Learning to swim doesn’t just happen during your child’s swim school lessons. If your child can already float on their back and torpedo on their front, there are many things you can do to help your child advance their swimming skills.
Skills that need to be practiced regularly with the help of parents include:
- Kicking – correct kicking action is essential for your child to gain efficient forward movement. Your child needs to perform short, fast kicks with their feet close together. This skill can only improve with practice (at swim lessons and the local pool).
- Talk about swimming actions with your child to help them better understand what we are asking them to do in the pool.
- Get your child to pretend to be a windmill in front of the mirror. This can help them better understand freestyle arm action.
- Talk to them about how they need to lift their head out of the water when they’re swimming doggy paddle. This helps them get their breath so they can then blow bubbles.
Learning to swim isn’t just about what we do in our pool – your support at home will certainly help your child advance and gain the skills they need to be safe in the water.