<p>I recently got accepted to Seminar 2 and I was just wondering, is it really NECESSARY to know how to swim because I really don't know how to tread water.</p>
<p>NO! Don’t worry about your swimming for NASS. If you can keep from drowning, that’s good enough for now. Even during Plebe Summer, they spend more time on drown-proofing than on real swimming.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you are serious about attending USNA, get yourself some swim lessons, or find a friend who can help you learn to swim. You WILL learn to swim as a Plebe, but it will be much easier to pass Plebe swimming if you can swim fairly well before I-day.</p>
<p>I would say that you should definitely practice your swimming skills before you go. Even though it is not absolutely necessary, and it won’t hurt your chances to get in, if you can swim pretty well, it will make your week a little bit easier. When I went to seminar last summer, I thought that I was a good swimmer, but once we started doing PT in the pool, especially after being sore from Day 1, it was really painful and was an eyeopener. It made me realize that I was nowhere nearly as good at swimming as I thought. You should also definitely practice treading water, because you will probably do some treading water exercises. Well I hope this answers your question.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that one day at NASS you’ll participate in “sea trials” which involve water. To what extent I don’t know. Rest assured they won’t let you drown as they would result in a lot of paperwork. Enjoy NASS! My son is at session 1 right now.</p>