When your kids can put their heads under the water and kick, they’re ready to learn the streamline or torpedo position. This position will help your kids learn to keep their bodies in a position that minimizes the amount of drag their bodies create and helps them to move through the water with less resistance. Teaching your kids to glide through the pool in this position will give them their first taste of what it really feels like to be able to swim. Here’s how to teach your kids to swim in the torpedo or streamline position.

Teaching Kids to Swim in the Torpedo or Streamline Position—Without Even Getting Wet

Start teaching your kids to swim in torpedo position without getting in the pool. On dry land, have your child lie on his back and look straight up at the ceiling. Ask him to extend his arms overhead so that they’re flat on the ground and his body is a straight line from the tips of his fingers to the tips of his toes.

Have your child place the thumb of one hand where the thumb and first finger of the other hand meet. Then, have him rotate his hands slightly so that the fingers overlap. The shape of the hands is like a triangle, with the overlapped fingers forming a point.

His head should be in line with his arms, not tucked down or tilted back. When he’s lying on the ground looking straight up at the ceiling, this will be the position his head naturally assumes. In the water, kids have a tendency to lift the head up and keep it out of the water. A guideline that helps the head position is to make sure your ears are touching your upper arms. Ask you child to squeeze his ears with his arms to feel their position.

Have him practice the same position standing straight up and looking straight forward. Keeping his body in this position without the guidance of the floor is only slightly harder.