How To Swim

Buoyancy and Floatation

It is important to understand buoyancy and relative density when learning how to swim. A basic understanding of this is a crucial element of overcoming a fear of water.

Floating is a characteristic of the human body. Some of us have good buoyancy while others do not. It’s all down to our relative density. In other words, how dense our body structure is, compared to the density of the water we are attempting to float in. Let us put some actual figures to this:

Freshwater has a density of 1g/cm3

Saltwater has a density of 1.024g/cm3, therefore having a higher density

The average male has a density of 0.98g/cm3 and the average female 0.97g/cm3. We can deduce therefore that most human beings will float to a certain degree, with a small amount of the body staying above the water surface. Females float better than males and both males and females float better in saltwater than in freshwater. Very few adults can float horizontally in the water, yet most children can hold a star float in the horizontal position.

It must be noted that a person’s weight has little to do with their density. Muscle is denser and therefore heavier than fat, making fatter people better floaters. Other factors that effect floatation are:

The volume of air in the lungs

An individual’s muscle to fat ratio

The shape of the individual and therefore the location of their centre of gravity



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Entering the swimming pool.

Learning to deal with getting your face wet and building up to partial and total submersion.

Regaining a standing position from a prone position.

Regaining a standing position from a supine position.