World's Largest Swimming Lesson
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (121604)
Gainesville, Florida
June 21, 2016 6:32am CST
We've got a cool event coming up this Friday, a special event called the World's Largest Swimming Lesson. It's a worldwide event, something our city swimming pools have participated in for the past four years.
The way it works is, all host locations agree to provide a free, 1-hour swimming lesson on a specified date and time. Anyone can come to the pool and receive a free swimming lesson, and all the host locations around the world document the number of participants, which are then counted and tallied for a grand, worldwide total. The Guinness Book of World Records then audits and verifies the data, and makes a determination if a new record is set for the most people participating in a swim lesson at the same time!
Our city swimming pools have been participating in this since the beginning (this will be the 5th year), and each year so far the world record has been broken. I think it currently stands at something like 37,000+ participants worldwide. Participation numbers out our city pools has been increasing every year as well. When we first started out, we participated in the event at one pool, and it was open for just anyone to walk in and join. The second year, we included walk-ins and participants from our swim lessons. We also added a second location. In the third year, we included walk-ins, swim lesson participants, and participants from our city summer camps. We also added a third site. In the fourth year (last year), we included walk-ins, swim lessons participants, city summer camp participants, and outside summer camp groups. This year will be similar to last year, and although we have a little room to continue growing the program, we are getting close to our maximum capacity at our swimming pools.
Although the event is designed to be a fun, free event, the underlying purpose is to spread the message that swimming lessons save lives. Indeed, as a result of this event and the publicity it receives, we have noticed a correlating increase in the number of people who register for our American Red Cross swim lesson programs.
Are you aware of any swimming pools in your community who are participating in the World's Largest Swimming Lesson this Friday?
10 people like this
9 responses
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
21 Jun 16
No, but it is a really good idea. We have the ocean right here, like you do. So people should learn how to swim, or at least float really well.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
Since we have less than an hour to provide the free "swim lesson," we focus more on survival skills than actual learn-to-swim skills. In that short time period we teach participants how to float, how to doggy paddle or front crawl to the side of the pool, how to tread water, how to reach for safety. If we can at least teach the basics, we may be able to at least save a life in the future even if they never come back for formal swim lessons.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Jun 16
@ElizabethWallace That's some good floating skills right there, if you can take a nap while doing it! That's pretty impressive! Floating is one of the first things we teach, to let kids know that survival in the water is not that hard if you don't panic! One of the lessons we teach them is that water is your friend; water actually wants you to float, so if you let the water help you, it will keep you on the surface. It's when you fight water (i.e. thrashing and splashing and panicking) that you get yourself in trouble.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
22 Jun 16
@moffittjc My mother taught me how to float first. I can do it so well, that I can take a nap while lying on my back on top of the water in a pool. I've done that, and shocked people who were watching. Too funny.
1 person likes this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
22 Jun 16
@moffittjc
lol We have a world wide celebrity on this site. Never heard of this event before but what a good idea. We are such a small town that the local swim pool here would not attract a lot of people.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
23 Jun 16
@Marcyaz Do people not really use that little pool you refer to, or do you just think they wouldn't come out to a special event such as the World's Largest Swim Lesson?
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
It's one of those events that, if your local pool is not promoting it, and your not already involved in swim lessons somewhere, then you probably would never hear anything about it! We're fortunate in our city that the media jumps all over this event, so we get tons of exposure and news coverage. Last year, I gave a whopping seven media interviews before and after the event! Newspaper, radio and tv reporters were interviewing me! I felt like a celebrity! lol
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
22 Jun 16
@moffittjc I would expect outdoor pools to be a little dubious in Florida with all those crocodiles around.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
@Asylum I've been lucky so far with the crocs and gators, and haven't found any in our pools. We have found snakes, frogs, cats, dogs, squirrels and other little varmints in our pools before, but so far no large man-eating reptiles!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
Being Florida (the Sunshine State), there aren't very many indoor pools. The university has a very nice indoor pool, but it is not open to the public. All the public pools in our city are outdoor pools, and most are only open seasonally (yes, it does get too cold to swim in the northern part of Florida during the winter). I do have one pool that is heated and open year-round!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
Private and semi-private pools can participate as well! Basically, any body of water where swimming lessons are hosted can serve as a host site. Many of the water parks in Orlando (Aquatic, Sea World, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Wet 'N Wild) all serve as host sites, and they don't even typically offer swimming lessons! The event is great publicity for your facility, so it's a natural fit for these water parks to get involved.
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Jun 16
Although the event is open to any swimming pool who is willing to host, I think it's mostly city swimming pools and YMCA's who participate. I know we have a private club in town that has a swimming pool that is also participating, so there are at least four locations in my city that I know of that will be participating.
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33385)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
21 Jun 16
@moffittjc Wow! I hope they break another record.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
@KristenH I think the key to breaking the record each year is to get more swimming pools to sign up to host the event. It's not that hard to run on a small scale (you have to have a minimum of 25 participants in order for the Guinness Book of World Records to count you as part of the official tally), so more pools should keep signing up to do it each year. We had 378 participants last year, so our event is on a much bigger scale than most, but I've got a great team helping me with it, which makes it completely manageable. I expect to be around 375 participants this year, but I'm hoping we can break 400 at our pools!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
I am glad to hear that you are learning to swim! Good luck to you, and keep practicing!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
@harry6 Before you know it, you'll be swimming like a fish! Have fun!
1 person likes this
@harry6 (133)
• Chandigarh, India
22 Jun 16
@moffittjc yeah thanks soon i will be a great swimmer 
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
In our case, we are bound by the size of our pools and the availability of staff. We have a little room for growth, but for the most part we are nearing the saturation point for attendance. I think after this year our attendance numbers at our three pools will plateau. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I hope a few other pools in our community (the local YMCA's) will jump on the bandwagon and start participating.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
21 Jun 16
We don't have the event here. I think its a very important message that this event spreads.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121604)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Jun 16
It is a worldwide event, so if there are any swimming pools in India that teach swimming lessons, they can sign up to participate in the event!
1 person likes this
