As your child becomes comfortable with their swim lessons, you’re getting excited about the progress they’re making. They amaze you because just a few weeks ago, they may not have been able to float on their backs, put their faces under the water or roll over and move their arms and legs in swimming motions.
When they’ve reached these milestones, it’s time for them to begin to learn basic essentials for swimming. The most basic of all is the prone position where your child floats belly side down with their face in the water. For a small child, this is a huge accomplishment because it doesn’t feel very natural. This is also important because it is the first step in being able to learn swim strokes.
When in the prone position with chin tucked in, a child’s feet will naturally float to the surface. By lifting the head, the child causes their feet to drop down and cause a slightly panicky feeling. But this is what they must overcome to accomplish this skill – and to move ahead to learning swimming stroke motions. By learning the prone position, swimmers are then able to float, rest roll over and relax in the water.
Mastering the prone position is not only critical to a child’s ability to learn swim strokes and skills but it also helps them to be safe in the water because they know how to rest themselves if they become too tired while they’re swimming.
Making sure swim fundamentals are learned is critical to a child’s potential as a swimmer, to their basic safety in the water and to their ability to enjoy water throughout their lifetime.
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