Without this skill, there’s no way your kids will learn to swim, but it’s not a skill we tend to talk about teaching or learning in a swimming lesson. What is this critical skill?

A Feel for the Water

The one thing that will contribute the most to your child’s learning to swim is his development of a feel for the water. Awareness of how his body feels in the water and reacts to the water and how the water reacts to his body is the foundation of every skill your child needs to learn in order to be water safe.

In the water, your child’s balance will be different than it is on land. Instead of feeling his center of gravity, he’ll feel a center of buoyancy. Instead of feeling a sense of easy movement through space, he’ll feel a sense of resistance. Instead of pushing forward to move forward, he’ll push backwards to move forward. Explicitly exploring and developing awareness of all of these differences will help your child learn each skill more quickly and effectively.

Most swimming lesson plans don’t explicitly teach this skill, but focusing on it can speed your kids’ progress in all of the other swimming skills they need to learn to be water safe. So how do you teach your kids this critical swimming skill? Tune in tomorrow.