“Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!” Dory, Finding Nemo.
Swimming is an activity everyone can enjoy. There is nothing as refreshing on a hot summer day as jumping into a nice cool pool. When you’re a parent, you want your kids to enjoy swimming and you want them to be safe. Swimming lessons are a great way to help your child with social skills, physical skills, and boost their confidence in the water. The best way to help a child become a confident swimmer is to have them swim, and swim often. Swimming lessons multiple times per week has many benefits:
Muscle Memory
What is muscle memory? It’s the concept that when practicing any sort of physical skill, the more frequently you practice, the better your brain is able to create pathways to help that skill become automatic. Like skiing down a mountain, the more you do it, the more clear cut your pathway becomes as you continue down the same run. When kids attend swimming lessons multiple times per week, rather than just once per week, their muscle memory is dramatically improved because of the frequency of the swimming practice. Kids remember what they learned the previous lesson when the time between lessons is shorter, while they may forget with a week between lessons.
Camaraderie and Social Skills
Swimming can be a solo sport, but it is also a fabulous place to make friends and develop a child’s social skills. Whether your child swims for fun, or on a competition team, they can build friendships and receive encouragement from peers. Swimming is actually one of the best social skill activities out there. Children who participate in swimming often make friends for life because they are constantly cheering each other on and are there for each other when it gets hard. If kids attend lessons sporadically though, they won’t see the same growth in their social skills as they might if they attend regularly.
Building Stamina
Swimming practice works almost every muscle in your body. Even if your child is active in other ways, they will benefit from swimming multiple times per week so that the same muscle groups are being worked and strengthened. The more they swim, the more comfortable they will become, and they will be able to swim faster, stronger, and more confidently.
If your child is interested in learning to swim or in practicing their swimming, consider signing them up for lessons two to three days per week, rather than just one. Swimming will help your child with social skills, build their physical stamina, and give them the confidence to help them be successful not just in swimming, but in life! Contact us for more information on how swim lessons can help your child.
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