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TEACH YOUR CHILD TO SWIM
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Children should learn how to swim as soon
as they are able to crawl to water.
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The goals of swimming instruction should
be, first, face-up comfort and lifesaving endurance in the water,
and then development of advanced swimming techniques.
B-T Aquatics has
several tools for you to use in judging your child’s ability to swim.
Our Swim School Skills Sheet lists the skills that we
teach. It is divided into two sections: Face-up Firsts and Advanced
Skills. There are challenges listed for each.
Mastery of the Face-up Firsts, followed by the passing of the Walk the
Plank Challenge, can give you a good indication of your child’s ability
to help him/herself in the event of an accidental submersion.
Mastery of each stage of the Advanced Techniques sections, advancement
to the Voyager program and passing the Seven Seas, Captain’s License,
and Mutual of Omaha B-T 500 challenges indicate increasing comfort
level, life-saving endurance, and stroke proficiency.
What do others say?
The American Red Cross says a 500-yard swim any stroke combination,
200
yards freestyle, 15 yard underwater swim, 50 yards breaststroke, 100
yards backstroke, 50 yards sidestroke, and 25 yards of butterfly.
The American Swim Coaches Association / SwimAmerica says 300 yards
freestyle,
100
yards backstroke, 50 yards breaststroke, 100 yards individual medley, 50
yards elementary backstroke, and 50 yards sidestroke demonstrate
long-term swimming safety. (They have no underwater swimming
requirement.)
The YMCA
recommends 100 yards crawl stroke (freestyle), 100 yards breaststroke,
50 yards inverted breaststroke, 50 yards over-arm sidestroke, 25 yards
butterfly and a 200 yard individual medley.
All of these
programs have different requirements. They all differ in the distances
for the strokes, but they all agree that the need to
swim at least 300 yards continuously using a variety of strokes
is a necessity.
Your
child needs to have a good endurance base as well as proficiency at
several different strokes to be considered skilled in the
water. At the same time, there is never any guarantee that there won’t
be an accident. No
one is “drownproof” or “watersafe.”
Children, especially young children, aren’t even
“livingroom safe.” All children need supervision.
Take your child to the pool for open swims for fun and family fitness.
Keep your child enrolled in a swimming program until he/she can
successfully complete all of the challenges.
Even
after achieving mastery of the all the challenges, young swimmers should
take at least one session of an organized swimming program per year.
This could be swimming lessons, a summer league or year round swim team,
synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, or even scuba. We all need
periodic technique instruction in any sport or activity.
Swimming is a necessary safety skill and a fun, healthy activity that
should be practiced for a lifetime.
Eventually, all swimmers should participate in a lifeguard training
class, even if they don’t intend on working as a lifeguard. Lifeguard training teaches
young people how to react in emergency situations.
The National Institutes of Health issued a press release
on March 2, 2009: Swimming Lessons Do Not Increase
Drowning Risk in children.
This study allays
concern that lessons could increase risk by reducing
parental vigilance (as proclaimed by the American Academy of
Pediatrics). Of course, we
haveknown this all along, however it's nice to have science on our
side! Read the press release:
Swimming Lessons Do Not Increase Drowning Risk in Young
Children - NIH News
Questions?
Click to ask Coach Neal.
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