When you talk about black folks and swimming, you unfortunately run smack dab into that drowning rate. Black children are three times more likely than white children to drown.

I knew a victim. My friend Della came from a family of six kids. She had a little sister named Alexis. They called her PooPoo. One summer, the family went to Woods Lake, the ghetto swimming hole in town. I say ghetto, because 1. It’s free, and 2. it’s on the bus route, and 3. it’s often closed for e coli. But this was the 80s, so it was more likely to be full of jheri juice than e coli bacteria.

The lake is probably man-made, a land locked lake. It’s dark and murky with seaweed and muck underneath. There is no beach. No sand. Just grass and acorns. Della nm went to the beach one summer, when PooPoo was 10, and PooPoo got lost in the muck. She drowned.

That was one of the saddest funerals I’ve ever been to.

There’s lots of crap out there as to why black folks have such a high drowning rate. There’s the buoyancy argument, which I used to believe. There’s all the poor-mouthing about ‘we don’t have pools or access,’ etc., but I don’t buy that one either. I think it comes down to two things: priorities and bragging.

Our priorities lean towards the ‘momma can’t swim, so it must not be important’ extreme. There’s also the deal with the hair. Our hair is a straight up nightmare when it gets wet. If we wear it natural, it gets all tangled and overwhelming. If we have a perm, the chlorine literally makes it fall out. So, yeah. It’s not a superficial issue.

But the thing is, swimming is a life skill, not a lifestyle choice. You never know when you’re going to need to know how to swim. The hair issue can be overcome.

Now there’s that bragging piece, not knowing that you don’t know. Anecdote alert! Last summer, Imani, my 8 year old, took part in our church’s day camp. When the all black camp went swimming, the lifeguard asked the children who could swim. Everyone raised their hand. Then, when he gave them the swim test, most of the kids liked to drowned. In fact, my daughter was the only one in her age group that could swim. And just a handful of the older kids were proficient in the water at all.

I remember my cousin David, who pretended he could swim until my father pulled a Jaws on him. Daddy wasn’t much of a swimmer, but he would play this game of hunting you down while swimming underwater. He’d reach you and pull your legs out from under you. It was terrifying, but if you could swim a little, you could get away from him. David almost drowned with that silly game, and he spent the rest of that trip to the pool in the hot tub.

I know I’m making gross generalizations, but the drowning rate is real. It’s so serious that USA Swimming has hired a diversity specialist, John Cruzat. On the top of his list is to address the drowning rate of blacks and Hispanics. How to address this rate? Very simple: SWIMMING LESSONS.

I don’t care how long it takes you to learn how to swim! (read my story). Just learn how to swim! Your life depends upon it.

Cullen Jones and Maritza Correia are devoting their time to addressing this issue. I wish them much success.

I just looked at the highlights from the men’s 10K open water swim. I must say, that looks so hard, yet so cool. I saw a black man closest to the camera at the start of the race. At nbcolympics.com–you really should go there!–I found Allan Carmo from Brazil:

Let me know if you see any more black faces swimming at the Olympics!

Last week I talked about getting started with a swimming for fitness plan. This week, I want to outline a good beginning workout.

1. The warm-up: It’s funny how great I feel during the first 25, and how exhausted I feel after the 2nd one. A warm-up is crucial to your continuing in your workout. Just swim slowly (and without break, if at all possible) the following: 100 free, 100 back, 100 breast
2. You should be nice and warm after that first 300. Hot, even, if you’re starting out. So take it easy for the next 100. Do 100 elementary back stroke to regain your breath and semi-relax. The goal here is to keep swimming continuously, so do 100 elementary back rather than standing in the shallow end panting for breath.
3. After that relaxing stroke, you should be ready for more exertion. This is where I like to push myself and I feel like a swim superstar. I do the 100 (Individual Medley), or I.M. Broken down, that’s 25 butterfly, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 free. For help on any of these strokes, read this.
4. That ought to get your blood flowing! After that IM, I’m good and ready for another 100 elementary set to regain my breath.
5. Now you’re warm, feeling great, but maybe a little tired. It’s time for the last set, done in the same relaxed tempo as the warm-up: 25 free, 25 back, 25 free, 25 back. I like to practice my flip turns in this last set. I’m terrible at flip turns, so I don’t even try them until my last set, and even then, I more often than not don’t do them. It’s just that by this point I’m all loosened up and more ready for the challenge of adding something new.

