Swimming
Every scout swim runs on the same eight-point plan, whether it is a pack afternoon at the pool or a troop week at summer camp. Learn the eight points and the buddy system and you can walk onto any waterfront in Scouting and know what is supposed to be happening. This page is a refresher, not a substitute for Safe Swim Defense training. No unit swims without a trained supervisor on the water.
Safe Swim Defense: the eight points
1. Qualified supervision
An adult 21 or older, trained in Safe Swim Defense, is in charge and accepts responsibility for everyone in the water.
2. Personal health review
A health history is on file. Anyone with a condition that affects swimming gets a doctor's guidance before getting in.
3. Safe area
The bottom and the water are checked first: depth, drop-offs, current, and anything you could hit. The area is then marked off into nonswimmer, beginner, and swimmer sections.
4. Response personnel (lifeguards)
At least two people are on duty as lifeguards, watching the water and nothing else, with rescue equipment in hand.
5. Lookout
One more person, above the water and out of it, watching the whole area and able to signal the supervisor.
6. Ability groups
Everyone is classified as swimmer, beginner, or nonswimmer, and each group swims only in the water depth that matches.
7. Buddy system
Every scout has a buddy in the SAME ability group. Buddies enter and leave together, stay within sight and reach, and answer buddy checks together.
8. Discipline
Everyone knows the rules before anyone gets wet, and the rules are followed. One scout ignoring a whistle is what a whole plan is built to prevent.
The swim classification tests
Swimmer
100 yards, continuous
- Jump feet first into water over your head.
- Level off and swim 75 yards using a strong stroke: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl. No dog paddle.
- Swim the last 25 yards with an easy resting backstroke.
- Swim the full 100 yards without stopping, including at least one sharp turn.
- Rest by floating when you finish.
Swims in: Any depth in the marked swimming area, and the aquatics activities that require a swimmer classification.
Beginner
50 feet total
- Jump feet first into water over your head.
- Level off and swim 25 feet on the surface.
- Stop, turn sharply, and swim back to where you started.
Swims in: The beginner area: standing depth, running out to water just over the head.
Nonswimmer
Has not passed either test
- Anyone who has not passed the beginner test, including anyone who chooses not to take it.
- Swims in the nonswimmer area only: waist to chest deep, inside a physical boundary.
- Can retest any time. Most camps will retest during the week.
Swims in: The nonswimmer area, and every activity where a life jacket is worn.
Classifications expire. The test is retaken every year, at the start of the season, even for a scout who already holds the Swimming merit badge.
How the buddy system works
Every swim, every time
- Buddies are paired before anyone gets in, and both are in the same ability group.
- Buddy tags go on the board when you enter the water and come off when you leave, so the count is always visible.
- On a buddy check, the lifeguard signals, everyone finds their buddy, joins hands and holds them up, and stays still while the count is taken.
- If your buddy is missing, you say so immediately. That is the whole point.
- Buddies stay close enough to reach each other. Out of arm's reach is out of position.
Reach, throw, row, go
1. Reach
Stay on the dock or the deck, brace yourself, and reach with your arm, your leg, a paddle, a branch, or a towel. You never enter the water.
2. Throw
Throw a line, a ring buoy, a throw bag, or anything that floats and has a rope on it. Aim past them so the line lands within reach.
3. Row
Go out in a boat, and bring them in over the stern, never over the side.
4. Go (with support)
Swimming out is last, only for a trained rescuer, and never empty-handed. Take something that floats and push it to them so they grab that instead of you.
Reach, throw, row, go. The order is not a suggestion. Most drownings that take two people start with someone skipping straight to Go.
Where swimming shows up
Cub Scouts
First water adventure: boat safety, a life jacket that fits, and time on the water.
Water safety and the difference between water you can play in and water you cannot.
The buddy system, buddy checks and ability groups for real, plus swimming time and either a swim instruction program or the BSA swimmer test.
Safe Swim Defense in practice, jumping in, swimming strokes, and reaching rescues. The den runs it with one trained rescuer for every ten Cub Scouts.
Swimming skill on its own, and getting into a boat with the paddling skills to match.
Scouts BSA
Precautions for a safe swim, passing the BSA beginner test, and reaching and throwing rescues, including why you never swim out to someone if you can reach or throw instead.
Passing the BSA swimmer test, precautions for a safe trip afloat, the parts of a canoe or kayak or paddleboard, and a line rescue as both tender and rescuer.
One of the three Eagle-required badges in its group: Swimming, Hiking, or Cycling. Lifesaving is Eagle-required too, paired with Emergency Preparedness.
Merit badges: Swimming and Lifesaving are both Eagle-required
Swim & water safety gear
Water safety
Swim gear
