Swim Check intimmidation and fear

[SeattlePioneer 144]

 

 

 

You are being a generous and brave Scouter by adopting this approach, in my opinion.

 

It takes a LOT more courage for an adult to try something like that in front of boys knowing you will fail than most things in life. It's good for Scouts to observe and understand that kind of courage in my opinion.

[acco40 95]

One good way to reduce the stress, especially for the younger Scouts, is not to refer to it as a "swim test" but as a swimming classification or swim check. For summer camp, nobody "fails" the swim test. They are just classified as a beginner or a swimmer or a non-swimmer. Being classified as a swimmer allows one to go into different areas of the lake. Being classified as a beginner still allows one into the lake, just into different areas (i.e. shallow areas).

 

Yes, there are some who are fish in pool but freak out in a lake. I've never failed a swim test as an adult but I do find that I have to exert myself way to much to accomplish the task. One year, at summer camp, they asked me to administer the swim checks. Well, I was assigned a scout and the first thing I asked him was how good of a swimmer he was. He assured me he was but kept asking me how deep the water was. I stand around 5'7" and told the scout (a few inches shorter that me) that I could stand flat-footed on the lake and the water would come up to about my eyeballs. He was really nervous, I could tell but he kept reassuring me he was a good swimmer. Well, I finally gave him enough encouragement to jump in (feet first into water over the head, level off, and begin swimming) and he just started to thrash around wildly. Right before I was about to jump in to "rescue" him, he was able to swim three or four feet closer to shore and stand up. I felt bad but he had just classified himself as a beginner (he could jump in and sort of leveled off and swam about 25 feet - just not in a straight line)!