Extracts from 'Swimming - making the difference' published by the Strategic Alliance for Swimming, October 2004

Today many customers are looking to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Helping to create a healthier nation is something which is very much on the Government's agenda. There is no better exercise than swimming to bring this about.

Why swimming?

Swimming has always been accepted as being the healthiest of sports but what do we have to offer:

• People can swim at any age - you can become fitter through swimming at any time in your life.
• Swimming is great fun.
• It is an outdoor and indoor sport - you can take part virtually at any time except overnight.
• You don't have to be an expert - you build your way into health and fitness gradually.
• Swimming is a great social sport - although you have your head in the water when you are swimming, come the end of the length you can stop and talk to your companions.
• You can take a break - even for years - and return to the water in later life.

So let's make a noise about it - in fact, let's make waves - we've got something to offer!

We all know that swimming is good for you but establishing the effect on health through hard facts is more difficult to achieve. Often it is a case of getting the sedentary to do a little more rather than getting moderately active people to pile on the lengths. Swimming is an easier start point for the sedentary than many 'weight carrying sports'.

Swimming is ideally placed to help with:

• Obesity - an adequate energy balance achieved through physical activity helps prevent obesity. It is said that obesity cost the Department of Health £7 billion last year.
• Osteoarthritis - joint structure and function can be maintained in swimming whilst not over increasing pressure through carrying the body weight.
• Cardiovascular disease - regular exercise such as swimming will help to prevent the onset of high blood pressure and regulate blood pressure for people with hypertension.
• Moderate swimming is likely to reduce the incidence of strokes.

Press release on British Swimming website - 27 April 2005

SWIMMING IS NUMBER ONE SPORT

Swimming tops the table as the most popular sporting activity in a recent MORI poll which also shows that public interest in the sport has grown a staggering 13% in the last four years.

The aquatic discipline now sits second only to football as a sport of public interest, beating athletics by an impressive 10%, and is a clear leader in the participation stakes with 21% of the population regularly taking part, compared to 12% attending the gyn and keep fit sessions.

The poll shows that half of British adults claim to regularly take part in sport with highest participants young people (15-25 year olds) and higher social class groups.

Swimming is easily the most popular sport with a 7% increase of the number of people swimming regularly and is a particularly popular sport for women with almost two-thirds of women taking part in any sport regularly taking part in swimming. Fourteen percent of men claim to take to the pool on a regular basis.

MORI's latest findings are part of ongoing research into sport in Britain which started in 1996. The survey measures level of interest, participation and television viewing of sport in Britain at six intervals, with the latest results drawn from a survey in January this year.

USEFUL DOCUMENTS

Sport England's policy on health

BHF Physical Activity, Sport and Education

BHF Physical Activity and Health

BHF Physical Activity and Obesity - Children and Young People

BHF Physical Activity and Obesity - Adults

USEFUL LINKS

BUPA - Swimming and health

British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health

Healthier Weight centre