh hell yeah, I mean, indubitably.

I'd say golf is more "elitist" than tennis.

Public, free to use tennis courts are much much more common than public, free to use golf courses.

Playing tennis only involves owning some very cheap tennis balls and racket whereas golf requires much more equipment in multiple clubs, bag, spikes, balls, etc. And on top of that, all the public courses in my area, about 10 of them within an hour's driving, all have dress codes.

 

[Rii]

Now, I have noticed that there is some disparity in the reports of accidental drownings of recent immigrants (especially from Africa and the Middle East), compared to nationals and long-time residents (say, Polish or Romanian people), so I'm afraid that maybe we are going in the same direction of the US in this instance, but I hope the second-generation immigrants will avoid this problem.

So I did some digging for local data, and whilst I couldn't find anything on differences in swimming participation rates in Australia by cultural background or SES specifically, I nevertheless came up with some interesting data:

• For males aged 5-14yrs, the most popular organised sports outside school hours are Soccer (20%), Swimming (17%) and Australian Rules Football (16%).
• For females aged 5-14yrs, the most popular organised sports outside school hours are Dancing (26%), Swimming (20%) and Netball (17%).
• Males exhibit significantly higher rates of death by drowning than females across all age brackets. In the 15-24 and 24-35 age brackets, the male death rate by drowning is seven times greater than that of females.
• The swimming participation rate* for Australian-born children aged 5-14yrs is 18.7%. In contrast, the rate for Australian children born in other primary English-speaking countries is 20% and the rate for Australian children born in non-English speaking countries is 12.5%. It should probably be noted at this juncture that nearly one-third of Australia's current population was born overseas.

* Note that this is from a sheet which classifies it as an organised sport, so I don't think it's counting folks who just wade in for recreation occasionally. Alas, data concerning the demographics of those who simply can and can't swim continues to elude me. =/

 

[RoJoHen]

I think swimming should definitely be taught in school. If that's not a crucial life skill, what the fuck is? It's shameful if a 15-year-old can't swim at least enough to keep himself above water until somebody can help him.

None of my schools had a pool, so teaching it would be difficult.

I did take swim lessons when I was 5, though.

However, honestly, I just don't understand how one cannot swim. Even if you're never taught, I feel like it's something you'd figure out if you were thrown in the water. Maybe not, though.

 

[Alpha Romeo]

So most of the following article from the BBC concerns African-Americans and their non-swimming ways, and that's certainly an interesting topic for discussion of itself, but it was a broader - albeit, related - statement which most caught my eye:

BBC: Why don't black Americans swim?

A month ago, six African-American teenagers drowned in a single incident in Louisiana, prompting soul-searching about why so many young black Americans can't swim.

When 15-year-old DeKendrix Warner accidentally stepped into deeper water while wading in the Red River in Shreveport, he panicked.

JaTavious Warner, 17, Takeitha Warner, 13, JaMarcus Warner, 14, Litrelle Stewart, 18, Latevin Stewart, 15, and LaDarius Stewart, 17, rushed to help him and each other.

None of them could swim. All six drowned. DeKendrix was rescued by a passer-by.

Maude Warner, mother of three of the victims, and the other adults present also couldn't swim.

I admit I find the lemming-like quality of tragedy vaguely amusing in a macabre sort of way. At what point does it become clear that this approach simply isn't working?

But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.

A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.

Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had "taught themselves".

[....]

Some might assume the fundamental reasons would be lack of money for swimming lessons or living in areas where there were no pools, but the reality is more complex.

"Fear of drowning or fear of injury was really the major variable," says Prof Carol Irwin, a sociologist from the University of Memphis, who led the study for USA Swimming.

Typically, those children who could not swim also had parents who could not swim.

"Parents who don't know how to swim are very likely to pass on not knowing how to swim to their children," says Ms Anderson.

In focus groups for the study, Prof Irwin said many black parents who could not swim evinced sentiments like: "My children are never going to learn to swim because I'm scared they would drown."

The parents' very fear of their children drowning was making that fate more likely.

The major reason behind the problem could lie in the era of segregation says Prof Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.

"The history of discrimination… has contributed to the drowning and swimming rates," says Prof Wiltse.

In his work he identified two periods of a boom in swimming rates in the US - in the 1920s and 1930s when recreational swimming became popular and the 1950s and 1960s when the idea of swimming as a sport really took off.

The first boom was marked by the construction of about 2,000 new municipal pools across the nation.

"Black Americans were largely and systematically denied access to those pools," he notes.

"Swimming never became a part of African- American recreational culture."

In the northern US that segregation in pools ended in the 1940s and early 1950s, but many white swimmers responded by abandoning the municipal pools and heading off to private clubs in the suburbs where segregation continued to be enforced.

"Municipal pools became a low public priority," he notes.

After the race riots of the 1960s, many cities did start building pools in predominantly black areas, says Prof Wiltse, but there was still a problem. Many of the new pools were small - often only 20 by 40ft (six by 12m) and 3.5ft (1m) deep.

"They didn't really accommodate swimming. They attracted young kids who would stand in them and splash about. There really wasn't an effort to teach African-American children to swim in these pools."

Although there are many poor or working class white children who cannot swim for similar reasons, swimming has gained an image as a "white sport".

"It is [seen as] a country club sport that only very rich kids get to participate in. The swimming pool is [seen as] a very elitist thing to have in your backyard," says Prof Irwin.

I think a swimming pool is a rather elitist thing to have in one's backyard, but I don't see how that translates across to the activity/sport more broadly, particularly given that most backyard swimming pools are too small (or simply the wrong shape) to support more than recreational splashing about.

But maybe I'm entirely off-base here and swimming is right up there with sailing, horse riding and Formula One. What say you?

