Swimming is one of the few sports that can be practiced into old age and with almost any physical limitation. However, for people with a visual impairment, a visit to a public indoor pool often turns into a stressful obstacle course. Where sighted people simply jump into the water, visually impaired people face an enormous mental and physical challenge.
5 major difficulties for the visually impaired in the indoor pool
- Orientation in the room: Large halls with hard surfaces generate a lot of echo. This noise level makes acoustic orientation much more difficult.
- Sources of danger on the floor: Floating boards left lying around, slippery spots or unpredictable steps become dangerous tripping hazards.
- Collisions on the lane: chaos often reigns in public pools. Other swimmers cross the lane, don’t keep to the right or underestimate the space required by a visually impaired athlete. Collisions are inevitable here and lead to great uncertainty.
- Lack of contrast: Many bathrooms are architecturally designed in light tones. White tiles and blue water offer hardly any contrast to make the edges of pools or steps clearly visible.
- Estimating the distance: The biggest problem in the water is the approaching end of the lane. Without a marker or someone to give a signal in time, there is a high risk of swimming hard into the concrete wall.
The solution in Horgen: the floating canal as a safe harbor
When I bought the swimming channel in 2016, I wasn’t thinking about visually impaired people. But over the years, more and more people have asked me: “Do you offer this too? The swimming channel in Horgen offers a completely new dimension of safety and training quality for visually impaired people. The barriers mentioned above are systematically eliminated here:
- 100% privacy & silence: As you are alone in the room (or only with your coach), there is no background noise or other people’s voices. The acoustic communication between us is clear and direct.
- No turning maneuvers, no collisions: That’s the biggest advantage. In the swimming channel, you swim against a constant current in one place. You don’t have to count lanes and you don’t have to worry about hitting a wall. The aim is simply to find your rhythm in the water.
- Discreet infrastructure: From your own parking space right outside the door to the private shower cubicle – the routes are short, familiar and always the same. This gives you the security you need to find your way around.
- Individual 1-to-1 coaching: I stand right at the edge of the pool. This proximity means I can give you immediate feedback and guide you safely through the session. We work at your pace and according to your safety needs.
- Adjustable current: The current gives you physical guidance in the water. As long as you can feel the pressure of the water, you know exactly where you are in the channel.
Conclusion: The swimming channel in Horgen takes away your fear of the surroundings and gives you back the joy of movement. Here you can concentrate fully on your body awareness and technique – in a protected environment that guarantees maximum safety.
Your Roy infos@schwimmkanal.ch