Agree. Maybe step one to be explained in OW should be "keep legs straight, move up & down".
Easy for an Instructor to say, hard for a student to do (quickly / immediately). There are certain 'physical' things I have learned how to do in my life that required time, and considerable repetition, before I became facile in executing them. Intellectually, I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. Creating the muscle memory took A LOT of time.
But again, if I were one of these majority of adults, my first step may be to learn how to swim, then scuba (ideally with snorkeling in between).
And, that is a reasonable approach. It is also - unfortunately - not the approach that many adults pursue.
If you think about it, it is almost easier to take a scuba class than it is to take a swim class. When you sign up for swimming lessons, you commit to a series, which is good in terms of content, perhaps not so good in terms of time commitment. I looked on the web for the availability of swimming lessons, for adults, in my area. What I found was A LOT of opportunity for 'youth' swim lessons, A LOT for very young children, and VERY FEW for adults. Here is an example, from the website of an organization in my area that does offer swim lessons for adults:
- Six, 30-minute lessons or four, 45-minute private lessons
- Scheduled at your convenience
Rates
- Members | $185
- Non-members | $220
So, since most marginally swimming adults are not going to be members of this athletic club, they will pay $220 for 4-6 lessons (which amount to 180 minutes / 3 hours of training), which calcul;ates out to a rate of ~$73/hr. That 180 minutes might be enough, it might not be. But it is $220 IN ADDITON TO the cost of the scuba course. And, they want to learn how to DIVE, not SWIM, and often do not make the connection between the two.
I tell my students - I am NOT a swim instructor. As an aside, I would love to 'formally' learn how to teach swimming. I can swim well, myself, probably because I went through very good swim training as a 12 y.o. I taught my kids some things about swimming, but we put them all in swim classes so that someone who actually knew how to teach swimming could work with them. I have coached some scuba students. But, I have no specific, focused training in teaching people how to swim. Moreover, in a scuba course, with ~4 students, and finite pool time available, teaching someone how to swim efficiently is somewhat impractical.
Now, for some time I have thought about seeking out a swim instructor and paying them to coach me on how to teach some swimming fundamentals, specifically, techniques to help divers learn learn to frog kick. I do not want to become a swim instructor, but I do want to gain more insight in how to help my scuba students improve their propulsion techniques.