Adult swim lessons offered at MedWest

7/7/2011

For the month of July, Medwest Health and Fitness Center is offering a special adult private swim lesson package of four lessons for $45, available to members and public, ages 14 and up.

Drowning is often misperceived as being predominantly a child threat. To the contrary, almost half of all drowning victims worldwide are of late adolescent and adult age. In the United States, estimates of the adult population who do not possess adequate swimming ability are as high as 37 percent. Primary risk factors involved in adult drowning fatalities include involuntary entrance into the water such as occurs with boating accidents or falling from a dock or pier, the use of alcohol around a swimming environment, and/or simply overestimating one’s swimming capability.

“The overwhelming majority of adults we speak with about learning to swim refer to a single particular incident in their past that caused a lifelong fear of the water,” said Medwest Water Safety Instructor Autumn Shetley. “The first step we take is attacking the root of that fear, getting them comfortable in the water, and showing them it’s not necessarily such a threatening place.”

Registration for the swim lessons can be done at Medwest Health & Fitness Center, or by calling 452-8056.