International Women’s Day:
Tomorrow is Good, Today is Better.

Breaking the bias for women in swimming… there’s a long road ahead, but we’re working on it.

The 8th March 2022 is International Women’s Day. It’s a day in the year when the world celebrates the social, cultural, political and economic achievements of women. With the first gathering happening in 1911, countries all over the globe take part in various activities to show their solidarity and support for women’s equality.

Ever since that day, we celebrate and honour the women who previously campaigned for women’s rights, and who continue to do so today.

Do we still need to highlight International Womens Day?

Absolutely! Millions of women’s voices still go unheard today. Millions of women are prevented from reaching their full potential because they still don’t have access to basic human rights – like health and education.

Closer to home, within the swimming industry, we still see women afraid to step out of their comfort zones. This is often associated with convenience, cleanliness, body image and lack of confidence as well as the following decision-making factors:

• Cultural, such as non-swimming families, body exposure with some cultural groups;
• Internal, such as self consciousness, low self-esteem, inertia, poor past experiences;
• Logistical, for example, transport difficulties, time of sessions;
• External, for example fear of water, size and noise in pool, convenience, carrying wet equipment, shaving body hair; and finally,
• Social, for example, if one’s friends did not swim or other better past-time choices and options.

A lot of you will know that swimming is an incredibly liberating experience. But, it can come with its own gender disparities. Very often, we work with women who are simply afraid of putting on a swimming costume and letting people see their bodies.

What do barriers for women in swimming look like?

There are many reasons why women feel that they can’t choose to start their swimming journey. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Cultural

Many women in the BAME community, and Muslim women in particular, feel culturally excluded from swimming programmes because they face certain cultural barriers. Providing ladies-only swimming sessions goes a long way to moving past those barriers.

Additionally, 95% of black British adults do not swim and 80% of young black people and children in England do not swim, but this doesn’t mean they can’t.

Body Image

As already mentioned, this is a huge factor when it comes to women deciding to embark on their swimming journey. Many women are anxious about what they look like in a swimming costume, and this can stop them from having the incredible experience of learning to swim altogether.

Physical

This goes beyond body image and speaks to the concern that women have which is that they’re simply too out of shape to swim. What’s important to remember is that a good instructor will always be there, ensuring that you are only doing what you’re able to. And the more you do it, the stronger you’ll get.

Emotional

Many women fear that people will laugh at them as they’re learning to swim. In our experience at Second Nature Swimming, this doesn’t happen. What does happen, though, is that people are incredibly impressed by, and supportive of anyone starting this new adventure.

What are we going to do?

Tomorrow is Good. Today is Better

What if you decided, today, to step into your brave?
What if you decided, today, to do one thing that would give you a taste of the freedom?
What if you decided, today, to take control of your own confidence, your own adventure, your own perception of yourself?

It’s fine to wait until tomorrow. But when you wake up in the morning, tomorrow won’t be tomorrow anymore. It’ll be today. And that can be scary – we put things off because we fear the unknown. We fear change. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t.

Choose today. Choose to expand your life today. Choose yourself today.

Some of our community have shared their inspirational stories with us to highlight barriers to swimming, which we can’t wait to share with you!

When you start on a new adventure in your life, the most incredible things begin to happen. Your overall confidence soars, your holidays reach a whole new level of awesome, and you show yourself that you are capable of anything. Just take a look at Jaspreet’s story to see what we mean.

Break the bias today.

Challenge your beliefs and the beliefs of people around you.

Be the adventure. And remember, tomorrow is good. Today is better.

Buoyancy Practice

In class, we learn how to float on the front and back, and then how to easily roll from your front onto your back. – This is the start of being able to survive in deep water! The SAS & RNLI Beach Lifeguards all promote this essential life-saving skill.

Enjoy feeling the water lift you up when you submerge your whole body beneath the surface. It is the beginning of gaining confidence in water when your body starts to feel supported by the water.

Mix up the practice by changing your body shape and varying the ways you get into a float, i.e. pushing from the wall or floor.

Palm and Forearm Practice – Your Human Paddles!

Think, ‘Action vs Reaction’ – we want strong, controlled, slow movements to create strong, controlled swimming, right!

If your palms press the water backwards, your body will travel forwards. If you press your palms down, your body will go up. It sounds simple, but are you constantly aware of which direction your palms are facing when you swim? – If not, test it out! You will notice an immediate improvement!

We were delighted to connect and support the production team at Ambanja Films with promoting their new documentary A Calmer Place about wild swimming – a subject very close to our hearts, it showcases the real, raw connection of being at one with nature and how it can change your life – if you were even half-considering learning how to swim, watch this and there will be no turning back!

A Calmer Place has gone on to win a number of awards on the festival circuit, including the Best Mental Health Short Film at the Cotswold International Film Festival and Award Winner at the Venice Shorts Film Awards.

An inspiring documentary put together by producer Michael Jackson and David Warren about a wild swimmer, Rob, who tells his story of how lockdown and the restrictions on his freedom affected his mental health. The mini documentary showcases the true impact of wild swimming and how it can literally change somebody’s life for the better…

Location: Lake District

ambanjafilms.co.uk

Filmed and Edited – David Warren
Sound – Bill Rudolph
Additional Camera – Jordan La Roche
Music – Michael Powell
Producer – Michael Jackson

The festival welcomed over 1,200 outdoor swimmers to the event with many taking part in their first open water swimming event.

Being a Adventure Swimming Company, Second Nature provided an enhanced support offering for new swimmers to the open water swimming event.

Lockdown has seen a huge increase in open water swimming interest, the Trends in Outdoor Swimming Report documents a 1.5/2.0 increase.

Our partnership with Henley Swim Festival saw us offering guidance and we welcomed beginners for last minute advice and confidence building, in addition to tips for experienced swimmers.

We also provided swim buddies – socially distanced – in the water for swimmers who felt that would help them complete their distance.