Infant swim
My husband and I both taught swim lessons for several years, and we agree that the difference between kids who can swim and kids who can't is confidence. It starts early. Kids need to be familiar with the water before their brains develop enough to make them start to say, Wait. Is this really safe? Because that will crush their confidence before they even feel the first drop of water. The way to build this up is to start them young before their brains can convince them that water is too dangerous.
Carry your kids with you in the water as infants in a succession of different carry positions, starting with the most secure and eventually working up to positions that barely require your support.
1. Hip carry
2. Cradle carry
3. Head support
4. Floating
This is the progression that most swim instructors will work through during infant swim lessons. When I teach this class, I have the parent hold the infant, and I only take control to help the child do glides or dunks. The way we work up to this is with the prone position, where the child is horizontal in the water, tummy down, and with their head above water. Think of the doggy paddle to picture this.
From hip carry or cradle carry, you can rotate baby so that his or her tummy, arms, and legs are under water. Their first instinct is to lift their face up, so you won't need to worry about teaching them to do that. At this point, it's common for babies to arch their backs and reach up for mom or dad to put them back in hip carry, but after one or two sessions this usually decreases enough for you to get through a thirty minute lesson.
Infant survival swim (under 2)
Survival swim is mostly about floating and screaming until someone jumps in to the rescue! When parents ask if they should stop a lesson because baby is crying while floating, I always tell them that crying is actually a part of survival swim. It's up to you. If you are uncomfortable with the fussing, stop and try again later. But just know that crying is what may save baby one day, so don't make it a goal to get baby to stop crying altogether if that's just what he or she does in the water.If you have an older child, and your goal is to get him or her ready for swim lessons, your goal may not be back floating. If your little one is under 2 though, back floating is your best bet. This is what's called survival swim.
The biggest part of survival swim is getting a baby to flip from the face down position to face up, where he or she can cry out for help.
You aren't going to want to hear this, but practicing this skill requires dunking your child and grabbing one arm and one leg to help him kick himself on to his or her back. I know that sounds like child abuse, but just think about it for a second. When a kid falls in to a body of water, they topple over because their heads are so heavy, and they need to learn how to get in position to breathe.
Start with baby in the prone position at your side. Push baby down head first, and grab a leg and an arm on the same side of his or her body, and flip baby face up by pulling the arm and leg around in a paddle motion. Pulling down and under the body is more efficient than pulling up over his or her back. This is hard to explain without a picture, but I will post some very soon. What I mean is that whichever arm and leg you grab needs to reach under their body. If you are pulling the arm and leg up above the surface of the water, you are going in the wrong direction.
With time and practice, baby will eventually start to paddle an arm and a leg to flip without your help, but in the mean time, expect lots of crying and looks of pure betrayal. It's hard, but you are doing a good thing for your child. Give yourself time to allow for lots of cuddles in between dunks. Commit to practicing this motion dozens and dozens of times, without spending more than a week or two in between practice sessions.
Preparing older infants or preschoolers for swim lessons
Many little ones are only comfortable in the prone position if they are against your stomach, but try to work towards rotating to where he or she is gliding at your hip, facing forward with you but with tummy down. Most babies and young children will start to kick at this point, but if not, have someone else bicycle baby's legs in a constant kicking motion. While your little one is kicking, walk forward, gliding baby with you. If baby stops kicking, stand still. This will help solidify the mechanics of kicking, and baby will learn that this motion will propel him or her through the water. Arm paddling comes way later, though. Young ones aren't strong enough to actually swim until they are past infancy and toddler-hood.From home, practice what we call "bubbles" in the bath tub. Productive swimming requires one to be able to blow air out the nose in order to prevent water from rushing in. Show your little one how to blow bubbles out of their nose while under water. The bath tub is a great place to practice this, but without being in a swimming pool with goggles on, it may be difficult for your child to see the difference between blowing bubbles out the mouth and blowing bubbles out of the nose.
Gliding is the first step toward swimming, and you can practice this with your child before swim lessons in order to maximize what he or she learns in the short session. Swim lessons are usually only for two weeks at most community pools, rec centers, and YMCAs, so if your child doesn't know the basics, that's probably all he or she will get out of lessons and will probably not be swimming any time soon. You can do this one alone or with a partner, but most of it will not be possible for an infant, so keep your child's developmental stage in mind as you read this blog.
If you're alone, have your child start on the side of the pool. Teach them to sit until you cue that you are ready for them to jump towards you. As your child excels at jumping in to you, start to take steps back. Then, you can start your child in the pool by having them hang on to the edge and kick to you. These are called glides. Have your child blow bubbles out of his or her nose and glide to you with straight arms. Finally, add in kicks. By this time, you child will be ready for swim lessons in a group class or alone with an instructor.
If you have a partner, take turns have the child push off of you with his or her feet and reach towards the other person. Have the child blow bubbles out of their nose and glide with straight arms, eventually adding in kicks when they are ready. The adults can gradually take steps away from each other.
If your little one is ready for some skills that more closely resemble swimming, send me an email to let me know you'd like a post about teaching older kids.
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