Survival skills enable you to perform an effective self rescue and live to tell the story. This training should only be undertaken by competent swimmers.

The objective is for you to be able to swim and survive in any condition, even fully clothed. Practice until you can complete each activity in a competent, efficient manner.

Each year many students lose their lives through their inability to manage themselves in water. In addition, students hamper water maneuvers by their lack of confidence and expertise.

It is unrealistic to expect that every student will be a proficient swimmer. However, every student can be trained to participate safely in lifesaving training conducted in aquatic environments. Water survival training will build students' confidence for operations in and around water.

The main goal of the program is to train students to meet the basic requirements, so they should pose little threat to themselves or the team during most operations in and around water.

Later they should be able to survive in water for a prolonged period and perform tasks and negotiate obstacles while in the water. Evetually your students can perform advanced skills and be extremely proficient at water survival.

Students who complete the entire program will know how to do the following actions:

• Maintain buoyancy in full gear.
• Swim 15 meters underwater.
• Assist other swimmers in the water.
• Use personal safety and water survival techniques.

Team leaders are responsible for knowing the water survival ability level of each of their students. This knowledge lets them assign responsibilities and take protective measures to ensure the safety of each student.

Most people don't realise how hard it is to undress in the water, or to swim in waterlogged clothes if you haven't trained for it. They often use up too much energy trying to get out of their clothes, or swim to shore, and drown before help can come.

Researchers have found recently that keeping clothes on is safer as it provides more warmth and buoyancy. It may be that in many cases the fact that the person is wearing clothes may assist in survival, but not then be recorded in police accident statistics.

Therefore, it may seem from official figures that, should an accident occur while fully dressed the chances of survival may be reduced, when in fact the opposite is more likely.

That's why an increasing number of Japanese schools and universities are teaching survival swimming. It's an easy lesson to add to the course work because nearly all schools in Japan have pools. They already teach swimming as part of the physical education curriculum. Eventually, all students will participate in this regular exercise.

Japanese research has shown that swimming in clothes provides about twice the muscle building effect by increasing VO₂Max levels.

Above all, have fun with survival swim training !