Learn swimming in clothes: swim calmly dressed and undress in the water. Test requirements from Bronze to Gold, cold and safety, step by step with milestones.
Swimming in clothes means: you swim a distance in normal clothing and then take it off in deep water. The honest answer to "Why should I be able to do that?": because an accidental fall into cold water often happens dressed, not in swimwear [2]. Anyone who has once felt how heavy wet clothing pulls becomes calmer when it gets serious.
A study with ten young men in 12 °C cold water shows how strongly clothing slows you down. Dressed, they swam on average 815 m in 39 minutes, in swimwear 1264 m in 52 minutes, at similar oxygen consumption: clothing made them less efficient. The disadvantage of clothing was greater than its warmth benefit [2]. 815 m is about 33 lengths of 25 m, in swimwear it was about 50. And swimming can be a possible self-rescue at 12 °C as long as you can swim [2].
The skill appears in the DLRG tests: 100 m in clothes for Lifesaver Bronze, 300 m for Silver and Gold [1].
Be realistic: with treading water and breaststroke you bring the basics. Calm undressing in the water usually takes several sessions (experience, not a study value).
Put shirt and long trousers on over your swimwear and walk into chest-deep water. Move, walk, turn, duck under briefly. Feel how heavy wet clothing gets. Milestone: you stay calm and breathe evenly.
Swim 25 m of calm breaststroke. Wet clothing slows you down, you need more pull and less hurry. The test times help as an anchor: 100 m in at most 4 minutes for Bronze, which is about one minute per 25 m length [1]. Milestone: 100 m in clothes at a calm pace.
After the jump into the water, the junior lifesaver must float for 4 minutes on the back with paddling movements and then swim slowly for 6 minutes, changing body position at least four times [1]. This trains that you can recover in clothes. Milestone: 4 minutes on the back with paddling without sinking.
Now comes undressing in deep water. Holding on to the pool edge or other aids is not permitted, and if you lose a piece of clothing you must retrieve it by diving [1]. First loosen fastenings and shoes, then trousers and jacket. The order is practical experience. Keep yourself above water with loose leg movements or paddling meanwhile. Milestone: you take off jacket and trousers in deep water without panic and without holding on.
Swim the required distance and then undress in the water. The times get stricter: 300 m in at most 12 minutes for Silver, 300 m in at most 9 minutes for Gold [1]. Nine minutes for 300 m is 45 seconds per 25 m length. Milestone: the required distance in clothes, then undressing without a pause.
Practise undressing first in chest-deep water where you can stand and then go a bit deeper step by step. If you have internalised the feel of "fastening, pull, exit" while standing, you have less stress in deep water. That is practical experience, not a study statement.
For Lifesaver Bronze 100 m in at most 4 minutes, for Silver 300 m in at most 12 minutes and for Gold 300 m in at most 9 minutes, each followed by undressing in the water [1].
Yes. In 12 °C cold water, young men swam 815 m dressed and 1264 m in swimwear, at similar oxygen consumption [2].
That depends on place, cold and help. The study considers swimming as self-rescue at 12 °C possible but recommends further tests [2]. Never decide on this guide alone.
Usually several practice sessions (experience, not a study figure). The important thing is that you have supervision while practising.
Rescue Towing: Tow Grips with the Inverted Breaststroke Kick