Swimming Merit Badge

1. Know the dangers before you get in Requirement

Two conversations, and they are the reason the rest of the badge is safe rather than merely signed off.

2 parts

• 1(a). Review Safe Swim Defense with your counselor
• 1(b). Health problems around water, and what to do

9. Why swimming is good for you Task

The health benefits of regular aerobic exercise, and why swimming is favoured both as fitness and as therapeutic exercise.

2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test Often forgotten Milestone

The gate. The badge states that this comes before requirements 3 to 8. It is the one thing here whose order is not a matter of preference. The test itself is set out in the Swimming merit badge pamphlet.

This is a gate, not a step. The badge states that requirements 3 through 8 come after it, so nothing physical in this badge can be worked on until the swimmer test is passed. Book it early. It is the single thing that decides when the rest of the badge can start.

3. Demonstrate five strokes with good form Requirement

Each one shown correctly. Form is the requirement, not distance.

Usually comes after 2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test.

5 parts

• 3(a). Front crawl or trudgen
• 3(b). Back crawl
• 3(c). Sidestroke
• 3(d). Breaststroke
• 3(e). Elementary backstroke

6. Stay alive in the water without swimming Requirement

Four parts about conserving what you have rather than spending it.

Usually comes after 2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test.

4 parts

• 6(a). Float face-up for three minutes
• 6(b). Survival float for five minutes
• 6(c). HELP and huddle positions
• 6(d). Why moving makes cold water worse

7. Surface dive and bring something up Requirement

In water over your head but no deeper than 10 feet. Three parts.

Usually comes after 2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test.

3 parts

• 7(a). Feet-first surface dive
• 7(b). Head-first surface dive
• 7(c). Dive, swim underwater, repeat twice

4. Swim 150 yards without stopping Often forgotten Task

Twenty-five yards of each of the five strokes, in any order, swum strongly and continuously.

5. Rescue somebody without getting in Requirement

Two parts, and the principle behind both is that you stay where you are.

Usually comes after 2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test.

2 parts

• 5(a). Reach and throw
• 5(b). Line rescue, as tender and as rescuer

8. Dive from the deck Task

Following Safe Swim Defense, in water at least 7 feet deep: a standing head-first dive from a dock or pool deck, and a long shallow dive from the same place.

Usually comes after 2. Pass the Scouting America swimmer test.

Safe Swim Defense governs this and the water must be at least 7 feet deep. Whether an attempt happens at all is decided by your counselor and the Safe Swim Defense plan for the session, not by a checklist.

Counselor signs it off Milestone

The completion date is the date you met the requirements, not the date of the signature.

Usually comes after 8. Dive from the deck.

Merit badge requirements are republished annually. A Scout beginning work uses the requirements as they stand then; a Scout already working may finish under the ones they started with. Guide to Advancement 7.0.4.3 governs which applies. This page records the date its copy was read. Check it against the official page before relying on it.