Here’s the printable beginning workout for you:
1. warm-up: 100 free, 100 back, 100 breast
2. cool down: 100 elementary back
3. challenge: 100 IM
4. cool down: 100 elementary back
5. warm down: 25 free, 25 back, 25 free, 25 back

When you’re done, you’ve swum 700 yards. I tried this workout this past week, and I was done in half an hour. What swim workouts do you like to do?

Dig, I was just as excited as the rest of the country, nee the world–about Michael Phelps and his success. I mean, oh my goodness–how cool is that to set and reach big hairy audacious goals like Phelps did?

But I also found myself tripping, gawking and carrying on over every black or perceived to be black arm I saw in that Olympic pool.

Like the guy who won gold in the 1500 M free, pictured above. His name is Ou Mellouli, and he’s from Tunisia. My daughter argued with me as to whether or not this guy is black. We’ll he’s North African, ok? And I read that he trains with the American swim club the Trojans.

One night, I swear I saw some black arms come in second or third (or fourth?) of some heat of some stroke. Great details, I know, and since I can’t find my notes on the event, I checked online.

I found Malick Fall, from Senegal, who finished fourth in the third heat of the 100M breast stroke.

I also found a few others from African nations that looked more like that guy from Tunisia than the dude from Senegal, if you know what i mean. They likely didn’t get televised, but there were swimmers of color representing Madagascar, Algeria, and Mauritius, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa.

That doesn’t include several swimmers from Brazil and other South American nations.

I’m hoping the US produces more folks like Cullen Jones in time for the next Olympics. This trolling through the foreign archives is exhausting.

(edited to add: 50 M freestyle gold medalist from Athens, Malia Metella of France is also black. She came in 8th at the semi-finals this year).

The best thing about swimming is how you can do it when you’re young, old, or in between. You can swim if you’re fat or thin. In fact, if you’re fat, you may even have more buoyancy. You can swim if you can’t walk, if you’re pregnant. . .you get the idea. watching my kids swimming back and forth for years made me really anxious to get in the pool myself.

But starting out in the pool over 40 can be intimidating.

Where to start?

I like the idea of the 0 to 1650 plan, which quite literally takes you from ZERO swimming at all to swimming 1,650 yards every week in nice bite sized chunks that anybody can handle. They even help you get over the Fear of Water, if that’s a problem for you. Like Cool Running’s Couch to 5k program, the 0 to 1650 plan can get you from not swimming at all to swimming a mile in about 6 weeks.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But then I read that plan. I have never swum more than twice a week, and it has you starting out swimming three times a week. So right away, I see I have to condition myself just to get up to speed in this beginning level. If you are in that same boat, give this a try.

1. Just Get Wet

Start out swimming one day a week, or even one day every other week, or two days every other week. Something unthreatening enough. Then set a goal for how many lengths you want to swim. The pool can be divided into lengths, which is one way down the pool, from deep end to shallow end (or visa versa), or laps, which is down and back, or yards/meters. When my kids were in swimming, they counted yards. 25 yards is half the length of an Olympic pool, and is the standard high school/YMCA pool length. I usually count my swimming in yards.  So a 50 is 2 lengths is a lap.  Dig? 

2. Set a Goal, Any Goal

A mediocre plan done will beat a superb plan not done. Set a goal for yourself. Make one up. Like, today I want to swim 500 yards, no matter what.  Again, any goal is fine. If you have you start with, I’m getting in the pool today, no matter what, start there. But set a goal. Trust me, you’ll be so glad you did. Then, you reach that goal, no matter what.  If you’re like me, the ‘what’ would be “I can’t breathe!  I can’t catch my breath!  I’m so tired!” So you can sit at the end of the lane and pant after every 25, or you can do some recovery strokes, like anything on your back.  You can swim elementary back stroke and breathe deeply.  You don’t completely erase the tired feeling, but you do recover your breath, and in the process, you’re building endurance.  You could also do sidestroke, or doggie paddle if you want.  The point is to keep moving.  And each length you do, no matter what the stroke, counts towards your goal.  Bonus! 

3. Build on Your Success

Before you know it, you’ve reached your goal.  Now you have success you can build on.  Commit to increasing your goal at a regular interval.  Say you want to increase by 100 yards each week, or each time you get in the pool, or each month.  It matters not.  It is just another goal you set and reach.  Say your ultimate goal is to swim a mile.  You can do that 100 yards at a time.  Then you’re ready for someone else’s workout plan.

Where do we go from here?

Come back next week when I will give you an actual workout routine that anybody can get started with. And if you’ve got a “getting started” routine you’d like to share drop a line in the comments.