Risk Management in Swimming Education

Abstract

Water-based recreation (e.g., swimming, rowing, diving, sailing, or the various types of surfing) is perceived as a universal and joyful form of physical activity. But, is it safe as well? The foundation of this study lies in the pedagogical belief that people can undergo an educational change to shape their behavior and modify their attitudes. It was aimed to demonstrate the process of education in safety, as being consistently logical actions and decisions to minimize the effects of risk. These educational activities are referred to as risk management. Education in water safety should be initiated to identify and raise awareness of the hazards present in this environment. Further account should be taken as to the risks associated with specific actions in the water, and how to conduct oneself in the event of an emergency. The following strategies are of possible use: risk avoidance, coping with risk, risk transfer, risk compensation, and planning. Water-based leisure activities are very popular. Long and short holidays by the water are chosen by almost 60% of Poles according to a survey (http://www.intur. com.pl). On a hot summer day, there is no better place to spend time than by the water. Recreational swimming in open water during the summer season provides a much greater variety of aquatic experiences compared with those presented by indoor swimming pools throughout the year. Water encourages recreational swimming, diving, sailing, surfing, rowing, and other activities. Natural water environments are rich in physical and biological stimuli for swimmers which can improve their adaptive skills, endurance fitness levels, and even protection against disease. Some even suggest that regular swimming may be a cure-all of sorts for many different ailments. But, most importantly, it can prevent several health problems such as coronary heart disease and obesity from arising in the first place (Wiesner, 1999, 2003; Czabański, Fiłon, and Zatoń, 2003). We may assume that many people perceive water as an environment in which they can engage in pleasant physical activity, but is it safe? Statistics show that different types of water activities entail real risks. The chances of incurring consequence such as injury and death from risky activity in water are readily observable from data collected

Perceived Versus Real Swimming Skills of Adolescents under Standard and Challenging Conditions: Exploring Water Competencies as an Approach to Drowning Prevention

“…More than twice as many males as females under the age of 25 years drown globally [1]. However, boys who participated in this study, fortunately, did not overestimate their real swimming skills (Table 3), especially considering that this is one of the greatest threats to safety [10,39].…”

“…An accurate self-assessment of one's own swimming skills level has recently been identified as an essential part of water competencies [4]. By initiating self-reflection [38], relevant self-assessment promotes a responsibility for action in and around water [39] in addition to reducing negative behaviours [40], which, thereby, represents a tool for drowning prevention. In regards to the analysis of the ability of adolescents to accurately assess their own swimming skills (Table 4), the girls' assessment of perceived swimming skills was significantly closer to the scores given by experts.…”

From Swimming Skill to Water Competence: Towards a More Inclusive Drowning Prevention Future

“…Given this possibility, it would be prudent to make learners (especially males) aware of the risks associated with the aquatic environment while concurrently engaging in risk awareness, risk assessment, and risk avoidance when developing physical water competencies. Wiesner and Rejman (2015) suggested that, in addition to risk avoidance, risk can be effectively managed in the aquatic environment by teaching sound risk management strategies that included risk retention, risk transfer, risk compensation, risk diversification, and risk monitoring techniques as a routine part of swimming/water safety education.…”

The concordance game: A simple tool to estimate breath hold swimming performance and to teach dynamic apnea

“…But these estimations are rarely verified in action or they are verified but indirectly. The difficulty is to measure aquatic performance without endangering participants ( Fisher, 1981 ; Rudisill et al, 1993 ; Wiesner and Rejman, 2014 ; Martínez-Santos et al, 2020 ). In aquatic environments, knowledge of the potential gap between estimation and result of performances largely improves successful active pedagogy ( Raudsepp and Liblik, 2002 ; Sollerhed et al, 2008 ; Blitvich et al, 2011 ; Stillwell, 2011 ; Wang et al, 2013 ).…”