Survival swimming, a swimming style that increases the chance of survival in emergency situations in rivers, lakes, and seas

What is survival swimming?

"Survival swimming" is considered an extremely important swimming skill, especially for those working in the maritime or rescue industry. The main purpose of this skill is to help swimmers adapt quickly when an incident occurs on the water.

Four core techniques of survival swimming

Drownproofing - static survivalDeveloped by coach Fred Lanoue at Georgia Tech in the 1940s, it became a required course there.

This technique allows the swimmer to relax their entire body, bending slightly into a "C" shape, keeping their body suspended just below the water's surface, only coming up to breathe and then sinking back down.

Research has shown that normal people can stay afloat this way for hours, even more than 24 hours if awake.

Survival breaststroke - breaststroke with head above wateris a variation of the breaststroke used in training by the US Department of Defense. The focus of this swimming style is to keep the head above water to see and breathe easily, instead of floating up and down like the traditional breaststroke.

Sidestroke - sidestrokePopular in US Army (TC 21‑21) and Marine Corps training. The swimmer tilts his body, using his arms to fan and his legs to "scissor kick", the upper arm controlling the direction, the lower arm providing propulsion.

Head-up front crawl - swimming freestyle with the head above waterSimilar to the survival breaststroke, still ensuring high speed but keeping the head above the face, recommended in many rescue training programs.

Application according to specific situations

Survival swimming expert Trev Hollenbeck (USA) emphasizes choosing the right technique according to the situation.

Whenthe boat capsizedThe most important principle is to stay close to the boat, cling to something floating and wait for rescue. In this case, drownproofing is the best option to avoid sinking and wait for the opportunity to grab the nearest floating object. If forced to swim, use survival breaststroke or sidestroke to conserve energy.

When meetingstormsand strong currents, use survival breaststroke and sidestroke. However, it is advisable to start with drownproofing to stabilize breathing, then switch to survival breaststroke to move slowly but steadily. When speed is needed, you can switch to sidestroke.

In favorable conditions and when you need to swim to shore, if you can see the direction and speed is the criteria, experts recommend using head-up front crawl. However, this is only recommended for lifeguards or sailors - people who are familiar with dealing with situations on the water.

Two golden rules to remember

Two essential elements in case of an accident: try to hold on to something floating and if you have to swim - keep your head afloat. Although keeping your head submerged helps reduce drag in sports swimming, it can cause dangers such as gulping, losing direction, hitting obstacles - extremely risky in floodwaters, waves and floating debris.

Experts note that the above instructions are only basic training for survival swimming skills. In reality, there are countless factors such as temperature, clothing, wind. However, to prevent bad situations, those who already know how to swim should equip themselves with these variations of swimming styles as an essential life-saving skill.