The Benefits of Swimming
Various websites highlight the benefits of swimming. Mat Luebbers, on his About.com Swimming site (http://swimming.about.com), sets out some of them. ‘Regular swimming builds endurance, muscle strength and cardio-vascular fitness,’ he says. ‘After a land workout, swimming a few laps can help you cool down, move blood through your muscles to help them recover, and help you relax as you glide through the water.’
And it doesn’t stop there. There are other rewards, he says, if you allow them to occur.
‘Relax and swim with a very low effort. Let your mind wander, focusing on nothing but the rhythm of your stroke. This form of meditation can help you gain a feeling of wellbeing, leaving your water session refreshed and ready to go on with the rest of your day. Many swimmers find an indirect benefit from swimming. They develop life skills such as sportsmanship, time management, self-discipline, goal-setting, and an increased sense of self-worth through their participation in the sport. Swimmers seem to do better in school in general terms, than non-swimmers as a group.’
‘I can not even imagine what my life would have been like without the sport of swimming,’ says the American Paralympic athlete Jennifer Butcher, who early in childhood was diagnosed with an eye condition that would lead to eventual blindness. (http://www.usaba.org/Pages/sportsevents/swimming.html) ‘It was an environment where I could excel and not worry about trying to catch a flying ball or distinguish a teammate across a field.’
As a teacher today, she encourages students to swim. ‘Living with a visual impairment is very difficult,’ she says. ‘If it were not for my career in swimming, I am not sure I would have made it. Swimming teaches self esteem, discipline, motivation, time management and perseverance. All the traits an individual living with a disability needs.’
Washington Post columnist Adele Levine is a physical therapist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in America, taking care of ex-soldiers who’ve lost limbs. Her account in the newspaper (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/30/AR2009053001914.html) is something special, a down-to-earth story of how she began to take some of her patients to the local swimming pool, and how enthusiastically they responded.
‘We learned some surprising things. Like, it is impossible for a person who is missing both legs to sink. We learned you can do back flips off the side of the pool using just your arms to spring you into the air. And we learned that even if you are missing both legs and an arm, you can turn out to be one of the best swimmers in the program.’
And, she describes, the numbers grew, as the former soldiers took to the opportunity. ‘When you lose a leg, or two, it is hard to exercise,’ she says, and swimming provided an outlet for energy and enjoyment.
‘We are a motley crew at the pool, and I am sure our time there is limited. In addition to their obvious battle injuries, most of the patients have big, semi-offensive tattoos. They are loud and boisterous and leave their prosthetic legs and arms around the pool deck. They splash and dunk each other under the water and generally create inappropriate pool chaos.
‘But no one has ever gotten mad at us. Instead, a strange thing has started to happen: People swim with us. They get out of their lane and enthusiastically hop in ours. “Man!” They will say, swimming up to the nearest patient. “You are doing a good job, man. You keep on swimming! You can do this!”