GET YOUR KIT ON: SWIMMING Emmet Malonegoes to great lengths about the merits of swimming as part of his series on taking up a new sport
ALL THE activities outlined in this series are supposed to be good for you; that of course, is the whole point. What marks swimming out as fairly unique is the fact that it is not only a highly competitive sport but it might also save your life some day.
Few people have better illustrated the point down the years than Eleanor Holm, the 1932 Olympic backstroke champion who subsequently played Jane in a Tarzanfilm, a career move that led to her having to show all of her formidable prowess in the water to escape an alligator that managed to get loose during filming one day.
For most of us, it’ll be rather more mundane on all fronts but swimming does generally enjoy two significant surges in interest among adults each year with some looking to learn or improve ahead of the summer when holidays, particularly those taken with kids, require a certain level of confidence in the water to preserve pride and, occasionally, young lives.
The other tends to follow in the early autumn when those who have rediscovered the water over the summer months resolve to stick with it through the winter to improve their health and fitness.
At Westport Leisure Centre, there is a fairly typical mix of adults and kids passing through the place each week according to the centre’s manager, Diarmuid Langan.
Between 550 and 600 kids pass through each week on top of which a number of local schools have regular slots. The number of adults attending classes or other lane sessions vary, he acknowledges, according to a number of factors but even the fairly hardcore triathlon sessions are growing in popularity.
Perhaps the biggest success story over the past couple of years, though, is the pool’s Active 55 group which attracts up to 60 participants, mainly women, in the target age group each week some of whom, says Langan, are in their 80s.
“The social element of it is very important,” he says. “They’ll come in for the sessions and work away at it twice a week but they’ll stay and have a cup of tea afterwards and there’s a lot of camaraderie among the group.”
Westport works closely with Swim Ireland on implementing the various programmes that the national association has initiated over the past couple of years and numbers have grown around the country pretty much across the board from mother and baby sessions right up to veteran groups with a significant long-term growth in pool numbers obviously also a factor.
At junior level, existing programmes have become more structured so as to aid progress while adults are, according to Chantal Gibney of Swim Ireland, being targeted in a far more specific way.
“The ‘So Swim’ programme is aimed at helping people achieve their goals whatever they are and so there would be an element of structured lessons intended to get beginners started or allowing others to improve,” she says.
“But there is also a tailored programme of exercises aimed at people whose specific target is weight loss. It’s called ‘So Slim’ and it provides individualised workouts, a bit of structure for those who feel they need it.”
Few if any sports start grooming the next generation quite so young, meanwhile, with “Swim-A-Song” packs providing CDs, songbooks, hooded bath towels and progress charts for infants aged between four and 36 months.
By the time they come out of that, one suspects, the kids involved have taken a significant step towards taking the odd spot of alligator evasion in their stride.
WHAT THEY SAY . . .
‘I swam and what is more delicious than swimming? It is exercise and luxury at once.” The 19th-century English writer Richard Jeffries hits the nail on the head.
“It can be a tough sport at the top,” admits Swim Ireland’s education and development officer Chantal Gibney, herself a former Olympian, “but at a fun level, there’s very few things that kids love more.”
WHAT IT DOES . . .
‘Everybody associates swimming with the sort of endless lengths you see people doing sometimes in lanes at the pool and if that’s your thing then great, it’s wonderful exercise, but there is an awful lot more to the whole aquatics area,” observes Dr Giles Warrington of DCU.
“Swimming itself provides a total body workout, you’re using most of the muscles in your body and because your weight is distributed evenly in the water, there is no impact loading so it is generally stress and injury free for the average participant. At 800 or 900 calories burnt per hour, it’s also very beneficial in terms of weight loss and toning.
“Water-based exercise programmes can also provide excellent workouts for people looking to get into shape or for athletes from other disciplines who are recovering from injury.
“It has an important part to play in aiding recovery on several fronts with the pressure at even a depth of half a metre, for instance, having the potential to be very beneficial with regard to swelling. Swimming or light aerobics in the water can also be a great exercise for pregnant women.
“One word of caution, though,” he concludes. “You can sweat a lot in the water without realising it so if you’re exercising fairly vigorously it’s good to have a bottle of water handy otherwise dehydration can actually be a problem.”
WHAT IT TAKES . . .
Not very much. If you don’t already have some sort of swimwear lurking in a drawer somewhere, between €15 and €25 will get you going. Most pools require a hat (about €2) while goggles at a tenner and upwards are optional. The swim itself should cost in the region of €5-€7 at pools open to the public. Private clubs, though, tend to represent increasingly good value with prices at many plummeting over the past 18 months.
WHERE IT’S AT . . .
Swim Ireland is in the process, apparently, of developing a list of venues for its website but, in the meantime, those belonging to local councils, schools and clubs are all worth checking out.
The association will provide references to masters’ clubs many of whom organise sea swims and social events through the summer months.
