World Drowning Prevention Day on July 25th brought attention to the more than 200,000 people who drown each year.
Hawaiʻi has the second-highest drowning rate in the nation, with about 800 people having drowned in the past decade. Drowning is also the top cause of child mortality under 15.
Teaching essential swimming skills is a cause that author Jan Prins has taken up in a new book.
Prins is the former head men’s swim coach for the University of Hawaiʻi and has coached for elite swimming teams across the world.
HPR sat down with Prins to talk about the importance of swimming skills and to learn about his newest book, “Freestyle Biomechanics: The Science Behind the Strokes.”
“This is a learned skill,” Prins said. “You can be the most natural swimmer in the world, but somebody has to teach you.”
His new book was published as a companion to his video series, which analyzes 35 years of footage of elite swimmers who were filmed using high-speed cameras.
“In swimming, even very subtle things you do that don't work, we call them stroke defects, can make a huge difference,” Prins told HPR.
"You can either run away or come and swim. But this is one of the most pleasurable things. It's a life skill that you can use all the rest of your life."
More information about Prins’ new publication, “Freestyle Biomechanics,” can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 29, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
