On my birthday this year, as I was turning 45 years old, I 'swam' for the first time.
Swimming is a basic skill that many children master before hitting high school. Since my teenage years I have been very comfortable in the water, but, up until now, doing the front crawl has escaped me. I had never been able to figure it out. For me, it has always been much easier to jump in the pool, swim underwater, and then periodically come up for air.
Yet doing the crawl ( or any type of sustained stroke that involves breathing and head in the water) is what I consider to be "real" swimming.
It turns out that I am not alone. Much has been written about how MOST African Americans cannot swim. I've seen it myself. My brother is an excellent swimmer, but most black folks that I know are either pseudo or non-swimmers. We jump in the deep end and we can "get around", but as a group, we don't really swim well.
This is where it gets interesting. There are various theories out there about WHY Black folks don't swim. Some say its economics: lack of access to pools in urban areas. There could be some truth to this. However my dad, growing up in New York city, always had access to pools. Economics may be a factor, but I'm going to step out on a limb here and say that I actually think that this one has to do with biology.
This leads to the second theory: The majority of Black folks (globally) are not avid swimmers because of our body composition: our bodies tend to be fairly dense. We are mostly bone and muscle. This may be an over-simplification of things, but I have noticed something while observing people of all races in the pool.... the people who float best are usually NOT thin or muscular. As my mother says, "fat floats".
This is not to say that African Americans are not fat. What I am saying, however, is that our bodies tend to be more dense. I do know many great African American swimmers, but I can't say that any of the ones I know are built like me. I think the body composition thing is real.
Today , for example, I went to the pool ( now that I'm a regular swimmer ) and I saw a woman in the pool who looked to be about my age. She was Anglo American, about 5'7" and of medium build, with a 'healthy' amount of body fat.
This woman proceeded to get into the deep end of the pool with a BASEBALL CAP on ... and began to tread water and swim in a forward stroke, almost like a frog, without her head ever getting close to being in the water at all. No matter how relaxed I am , I could NEVER succeed at such a feat.... my body starts to sink in water and even floating takes a great deal of effort for me. I simply cannot keep my head out of the water like that without sinking.
I saw another woman , last week, with a 4 month old baby in the pool. She was holding the baby on her chest and doing a back stroke in the deep end, and nobody's head came even close to being in the water... not hers, and not the baby's. I simply don't have the body fat to succeed at any of these types of maneuvers.
I remember going to the beach in Nigeria in searing heat and seeing an entire beach full of West Africans... yet NOBODY was in the water. Is it a cultural thing ? Is it about women afraid to get their hair wet ? What about men ? Is it because our bodies sink that we have build cultural norms around NOT being serious swimmers ?
My success at finally doing the front crawl appears to be despite some very real physical odds. I've been trying to do this for 40 years. For me, it became a personal challenge that I just simply decided I HAD to overcome this year. Most of it was driven by my love for the water. In the end, this became something that I just had to do. I also want my children to see that no matter what age you are, and no matter what you supposedly "can't" do, you CAN do it when you put your mind to it.
Swimming is a basic skill that many children master before hitting high school. Since my teenage years I have been very comfortable in the water, but, up until now, doing the front crawl has escaped me. I had never been able to figure it out. For me, it has always been much easier to jump in the pool, swim underwater, and then periodically come up for air.
Yet doing the crawl ( or any type of sustained stroke that involves breathing and head in the water) is what I consider to be "real" swimming.
It turns out that I am not alone. Much has been written about how MOST African Americans cannot swim. I've seen it myself. My brother is an excellent swimmer, but most black folks that I know are either pseudo or non-swimmers. We jump in the deep end and we can "get around", but as a group, we don't really swim well.
This is where it gets interesting. There are various theories out there about WHY Black folks don't swim. Some say its economics: lack of access to pools in urban areas. There could be some truth to this. However my dad, growing up in New York city, always had access to pools. Economics may be a factor, but I'm going to step out on a limb here and say that I actually think that this one has to do with biology.
This leads to the second theory: The majority of Black folks (globally) are not avid swimmers because of our body composition: our bodies tend to be fairly dense. We are mostly bone and muscle. This may be an over-simplification of things, but I have noticed something while observing people of all races in the pool.... the people who float best are usually NOT thin or muscular. As my mother says, "fat floats".
This is not to say that African Americans are not fat. What I am saying, however, is that our bodies tend to be more dense. I do know many great African American swimmers, but I can't say that any of the ones I know are built like me. I think the body composition thing is real.
Today , for example, I went to the pool ( now that I'm a regular swimmer ) and I saw a woman in the pool who looked to be about my age. She was Anglo American, about 5'7" and of medium build, with a 'healthy' amount of body fat.
This woman proceeded to get into the deep end of the pool with a BASEBALL CAP on ... and began to tread water and swim in a forward stroke, almost like a frog, without her head ever getting close to being in the water at all. No matter how relaxed I am , I could NEVER succeed at such a feat.... my body starts to sink in water and even floating takes a great deal of effort for me. I simply cannot keep my head out of the water like that without sinking.
I saw another woman , last week, with a 4 month old baby in the pool. She was holding the baby on her chest and doing a back stroke in the deep end, and nobody's head came even close to being in the water... not hers, and not the baby's. I simply don't have the body fat to succeed at any of these types of maneuvers.
I remember going to the beach in Nigeria in searing heat and seeing an entire beach full of West Africans... yet NOBODY was in the water. Is it a cultural thing ? Is it about women afraid to get their hair wet ? What about men ? Is it because our bodies sink that we have build cultural norms around NOT being serious swimmers ?
My success at finally doing the front crawl appears to be despite some very real physical odds. I've been trying to do this for 40 years. For me, it became a personal challenge that I just simply decided I HAD to overcome this year. Most of it was driven by my love for the water. In the end, this became something that I just had to do. I also want my children to see that no matter what age you are, and no matter what you supposedly "can't" do, you CAN do it when you put your mind to it.
