LAST month a middle aged couple drowned off the Larnaca district coast because they could not swim.
At the time, state pathologist Eleni Antoniou had said this was not the first time such a tragedy had occurred.
“A lot of people can’t swim but are deceived into believing that if they go into the water they’ll somehow learn because so many other people are doing it, or that they’ll be okay if they only go in waist high.
“They don’t realise that they might be pulled in and then not be able to get out, or that a wave might knock them over,” she said.
“Although we live on an island, you’d be surprised at how much ignorance there is at what it means to swim and how to survive when entering the sea.”
Komanetsi Aquatic and Fitness Centre in Nicosia however, is not surprised that a large section of the adult population is unable to swim.
“People from the districts of Larnaca, Kyrenia and Famagusta were always great swimmers because the water was very accessible to them, whereas in Nicosia or in the mountains I think people were more likely not to learn to swim,” Olga Kanezilari, Komanetsi owner and part-time swimming teacher said.
She also said the 1974 invasion had had an impact on the number of adult swimmers today.
“If people were five or six years old in ’74 then they might not, as refugees, have had the means to learn.
“There are also other people’s parents who didn’t think it was important to teach them to swim and so they just never learned.”
Kanezilari said the centre operated six swimming lessons a week during September to June and five lessons a week in July and August.
“The largest age range of people who come to the lessons is 30 to 50,” she said.
Sometimes as many as 20 people attend a class.
The swim coach said there were three primary reasons why people decided to take up swimming later on life.
“One, it’s a matter of self volition. People just want to learn how to swim.
“Two, there are people who want to overcome their fear of the water. They were perhaps thrown into the sea or a swimming pool as a child and told to sink or swim. For some people, this has left them afraid of the water. Others were told if they put their head under the water they’d drown and so this led to an ingrained fear of the water.
“The third reason is for health reasons. People with spinal cord conditions, or who are recovering from surgery or injuries, or have chronic problems such as high blood pressure or arthritis are often recommend by their doctors to take up swimming several times a week, which is why they come to us to learn.”
Kanezilari said a total beginner taking 45-minute lessons two to three times a week should know how to swim in three months.
“Of course, this can vary from person to person. If someone comes every day but smokes two packets of cigarettes a day that’s going to affect his or her resistance, which is needed for the physical condition to maintain the skill.”
She outlined six main factors that determined how long it took someone to learn how to swim, including the level of the learner’s phobia, determination to fight the fear, physical condition, if the person smoked, the frequency of lessons, and body composition.
“It’s easier for women to learn how to swim because due to their fat composition they float more easily. Men find it harder because they have larger frames and muscles and their bones are heavier,” she said.
“But the key factor is the fear. I’ve had a case where the person was rushed to hospital in an ambulance because he’d almost drowned twice as a child. He needed a lot of coaching and got to the point where he could go into the deep end.”
Kanezilari said a child needed a good teacher to overcome its fear of the water but no matter how good the teacher was, if adults didn’t work with teachers to overcome their fear there was nothing the teacher could do. The problem was it was a lot harder to gain an adult’s trust than a child’s, she said.
“With children the element of play is involved so it’s easier for them to learn how to swim. You can’t tell an adult to go to the bottom of the pool and pretend to be at a tea party and to blow out the birthday candles. Instead you have to reason with them. You have to convince them that if they hadn’t shown the technical skill to swim in the deep end you wouldn’t risk your good name or your establishment’s name on a whim. I have to convince them I’m 1,000 per cent sure they can do it.
“I have to respect their fear, the way you do a child’s, and to talk to them a lot more to overcome their fear.”
Kanezilari added that it was vital adults believed in themselves, and that strangely they could often swim in the shallow end, but not in the deep end. Or if they swam in the deep end, they relied on flippers.
“There’s this fear of the deep end. That’s why we teach them to tread water in the deep end because they have to learn to be able to stop and wipe their goggles, cough or take a break, without panicking because they can’t stand, which can lead to drowning.”
She said people who couldn’t swim often felt embarrassed but that there was no reason to. She was also pleased to note that in the last 10 years the swimming starting age had dropped radically and that children were starting to learn as young as four years old, the most productive age to start learning.
So in your professional opinion, people should people learn to swim?
“Definitely. It’s a sport that exercises all the body, causes the least injuries, it’s relatively cheap as all you need is a towel and a swimsuit, it can save your life and it’s considered an educational sport as it helps develop both self esteem and the limbs.”
She added: “Swimming is a sport you can do from the first day of your life till the last. The only time you can’t swim is if you have multiple burns. With the nearest beach only 20 minutes away you can swim all year round.”
YIANNIS and Thalia Nicoalou have been taking swimming lessons three times a week for about a year now.
“I have a problem with my spinal cord, which is why I wanted to take up swimming,” 48-year-old Thalia said.
“It’s also good exercise as well as good for my health,” she added.
Her 50-year-old husband said he’d decided to join his wife’s swim classes for recreational purposes.
“I didn’t know how to swim and I thought I’d take it up for the fun of it and as well as the exercise.”
Asked why they had never taken up swimming until now, the couple said it “just hadn’t happened”.
“When we were young no one took us swimming,” Thalia explained.
Both of them said they did not regret their decision to start, although neither is yet confident about venturing into the deep end.
“I like swimming in the pool, but I still like to be able to stand when I put my feet down,” Yiannis said. “I get scared if I can’t put my feet down and touch the bottom, and I’m not really bothered if I can swim in the deep end or not. I just like to swim for the recreation and exercise aspect.”
Thalia on the other hand said she wanted to learn to swim in the deep end.
“It’s my aim to be able to learn to swim in the deep end.”
She also didn’t seem opposed to swimming “in the deep end” in the sea.
Yiannis, on the other hand, said he had “no intention” of ever jumping off a boat and swimming in the sea.
But, he joked: “If I can get to go to the Olympics I won’t say no.”
Thalia added: “I’m really glad we both started swimming. I wasn’t embarrassed at all. I
went up to the teacher and said I can’t swim at all. It’s been a really good
way for us both to exercise.”
CHRISTOS Theodoulou, 37, from Nicosia has never learnt to swim because when he was a child his parents didn’t let him venture beyond arm’s reach.
“Although my father knew how to swim, my parents made me stay close to the shore when I was a child and never took me out into the water. Because of this it’s now got to the stage where I can’t go beyond the point where I can stand.”
Theodoulou said he’d developed such a phobia of the water that if he went to the beach or swimming pool and couldn’t stand he started to panic.
Asked what the odds were of him taking up swimming lessons at this point in his life, the father of two said they were slim.
“I’m 37 years old and don’t think I have the financial means to start swimming. I’m at an age where I have a lot of expenses and the children’s needs come before mine.
“I send my son to swimming lessons and my daughter has already started preliminary
lessons at nursery school because I don’t want them to have the same difficulties as me.”
He said for the time being when he went to the beach his shallow end was still deep for his children so they could all frolic about in the water happily.
As for the swimming pool, he said because his wife knew how to swim, “my son goes into the deep end with her and I sit on the sun bed enjoying my frappe”.
