Not Just For Kids: Adults Taking the Plunge With Swim Lessons

Swim lessons aren't just for kids.

According to the American Red Cross, one in five adults in the United States can't swim. In fact, while 80 percent of Americans in one survey said they could swim, only 56 percent of them could perform all five basic skills needed to swim safely.

For many, it’s the fear of water. The fear is powerful enough that people will put off lessons for most of their lives.

But that can be a recipe for tragedy.

That's why YMCA locations across North Texas offer adult swimming lessons to help people take the plunge and push past the fear.

Lessons include the basics you would see in a child’s swim lesson – blowing bubbles, floating and kicking. Dallas resident Nicole Rosales, 31, is doing a lot of these things for the very first time as part of adult swimming lessons offered at the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas.

“My parents didn't really take me to the pool and they didn't really swim as kids either. So I think a generational thing is the part of it," she said. “Growing up, we didn't have a pool or go to community pools. We didn't go to the beach, didn't go to the lake. So I really didn't have any real experience with it.”

You might be surprised at how many other adults share her experience, especially in minority communities, where a lack of access and affordability is a challenge.

"It's been a combination of things that kind of deters people from actually getting those lessons in the first place," said Rosales.

Lack of access is something the YMCA has been working to change for many years. The organization offers scholarships to cover swim lessons for both kids and adults.

"I think with parents and those older generations, they were themselves afraid of the water so they were scared to put the kids in the water. These kids are now adults and they themselves never learned. But because they didn't learn, they want their children to learn," said Madel Perez, aquatics director for YMCA of Metro Dallas and a long time swim instructor. "They are still missing the fact that they should learn how to swim, too."

Another YMCA program brings swimming lessons to apartment complexes across DFW with families who don't have the financial means or access to transportation to learn in the first place.

"What we are seeing is a pattern. Of course, now the kids are doing swimming lessons, but in an emergency situation if a child drowns then we got adults around the deck that they don't know how to swim themselves,” said Perez. "I think it's never too late."

But the challenge continues to be that fear.

"I think kind of once I get in about four or five feet deep, that's when the fear starts kicking in,” said Rosales. “And then I start imagining if I go under, I'm not going to be able to see anything or hear anything. My senses are all muffled and that in itself is just terrifying."

And it takes a lot to push past it.

"You may not be going to your pool or going on a cruise or going on a boat but you know, what if there's a flood?" Rosales said. "You know those things happen in here in Texas. I think it's important to just have that as a skill in your back pocket."

Over in Fort Worth, Suzana Delgado Gray knows what it's like to finish those lessons. She finally took the plunge to learn how to swim at 46 years old.

"It's a scary thing to face your fears,” she said.

She spent most of her life with a crippling fear of water after her brother playfully pushed her into a pool at 12 years old.

"I started sinking to the bottom and that's when a lifeguard jumped in, brought me to the surface and got me to the edge," she said. "I was coughing up water. And it was just such a scary experience. Breathing in that water, panicking and not knowing what to do."

That trauma lived with her for decades. Even when she became a leader at the Grand Prairie YMCA, helping fellow Latinx families empower themselves with swim lessons, she still couldn't overcome her own phobia of water.

"I said, well, if I'm going to be talking to other people and encouraging mothers to teach their kids how to swim, I need to know how to swim,” Delgado Gray said.

It took a lot of time and patience with YMCA instructors but now -- still two years after her swim lesson -- she can save herself in deep water.

"I realized, wow, I have what it takes," she said. "I just needed the instruction."

After the swim lessons, Delgado Gray said she was finally in a place to help further empower other moms to learn to swim. For many, they could afford to send only their kids to swim lessons but had no more money to pay for themselves. Delgado Gray said she worked to ensure that financial obstacle could be removed for those parents.

“I could remove the cost barrier. But I couldn't remove the fear," she said. "And so once I removed that cost barrier, several moms not just Latinas but African-American, Asian, Caucasian -- all women -- then started saying how can I pass up this opportunity?"

From there, it's a win-win for everyone.

“To see the joy in the kid's face to be alongside their parent, also learning a skill that they're learning, I think kind of brought them together in that moment of both facing their fears and then also encouraging each other," said Delgado Gray.

Rosales said at the end of the day, it's important to learn how to swim -- whether it's for yourself or for someone else.

"Now that I'm older, I know how critical the skill that it is, especially now that I have a niece and nephew – I want to make sure that if they're in a situation that I can help them,” Rosales said.

To bring lessons to those who need it most, the Dallas Y is launching a special pilot swim lesson program this summer – made possible through a grant from the national YMCA organization.

It specifically applies to adults who suffered some sort of trauma in the water and are dealing with fears to swim because of it. The program will gather data to prove that swimming lessons do save lives, at any age.

Lessons start in June. If you would like to sign up, please email madel.perez@ymcadallas.org or SAWDallas@ymcadallas.org.