Teaching Safer Swimmers before we Teach Fluid Swimmers

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, over 200 kids between the ages of 1-14 drowned last year in the United States.  Of those, 143 of them were under the age of 5. California had the 3^rd highest incidence of drowning and to be even more specific, Orange County had the highest rate in California.

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths for children under the age of five in the U.S. and first in several states, including California. The pattern is generally predictable. An infant/toddler can crawl into a pool or any body of water for that matter and disappear in a matter of seconds. Drowning statistics will show that in most cases, an abled body adult was standing just a few feet away from a child who was drowning or drowned. Remember, drowning is silent.

Swimming is not natural, otherwise, we would all be born with the ability to do it.  Swimming is an acquired life skill which makes choosing the right swim lesson provider very important. When choosing a provider, it is important to know the facts before moving forward. What skills will your child learn for the money that you are paying? The basic water skills that a child needs to survive in water include breath control, propulsion, rotation and floating. Are these skills included in your instructor’s curriculum? Is there a curriculum? A swim instructor should be screened in the same manner that you would screen your pediatrician. Because learning to be a safer swimmer is not a “one size fits all,” a swim instructor cannot and should not promise an exact number of lessons before your child is deemed a “safer swimmer.” Every child will learn at his own pace

The more aware a child gets of his limitations in the water the more frightened he/she will be when you introduce swim lessons. Who wants to hold their breath and put their face in the water where it’s blurry anyway? It is well documented that the earlier a child is exposed to a controlled swim environment, the more successful the learning process will be. Relying on flotation devices, water wings, etc. is not a controlled environment and may actually do harm to the process because teaching a child to be comfortable in a vertical position is counterproductive to teaching a child how to be a safer swimmer. Safer swimmers are instructed to rely on a horizontal position, whether it be on their stomachs or backs, to achieve a balanced float.

Learning how to swim does not have to be fun. It’s knowing how to swim that is fun. Take for example learning how to ride a bike. Kids will experience bumps and bruises before actually learning how to ride. It’s knowing how to ride a bike that is fun. The great thing about water is that we can safely teach babies how to acclimate to the water at a very young age. At Evolution Swim Academy, we have students that learn to float before the age of 6 months and students that can float and swim to safety before the age of 2. We also have swimmers that are fluid in all four of the swim strokes and are ready to join a seasonal swim team. These students started by being safer swimmers and transitioned into being fluid swimmers once all skills were mastered.

So ask yourself, does your child possess the ability to get a continuous supply of oxygen, regardless of the water’s depth? If your answer is no, pick up the phone and call Evolution Swim Academy to schedule your free evaluation for level placement. You’ll be glad you did!

Watch this video to witness our definition of a Safer Swimmer.