The Survival Strokes - You Should Learn Them

There are three Survival Strokes:

• Side Stroke
• Survival Backstroke
• Breaststroke

Survival Stroke Modification

All these strokes can be used in life saving or rescues but they have to be modified some. In the case of Survival Backstroke the modification is significant as you cannot use your arms if you are using it as life saving backstroke.

Wait... Get Your Lesson Plans Here

Many swim schools that I've visited don't appear to bother with teaching the first two and they would really make no effort to describe Breaststroke as a survival stroke.

This I believe is a mistake. Particularly when it comes to Survival Backstroke, as it can be taught very easily after you have learned to float. So if it is taught as soon as a student learns to float, then they are instantly swimming; or at least very soon after and they are therefore safer in the water.

Survival Backstroke:
One Of The Survival Strokes

I want to encourage you to learn these strokes because whatever your reason for wanting to learn to swim, even the most proficient swimmer can find themselves in deep water with a cramp or other injury and become forced to modified their stroke. Alternatively, they could be caught in a situation not of their own making having to swim longer than expected distance; distances that they may not have trained for.


These strokes are a lot of fun even if you never use them for anything else. But surely it is better to have them and never use them, than to need them and not know how.

Enjoy
   Richard