You're way off. Swimming isn't elitist. I'm a strong swimmer and I've been sailing since I was 10 years old. I'm neither rich nor elitist.

 

[Chris3123]

I think a swimming pool is a rather elitist thing to have in one's backyard,

How is having a pool in your backyard in and of itself elitist?

 

[enlisted person]

So most of the following article from the BBC concerns African-Americans and their non-swimming ways, and that's certainly an interesting topic for discussion of itself, but it was a broader - albeit, related - statement which most caught my eye:

BBC: Why don't black Americans swim?

A month ago, six African-American teenagers drowned in a single incident in Louisiana, prompting soul-searching about why so many young black Americans can't swim.

When 15-year-old DeKendrix Warner accidentally stepped into deeper water while wading in the Red River in Shreveport, he panicked.

JaTavious Warner, 17, Takeitha Warner, 13, JaMarcus Warner, 14, Litrelle Stewart, 18, Latevin Stewart, 15, and LaDarius Stewart, 17, rushed to help him and each other.

None of them could swim. All six drowned. DeKendrix was rescued by a passer-by.

Maude Warner, mother of three of the victims, and the other adults present also couldn't swim.

I admit I find the lemming-like quality of tragedy vaguely amusing in a macabre sort of way. At what point does it become clear that this approach simply isn't working?

But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.

A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.

Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had "taught themselves".

[....]

Some might assume the fundamental reasons would be lack of money for swimming lessons or living in areas where there were no pools, but the reality is more complex.

"Fear of drowning or fear of injury was really the major variable," says Prof Carol Irwin, a sociologist from the University of Memphis, who led the study for USA Swimming.

Typically, those children who could not swim also had parents who could not swim.

"Parents who don't know how to swim are very likely to pass on not knowing how to swim to their children," says Ms Anderson.

In focus groups for the study, Prof Irwin said many black parents who could not swim evinced sentiments like: "My children are never going to learn to swim because I'm scared they would drown."

The parents' very fear of their children drowning was making that fate more likely.

The major reason behind the problem could lie in the era of segregation says Prof Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.

"The history of discrimination… has contributed to the drowning and swimming rates," says Prof Wiltse.

In his work he identified two periods of a boom in swimming rates in the US - in the 1920s and 1930s when recreational swimming became popular and the 1950s and 1960s when the idea of swimming as a sport really took off.

The first boom was marked by the construction of about 2,000 new municipal pools across the nation.

"Black Americans were largely and systematically denied access to those pools," he notes.

"Swimming never became a part of African- American recreational culture."

In the northern US that segregation in pools ended in the 1940s and early 1950s, but many white swimmers responded by abandoning the municipal pools and heading off to private clubs in the suburbs where segregation continued to be enforced.

"Municipal pools became a low public priority," he notes.

After the race riots of the 1960s, many cities did start building pools in predominantly black areas, says Prof Wiltse, but there was still a problem. Many of the new pools were small - often only 20 by 40ft (six by 12m) and 3.5ft (1m) deep.

"They didn't really accommodate swimming. They attracted young kids who would stand in them and splash about. There really wasn't an effort to teach African-American children to swim in these pools."

Although there are many poor or working class white children who cannot swim for similar reasons, swimming has gained an image as a "white sport".

"It is [seen as] a country club sport that only very rich kids get to participate in. The swimming pool is [seen as] a very elitist thing to have in your backyard," says Prof Irwin.

I think a swimming pool is a rather elitist thing to have in one's backyard, but I don't see how that translates across to the activity/sport more broadly, particularly given that most backyard swimming pools are too small (or simply the wrong shape) to support more than recreational splashing about.

But maybe I'm entirely off-base here and swimming is right up there with sailing, horse riding and Formula One. What say you?

You're way off. Swimming isn't elitist. I'm a strong swimmer and I've been sailing since I was 10 years old. I'm neither rich nor elitist.

I would say sailing is right up there with anyone who has any kind of boat. I have a sailboat and its not worth as much as most motorboats. Hell, what makes one rich is having the time to sail.

 

[wissaboo]

I think it is more cultural than anything. I grew up on the prairie and never met anyone who couldn't swim. Then moved to an island and med lots of people who couldn't swim. Both groups of people were predominately white middle class.

I do live in an area where many asian students come to study english. That would suggest right there some level of financial affluence, yet it is common for them not to be able to swim

 

[kes7]

I was a competitive swimmer in high school, and though I don't do it all that often anymore, I still do well with it when I get the chance. Where I grew up, it was required -- freshman year Phys. Ed. wouldn't let you pass without being able to swim the length of the pool and back, and it was a graduation requirement. Honestly, I was floored by the kids who struggled with it -- we grew up at the freaking BEACH.

 

[Snaploud]

Recreational swimming is no more elitist than recreational running. Both can be used to find food (fishing/hunting), and both can be used for exercise/fun.

 

[enlisted person]

I think recreational bicycling is elite too, have you seen how much those guys are paying for a bicycle?

 

[UssGlenn]

I think a swimming pool is a rather elitist thing to have in one's backyard,

How is having a pool in your backyard in and of itself elitist?

Maybe not elitest, but at the very least you can be no lower than solidly middle class. It shows you have enough disposable income to spend on the construction and monthly maintenance of a pure luxury.

 

[RoJoHen]

I think a swimming pool is a rather elitist thing to have in one's backyard,

How is having a pool in your backyard in and of itself elitist?

Maybe not elitest, but at the very least you can be no lower than solidly middle class. It shows you have enough disposable income to spend on the construction and monthly maintenance of a pure luxury.

And if you have that kind of money, you should hide it! Buy nothing that other people can see!

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

I use to be a moderately capable swimmer, but planning on a lot more than I have over the last few years as summer approaches.