As children are becoming acquainted with the water and comfortable being in it, parents can help by guiding. No one is more trusted by children than parents and the examples set by them makes lasting impressions. This is obviously important in the first classes where parents are in the water with their children but parents can also help improve their children’s swimming skills by guiding them through dry land activities.
These activities are not swim lessons. After all, swimming is a very specific set of skills that involve highly complex and coordinated, whole-body movements. However, these activities can help children develop abilities that will make learning specific swimming techniques more natural (and easier) to accomplish and will prevent them from being frustrated with swim lessons and potentially fear the water.
Getting Ready on Dry Land
Swim strokes provide the basis for dry land swim prepping activities.
Breaststroke
Basically, the breaststroke requires that both sides of your body do the same thing at the same time – or perform mirrored movement. The arms move simultaneously making circles that start at the breast and move out and away from the body while the legs are “frog kicking” in a mirrored movement that builds up speed in the water.
Believe it or not, mirrored movement is one of the first types of movement achieved by babies. Babies reach out for things with both hands. If they follow this motion by mimicking applause with a clap they complete a motion that is very similar to the breaststroke.
Any games that involved clapping are great practice for mirrored movement and hence the breaststroke. Even try clapping with the backs of your hands – like a seal. Bobbing and jumping like a frog helps to build leg strength.
Butterfly
The butterfly stroke’s circular arm motion that breaks through the surface of the water is another example of mirrored movement. The dolphin kick action of the legs is a second mirrored movement for this stroke. While both use mirrored movements, the two strokes (breast and butterfly) are quite different. The butterfly is more complex because it requires body rhythm to produce two dolphin kicks for each arm stroke.
What is body rhythm? It is an internal sense of beat that helps regulate movements and allows the body to work as a unit. In this case, body rhythm helps one part of our body move faster or slower than another part.
Listening to mommy’s heartbeat in the womb for nine months gives young children an innate sense of rhythm from conception. After birth, they are exposed to natural rhythms – such as parents’ voices, favorite songs, and games like patty cake. All of these activities contributes to the relationship and comfort with rhythm and beat.
Backstroke
The Backstroke switches it up – requiring the body to perform lateral movement (when one side of the body moves in opposition to the other). The paddle-like movements of the arms and the kicking motion of the legs in the backstroke require equal strength and control on both sides of the body. The head must be centered, straight, and it must be kept still to keep from veering off course. These identical abilities are required to attempt to crawl, stand and walk.
Free Style
The most complex of all swimming strokes is Free Style. Arms and legs are required to move in rhythm and opposition at the same time. To complicate it further, the head must move to the breathing position once every few strokes – which may not seem like much – but in fact is a critical but often overlooked early years milestone.
Nature actually provides babies with a series of primitive reflexes to help them navigate the birth canal and their early months/years. These reflexes include the STNR (Symmetric Tonic Neck Reflex) which synchronizes arm and head movements.
So think about crawling. In order to master this, babies must be able to become positioned on all fours, with head raised – being able to move it from side to side to see where they are going. Until the STNR reflex is released, crawling and walking cannot begin – and neither can the first “big-kid” swimming lessons.
While watching TV, eating dinner or waiting in line at the grocery store, parents can guide children to do a few activities that will help them build on the four essential skills of swimming.
1. Kicking Coordination. If they can kick their feet, children can kick their feet – and propel themselves underwater – and to paddle to keep their head above water. Encouraging that they kick their hanging feet or kick a ball will help them to understand what they will be expected to do in the water. Repeating the words as they practice the kick, kick, kick reinforces the action.
2. Arm Movement. In order to make the motion required to swim, children must practice moving the water in front of them or “stirring the stew”. This helps them to understand that they must push the water behind them in a circular motion so that they move through the water. A common error children make is holding their hands straight out to their sides and bringing them together as if they were reaching for a hug. By practicing this “stirring of the stew” correctly – even when they aren’t in the water – children can easily become comfortable with the front-to-back movement that swimming requires.
3. Jumping Skills. It is a surprise to some that children are hesitant to jump in the water. Jumping requires coordination and practice. It is sometimes confusing to them that they are being asked to do something in the water that they are called down for on dry land. Children need to begin to understand when it is appropriate to jump and when it is not – and that when parents are guiding them, jumping is a good skill to practice. Jumping off of low surfaces helps children become comfortable with the feeling of jumping into the water.
4. Breathing Skills. Blowing bubbles is an important water safety skill that focuses on helping a child learn to control their breath. This is a good activity to practice anytime there is an opportunity to do so. And most children love doing it! Blowing bubbles can be practiced using a straw and milk or bubble solution and wands so that they create bubbles that stick around so they can – in essence – see the air they are blowing.
So – even when there is no pool for practicing skills, children can make progress with swim-related skills on dry land.
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