Why wouldn’t adults know how to swim?

Reasons Adults Don’t Know How to Swim

As a swim instructor who specializes in teaching adult beginners, I often get asked from those who grew up swimming why it is that my clients don’t already know how to swim.  For some, it was an early traumatic experience of their own, or someone close to them, that caused hesitation.  These traumatic experiences could also have happened generations prior and strong boundaries were set against water and handed down for protection.  Some have experienced medical conditions that have affected their mobility and need to relearn. Often, I hear reasons due to lack of access to pools or swim lessons.  Even many people who may have learned the very basics of surviving through playing in nearby lakes or oceans have shared that formal swim training was not something available in their area. Sometimes, even if lessons were offered in their area, allocating money towards swim lessons was not feasible on their family’s budget. 

Sarah King instructs adult swim clients

Segregation Limited Access to Swimming

I also recognize that the reasons many adults of historically marginalized communities in the United States do not know how to swim are housed within a greater context of segregation.  Whether from limits arbitrarily defined by social class or race or both, middle and upper-class white Americans have quite literally been gatekeeping swimming in this country for hundreds of years.  For Black Americans specifically, despite many strong aquatic historic traditions in the African diaspora, access to swimming has been limited due to racism in this country.  (Dr. Kevin Dawson, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora) 

Image shared in a 2022 Guardian article by Lisa Wong Macabasco and displayed in the POOL art exhibit.

Swimming Pool Segregation History

According to the author of Contested Waters: A Social HIstory of Swimming Pools in America, Jeff Wiltse, in the late 19th Century and early 20th century, many pools were built in the poor, immigrant, working-class white neighborhoods, but not in the neighborhoods inhabited by predominately Black Americans.  Then a couple of decades later in the 1920’s and 30’s, a pool-building boom occurred and several large resort-like pools were built across the country. Yet, due to segregation, these pools were not accessible by Black Americans.  If they had access to a pool at all, it was a small indoor pool.  

For example, Wiltse shares that in St. Louis in the mid-1930’s, Black Americans represented 15% of the population, but were allocated on one small indoor pool, whereas white residents had access to nine pools. (listen to his full interview on NPR) Across the country, some cities enforced official segregation laws surrounding pools. In other cities, even when public pools were not deemed as whites-only by law, when Black Americans would try to access them, they were met with extreme violence being beaten, punched, and dunked.  

Image shared in a 2022 Guardian article by Lisa Wong Macabasco and displayed in the POOL art exhibit.

Heather McGhee shares in her book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together how the US lost several public pools later on in the 1940’s when municipal pools in the northern and western parts of the US were racially desegregated. At this time, white people often refused to visit the pools any longer which often caused the city officials to decide to use the land in other ways, paving over many public pools.  For those white people in the middle and upper classes, however, this didn’t stop them from being able to swim. Instead of using public pools, they started making private clubs where they could legally discriminate against Black Americans.  (One in Louisville, KY was even named “Plantation Swim Club”)  Or, they would build at-home residential pools and control who they were swimming with.  Therefore limiting access to Black Americans and those from any cultural background with a lower economic status. This disparity has continued to impact the prevalence of swimming skills across racial and economic divisions today.

Bridging the Gap in Swimming Disparity

According to a 2021 USA Today article by Andre Toran, USA Swimming, the governing body of competitive youth swimming, which my swim team competed in growing up, only rouighly 1% of all 400,000 athletes are Black.  In recent years, USA Swimming has started initiatives to increase diversity and yet it seems there is a long way to go.  Thankfully, organizations like Diversity in Aquatics, Alma Swim Foundation, Tankproof and many more are working to expand access to swimming and water safety for historically excluded populations.  Companies like Soul Cap and Black Girl Sunscreen are working to make inclusive swim equipment that reflects the needs of a more diverse group of swimmers such as multiple sizes of swim caps for various hair textures and sun protection for darker shades of skin.  

As an adult swim instructor, I am passionate about sharing the gift and knowledge of swimming that was previously kept out of reach from so many.  I am grateful to help adults learn to swim, turning what was once a stress-inducing activity into a method for stress-relief, and in the process, reroute family legacies through this liberating element of water. 

Water & Well-Being Retreat Participant wearing a Soul Cap swim cap

Swim with Me

Want to increase your comfort in the water? With an amazing team of contemplative wellness practitioner Tia Norman and swim coach Greg Germain, we offer an all-inclusive retreat experience here in South Florida that will include lodging, meals, swimming instruction and mindset guidance on dry land through breathwork, meditation, and slow forms of yoga to help combat anxiety, relax, and ease the path for learning a new skill.  

Our next offering is March 1-4th, 2024. This retreat is designed to be a small group with limited spots for high-quality personal instruction. If you would like to participate, click here to learn more and secure your spot! 

I am also accepting sponsors who make a splash and reduce barriers for others to experience this gift.  To learn about sponsorship opportunities, please email Sarah at sarah@sarahkingcreates.com To contribute to our Spash Fund to help offset our participants cost to attend, fill out the form below.