All Adults Can Be Happy in Deep Water
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64% of American adults are afraid in deep, open water – Gallup Poll, 1998
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Half of adults in the U.S. are afraid in deep water in pools – CDC, 2022
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A third of adults globally are afraid to put their heads under water. – World Health Organization, 2021
Our Mission:
To Make Swimming Available to All Adults by
- Teaching adults to swim by overcoming fear
- Spreading the knowledge that safety comes from understanding, not strokes
- Training instructors and instructional agencies in a system that cannot fail
- Demonstrating that Miracle Swimming should be mainstream
What Is the Miracle Swimming Movement?
It’s a 42-year old crusade to fulfill the goals and even wildest dreams of fearful adult learn-to-swim students backed by the indomitable spirit of a few 100%-committed thought leaders and expert instructors who support the four facts and the four tenets below. We believe that:
- Learning to swim must be fun, safe, gentle, reliable, easy and student-centered
- Learning to swim is inevitable if you put comfort first
- An instructor who cannot consistently teach terrified adults to overcome their fear of deep water is not qualified to teach afraid adults.
- A test of the ability to swim is The New Swim Test, below.
As part of our Jump Off the Boat Course, this student practices returning to the “boat” using our tether. US Patent #11,872,459
In 42 years, we’ve uncovered four facts:
- Overcoming fear of deep water isn’t scary.
- “I Can Swim” must include your ability to rely on yourself for safety in water over your head.
- You don’t need to know strokes. Strokes are merely the efficient way to swim. Adults can learn to be safe in deep water much sooner if they are not taught strokes until they can swim.
- Safety in deep water requires two things: control in deep water and understanding how the water works.
- Traditional lessons, designed for children, don’t work for adults who are afraid.
- Eighty percent of drownings in the U.S. are by adults. We have a national program designed specifically for adults.
We believe all lessons should teach this information. We believe our system is second to none for teaching an adult to swim. With this knowledge, adult and child drowning can virtually disappear worldwide.
Where Are We?
Sarasota, FL
Palm Springs, CA
Atlanta, GA
Crystal Lake, IL (on hiatus)
Kailua, HI
West Palm, FL
Sarasota, Palm Springs and Atlanta are operated through Sarasota headquarters. Crystal Lake IL, Hawaii, and West Palm FL are satellite locations.
The New Swim Test
Many people passed their first (traditional) swimming test for propulsion and strokes years ago and therefore believe they can swim—even though they aren’t comfortable in deep water. What could be more unsafe than thinking you can swim when you can’t?
The new test of whether someone can swim or not:
- Sit or stand on the bottom of a pool in deep water (at least 8 feet) for 10 seconds peacefully;
- Rise to the surface and float or play independently for 10 minutes peacefully, at least 10 feet from any support.
That’s all!
If someone can do that, they’ve proven that they understand that water holds them up (or they can peacefully support themselves) and they are in control. If someone is unable to sit or stand on the bottom, that person will have demonstrated an understanding of their positive buoyancy… or that they are not yet peaceful.
The primary purpose of learning to swim is to be safe in water over one’s head.
Every person needs to know whether or not they float, how to rest in place in deep water, and how to get air at will. If they can do these things, they will be able to wait for help, or swim toward safety.
Once someone passes THIS test, they may say, “I can swim.” If everyone could pass the new swim test, the drowning rate would plummet.
At right: Fred McGriff, “Crime Dog,” Former Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Star in Essentials 2
To Accomplish Our Mission, We Are…
- Teaching adults to swim
- Selling our book and Learn-to-Float Station helping adults to be sucessful in their own pools
- Making online learn-to-swim available
- Raising awareness through press releases, national conferences, speaking engagements, and change.org.
- Training instructors
- Securing investors
- Using water emergencies to educate the public
- Recruiting the best
- Rolling out a national lesson program for adults
- Giving demonstrations
Would you like to feel differently in the water? We know all the steps. Students call it a miracle.
“You’re sneaky! How did this happen?” —Many students
You are a born swimmer!