"You're in control of your own survival. If you get it wrong, there is no-one else to blame. Get it right. First time. Be prepared."
  -- Bear Grylls 

In this section we give you some training ideas from which you can build your own programme. Practice until you can complete each activity in a competent, efficient manner.

Why Learn Survival Swimming?

Survival swimming is different from the usual swimming lessons and not a replacement for them. You'll learn the essentials needed to survive an unexpected fall into deep water, an important first step to being safe around water. The objective is to be able to swim and survive in any condition, even fully clothed. Survival skills enable you to perform an effective self rescue and live to tell the story.

This training should only be undertaken by competent swimmers as it involves swimming fully clothed. Please practice all swimming strokes until you're confident.

Did you know that the biggest danger to your life at the beach isn't sharks, or jellyfish, or stingrays?
It's drowning.
1. Worldwide around 400,000 people drown annually. Over 80% of all casualties are men.

2. Most casualties drowned due to lack of education in water safety and survival swimming skills, especially among young people.

3. Drowning is the second leading cause of death from unintentional injuries for those 5 to 24 years old, and the fourth leading cause of death for all ages, according to a 1995 accident report of the US National Safety Council.

4. Many people lose their lives through their inability to manage themselves in water. In addition, swimmers often hamper water maneuvers by their lack of confidence and expertise.

5. Only 20% of people drown while swimming in swimwear. The remaining 80% of drowning victims are wearing clothes when they fall into the water, like when they are boating, travelling or simply playing around the water. The unexpected weight of wet clothing causes them to panic.

6. Over 90% of all drownings occur in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific, so mostly in the developing world where people are between 10 to 20 times more likely to drown than Europeans or Americans.

7. Unfortunately, most national lifesaving organisations only operate within the geographic limits of their countries, leaving the developing world outside. This web site aims to counter this by providing all our training material for free.

It is unrealistic to expect that every student will be a proficient swimmer. However, everyone can be trained to participate safely in lifesaving training conducted in aquatic environments. Water survival training will build their confidence for operations in and around water.

The main goal of the program is to train students to meet the basic requirements, so they pose no danger to themselves or the team during most operations in and around water. Later they should be able to survive in water for a prolonged period, perform tasks and negotiate obstacles while in the water. Eventually your students can perform advanced skills and be extremely proficient at water survival.

Students who complete the entire program should know how to do at least the following actions:

• Maintain buoyancy in full gear.
• Swim 15 meters underwater.
• Assist other swimmers in the water.
• Use personal safety and water survival techniques.

Know Your Team

There are times during survival training when students may need to negotiate water obstacles. Leaders at all levels should be aware of the potentially dangerous situation this presents for students who fear water or cannot swim.

Team leaders are responsible for knowing the water survival ability level of each student. This knowledge lets them assign responsibilities and take protective measures to ensure the safety of each student.

Swimming in Clothes as Safety Training

The number of people drowning while swimming in swimwear is only around 20% of the total. The remainder of all drowning accidents occur when the person is fully clothed, such as boating, travelling or simply playing around the water.

Most people don't realise how hard it is to undress in the water, or to swim in waterlogged clothes if you haven't trained for it. They often use up too much energy trying to get out of their clothes, or swim to shore, and drown before help can come.

Researchers have found recently that keeping clothes on is safer as it provides more warmth and buoyancy. It may be that in many cases the fact that the person is wearing clothes may assist in survival, but not then be recorded in police accident statistics. Therefore, it may seem from official figures that, should an accident occur while fully dressed the chances of survival may be reduced, when in fact the opposite is more likely. So keep your kit on.

Survival Swimming Lessons

An increasing number of Japanese schools and universities are teaching survival swimming. It's an easy lesson to add to the course work because nearly all schools in Japan have pools. They already teach swimming as part of the physical education curriculum. Eventually, all students will participate in this regular exercise. Japanese research has shown that swimming in clothes provides about twice the muscle building effect by increasing VO₂Max levels.

 Reader Comment: Summer Camp

I have helped run the swim programs at a youth camp for several summers. Very often, the students showed up in their regular clothes for our survival training class. Some even mentioned they didn't know they actually had to swim, (yeah ok!) and asked if they could still participate. Of course they could, that is why we are all there.

On most summers, half way through the week everyone came down wearing regular clothes every day. We advised them to dress in different clothes so they learn how that affected their activities.

We showed them how the weight of the clothes would help build up their strength, and how to do the survival clothes inflation. Aside from all that, not only the instructors but the students as well noticed how much easier it was to swim in their swimsuits, but that it is more fun to swim in their clothes.

Michael, Toronto, Canada