With summer just around the corner, now’s a great time to get your kiddos (and/or YOU) comfortable AND SAFE in water. Here at FLOW Aquatics Swim School we encourage parents & kids to focus on 3 tips For Learning to be One with the Water…to FLOW…get it??!!
Tip #1 – Find a Coach or Swim Lesson Program You Trust & Feel Comfortable With
Learning to swim is an intimidating prospect made worse by the fact that we’re immersing into a foreign environment (i.e. water). One of the biggest contributors to swimming success is finding someone you feel comfortable with. The coach/program should be non-intimidating, relaxed & fun. Let’s face it – being in water is already intimidating enough, without being intimidated by your coach!
If you are a parent looking for a good swim lesson program, look not only for someone you can trust with your child, but someone you feel will keep your child safe. When looking at prospective swim lesson programs, ask if you can come in to observe lessons. Really watch how the coaches & staff interact with the children. Do they have smiles on their faces or are they looking like they can’t wait to get out of the pool? Do they interact with the children & help manipulate their bodies or are they just barking commands?
Whether you are a swimmer or a swimmer’s parent, you should be able to tell from the first couple minutes in the water if you or your child are feeling more at ease. Your coach should be able to immediately relieve your anxieties by asking questions & getting a feel of your comfort level in the water. If the first thing your coach asks you to do is swim laps…run! They should first try to assess your comfort level by watching how you exhale in the water, how comfortable (or not) you are putting your face into the water &, if appropriate, how relaxed you are in the water when floating on your front & back. If you are a more experienced swimmer, then obviously some of this does not apply.
When looking for a coach or a swim lesson program, especially if you are a novice swimmer, ask them how they teach. Do they teach by swimming laps or do they break your stroke down into little skills, over short distances, to make things easier to understand? We believe the later approach is more effective as swimmers can see success more quickly.
If you think about it, humans are hard-wired land animals. If we were supposed to be in the water we’d have been born with gills! Everything we instinctively do on land is the exact opposite of what we need to do in the water to swim efficiently. Would you try to get a baby to walk right after they come out of the womb? You need allow yourself and/or your child to take baby steps when learning how to swim. Many compare it to learning to golf. There is “so much” to think about that it is very difficult to incorporate new habits unless skills are broken down into smaller steps.
Although your progress may feel “so slow” in the beginning, be assured that your gains will be tremendous. But it takes patience and consistency. It’s just like playing the piano. You can’t learn to play the piano if you only take lessons once a year for 2 weeks & then don’t practice again until the following year. You need to work on it with consistent, patient practice & eventually you and/or your child will become a master of the water!
Tip #2 – Relax!
Some of your coach’s first instructions should be “RELAX” or “SOFT” or “QUIET” – these concepts are critical to swimming effortlessly & efficiently. If you are not relaxed, it will be VERY difficult to swim with ease. Often, people who have swum for years are surprised to find out how tight & un-relaxed they really are in the water, especially in their neck, legs and shoulders!
It is very common to have people who can “swim,” yet they can’t float on their back or even stay still without feeling like they need to move. This is because they’ve never really learned to “give up their bodies” to the water, to really “let go.” It’s a control issue, we “humans” have. WE always have to be in control of everything & if we’re not in control we panic & tighten up…and then we sink.
Try this next time you are in the water. Put your arms out in front of you, shoulders width apart, relaxing & letting them hang out at the surface of the water. Do not try to keep them above the surface, just let them float where they naturally want to float. If you are doing it correctly, you should feel like your arms are totally weightless…you are using zero effort to keep your arms at the surface of the water.
Think of your muscles as sponges. When you are relaxed you have lots of air running through them & they are fairly light. However, when you tense your muscles, you squish all the air out & essentially they go from being sponges to bricks. Your body will follow accordingly…and you will sink!
It’s absolutely understandable that relaxation in the water is not a “natural” concept for humans (we are built for land…not water), but it can definitely be learned. It will come as you become comfortable in the water & begin to trust & feel that the water will actually hold you up. It actually is very hard to “sink” in the water since you naturally have a built-in floating device in your chest…your lungs! You just need to learn how to use them properly to help you float.
This is the beauty of water. We aren’t affected by gravity in the same way we are on land. We are lighter in the water. In the water…we actually “fall up” because of the air in our lungs! Next time you are at the pool, try this. Take a big breath & push yourself down by using the edge of the pool. See how long you can stay there without coming back up. Most people will come up to the surface almost immediately. There is a very small portion of the population that will rise slower, because they have more muscle mass, but they will come back up.
Relaxation takes practice, but once you’ve got it you will really start to feel “one with the water”. Let this be your mantra for your next practice: “Let Go, Let FLOW”
Tip #3 – Balance
Next to relaxing, balance is the most important concept a swimmer can focus on in order to swim more efficiently & effortlessly.. After working with you on how to ways to relax (see Tip #2), your coach should start teaching you how to manipulate your body so that you achieve balance.
Picture a little toy boat sitting on the surface of the water. Give it give it a little push. If that boat is perfectly balanced on the water, it doesn’t take much to set it in motion & make it glide through the water for a good distance. Now picture that same toy boat with an anchor dragging behind it in the water. It would take a considerable amount more energy to be able to move it forward in the water & it won’t travel as far.
Now picture our bodies in the water. As humans, our chests naturally float due to the air in our lungs…and our legs sink due to the large amount of muscle mass. Not a very pretty “boat” picture! If we are perfectly balanced, our bodies will be in perfect alignment. Our arms, head, back, hips & legs will all be in straight line at the surface of the water. If you are “perfectly” balanced, you should feel your legs weightless in the water. Similar to the same sensation as your weightless arms in the Relax section above.
Wrap-Up
Now that you have a better idea of what to look for in a swim coach and/or program, get out there & start interviewing & observing! Here at FLOW we are happy to chat with you about whether our program is a good fit for your kiddo(s). Just give us a call at (208) 855-2212, email us or visit our website! We can’t wait to work with your littles!
NOTE: If you’re looking for adult lessons, Michelle at Performance High is happy to help. She teaches adult versions of what we teach kids!