Summer is coming up quick and that means it’s off to the pools, beaches and lakes to cool down. Knowing how to swim is an important life skill to have. Teaching swimming can be a daunting task for parents. Where does one even begin? Abandon your trepidation, because here are some simple tips and exercises to get you started on the right foot or flipper in the swimming arena (forgive my attempt at some swimming humor). This will be the first in a series of articles spanning from beginning to intermediate swim lessons.
Step 1: Comfort:
Firstly, it is important to get your child comfortable in the water. Depending upon how old your child is, this might be a difficult task. Go to the shallow end of the pool and wade around with your child for a few minutes. Try playing a game like “ring around the rosie.” Games help to distract children from their anxiety about the water. Continue to do this until your child seems comfortable.
Step 2: The Foundations:
The next step is teaching your child several fundamental techniques that are the corner stones of swimming. The first technique you want to teach your child to do is how to kick. Kicking is the most important basic skill in the water. Kicking, particularly in children, is the main mode of transportation in the water. To teach your child the basics of kicking all you need is a wall and a pool. First have your child grab on to the wall with both hands. Preferably where the child can stand. If there isn’t a place where the child can stand you can hold them around the waist. Next you want the child to extent their arms and stretch their legs out behind them. If they are having trouble with this then you can assist them by putting their body in the right position. If it helps you can show them, because some children are visual learners. After they are in position you can tell them to kick their feet, telling them to splash them on the top of the water. Do this on and off for a few moments and tell them to stop. If you can after this you can have them grab on to the end of a kick board and you can shuttle them back and forth across the pool to give them the feeling of movement.
The next technique you want to work on are arm circles. This is the basic movement of the arms during the freestyle or front crawl stroke. Children have vivid imaginations and as such is a valuable tool in teaching a child how to swim. One technique I like to use is called “ice cream scoops.” With ice cream scoops I ask the child to pretend the pool is one big tub of their favorite flavor of ice cream. Next I tell them to pretend that their hands are ice cream scoops. Finally I tell them that there is a big bowl in front of them to put the ice cream in. One they are deep in imagination I tell them to put their hands out in front of them. First tell them to take their right hand and scoop ice cream from front to back all the way over their shoulders and back in to the bowl in a big circular motion. If it helps guide their hands with yours then do so. You want to tell the child to make a big ice cream bowl thus having them “scoop” as much water with their hands and make big circles with their arms. Have them alternate arms, left then right then left then right and so on.
Putting it All Together:
Once the child seems to have a firm grasp of this have them put kicking and arm circles together. You can do this either on the wall or you can hold the child horizontal in the water so they can get a hang of the movement. Have the child practice this. Make sure to continually encourage and reinforce proper technique by giving high fives or hugs or what ever you please. Also, trying to teach most children for more than 20 minutes is futile being that they have very short attention spans, so try shorter increments of time. Good luck and be persistent! Stay tuned for the next article in the swim lesson series intermediate swimming. Happy Swimming!
