Naga Munchetty motivated by nationwide support on Learn to Swim journey

Naga Munchetty says she has been inspired by the reaction to her learning to swim as an adult.

The broadcaster and journalist began swimming lessons, alongside her husband James, through Everyone Active in May 2019, and has been speaking positively about the progress she has made in less than a year.

Naga has developed greater water confidence and improved her front crawl technique, with the help of her instructor Hollie Jade Burke.

She said: “I’m definitely loads more confident in the water.

“I enjoy it more and I know that the best way for me to learn to swim is to play games and be competitive. Hollie has tapped right into that.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s work – it feels like it’s much more fun. So I’m enjoying it, which I never thought I would say about swimming.

“I really wanted to be confident in the water.

“I was really worried about the deep end – I was really worried about being out of my depth and panicking.

“I feel much less so that that will ever happen now.”

A supportive community

Swim England’s most recent Love Swimming campaign celebrated adults who are learning to swim later in life.

It followed statistics from the Swim England brand tracker which revealed 14.2 million – one in three of the adult population – in England cannot swim one length of a 25m pool.

Naga’s progression in the pool has been followed by thousands of people across the country, who have been motivated to learn the vital life skill.

Naga said: “I know I’m an adult learning to swim and there will be loads of people around the country who say ‘I’ve done this forever’.

“Well, I haven’t. It’s something new to me. I’ve embraced it and it’s been quite scary at times, but I’m really glad I took on the challenge.

“It’s amazing, the feedback from people has been really varied.

“People have been so supportive. I’ve not had one negative comment – just constructive, positive encouragement.”

The Swim England Adult Swimming Framework understands that adults have very different needs to children when learning to swim and focuses on improving confidence, competence and technique, with no age limit.

You can use the Swim England poolfinder to get started on your swimming journey.