Swimming lessons are one of the most important life lessons that a person learns during their childhood.

Learning how to swim can help not only protect a swimmer’s own life, but the lives of anyone around them at a pool or any other body of water.

It could save a swimmer’s own life simply because they know how to swim. Knowing the proper techniques is important when taking a swim or enjoying some fun in the water. If that person does not how to swim then problems could arise should they venture into a deeper area.

That’s where the benefit of swimming lessons comes in. If you have had lessons then you know how to swim and could save your life if you are put into a dangerous situation such as a riptide.

Knowing how to swim could also help someone save another life if there is a person who is unable to swim out in an area they shouldn’t be in or if they fall into a pool.

I know from experience the importance of having someone around who knows how to swim.

I fell into a pool when I was about three years old and I had not yet taken swim lessons, so when I fell in I immediately started flailing around because I did not know what do.

Luckily, my grandmother was near by and able to grab me up after just a few seconds after I fell in to the pool.

Had she not been around, the results could have possibly been bad.

It was still a few years before I learned how to swim, but once I learned getting me out of the water became the problem. I could not get enough of being in the pool, lake or ocean.

I still love taking a swim or just goofing off in the water whenever I get the chance.

Swimming lessons are one of the biggest things that we learn during childhood, and the people at the city’s pools at Tom Byrne and Houston Avery parks have the right tools to teach children in Atmore how to swim.

They take the time to get things right, so that children know how to take care of themselves in the water.

It’s a great thing that pools do and hopefully it helps save more and more lives each year.

Chandler Myers is sports editor of the Atmore Advance. He can be reached at 368-2123 or by e-mail at sports@atmoreadvance.com