Why Open Water Swimming? Exploring Motivations to Swim Outdoors

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Researcher Natalie Davies, under the supervision of Susan Williamson at the University of South Wales, is conducting an online study to explore people’s motivations and reasons to swim outside.

Davies writes, “Recent research has shown that motivations for swimming outside include the self-determination factors of autonomy, competence and relatedness and the social identity gained from swimming in groups or identifying as an open water/outside swimmer. The research is completely online and will be a questionnaire which should take 10-15 minutes to complete. You can take a break at any point if you need to and return to the study later.“

The purpose of her research is to explore these aspects of motivation with more research participants than have previously been studied and collect responses through a larger scale research project via an online questionnaire.

The study aims to recruit people who are generally in good health, or those with health problems who have sought medical advice prior to starting. This is due to the ethical considerations around recruiting low-risk participants who are limited to the following individuals:

Over 18 years of age
live in the United Kingdom
been swimming outside for at least six months
swim outside regularly, at least on average twice a month
have not received medical advice to advise you to not swim outside
have sought medical advice if you have any health problems that could increase the risks swimming outside.

The research will not ask for the participants’ name and all information is confidential and anonymous.

Davies explains, “The benefits of taking part in this research include sharing your individual motivations and reasons to continue swimming outside, which could inform future approaches to help other people to continue to swim outside, and further the scientific evidence base.

The findings from this study will be adapted into a poster which will be shared to the open water swimming groups used to recruit participants, and the paper will potentially be adapted for publication as a research journal article.”

To participate or consider participation, visit here.