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Teaching Popup Breathing: Stage 1

Being able to breathe at will in the water is a huge step toward water safety for kids. Until your child starts working on keeping his head in the water and turning it slightly to the side to take a breath, he’ll lift his whole head out of the water when he needs to breathe. Here’s how to teach your kids popup breathing.

Teaching Your Kids to Breathe in the Pool

In order to do popup breathing, your kids need to understand that to lift up out of the water they’ll push down with their arms.

Have your child sit on the steps so that the water is up to the tops of his shoulders. If this won’t work with the steps of your pool, hold your child gently around the waist and lower both of you so that the water reaches the tops of his shoulders.

Have him extend his arms in front of him and press down, cupping his hands. He should feel his body rise up while he’s pushing down and sink back down when he’s finished. Have him try doing it with his arms bent at different angles and with his fingers spread apart instead of closed. Discuss with him the effect the different ways he moves his arms and hands have on whether or how much his body moves up in the water.

Have your child practice pushing down with his arms, bringing his arms close to his body and lifting them up like arrows through the water, and pushing them down again. Discuss how making his arms like arrows going straight up through the water feels compared to the pushing down he’s been practicing. He should notice that it’s easier to move his arms through the water when they’re slicing through it like an arrow, and that his body barely moves when he uses his arms this way.

Have him practice this sequence repeatedly, so that he’s maximizing resistance while he pushes down and minimizing resistance while he brings his arms back to the surface. Have him push down, bring his arms to the surface, push down, and bring his arms to the surface several times without stopping. Discuss how that keeps his body lifted in the water.

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Time to Play! Gliding

Kids learn by playing. The more you can make learning to swim fun for your kids, the more they’ll like it, the quicker they’ll learn, and the more fun you’ll have teaching them. This way of practicing gliding in the streamline or torpedo position is sure to make the whole family giggle.

Play catch with your gliding child as the ball. (You’ll need another adult for this one.) How far can the ball go? What kind of ball is he? Maybe he’s an arrow instead, or a javelin. Let him choose. Make a big deal out of the catch. Try not to tickle him too much, unless he likes it.

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Teaching Kids to Glide in the Pool: Mastery

Gliding in the pool in the streamline or torpedo position, your kids will learn to move through the water in a shape that makes their swimming most effective. Here’s how to teach the skill once you’re in the pool.

Teaching Your Kids to Glide in the Pool

First, practice the position on dry land. Now it’s time to get wet.

In the pool, have your child get into streamline position and then put his face into the water. Help him glide through the water by holding both of his hands and walking backwards.

Getting started moving is the hardest part. When your child is comfortable with having you tow him while he’s in streamline position, have him push off from the step or the side and glide into your arms. Gradually increase the distance of the glide.

Even when your child starts doing glides by himself, stay close, both for his safety and to make him feel secure and confident. Don’t have him try incorporating the kick yet.

Once he’s really comfortable gliding without moving his body, have your child push off from the edge in streamline position and begin to kick. Have him practice until he can move the width of the pool this way.

This skill is gratifying to teach and to learn. It’s the first swimming lesson that starts to look like real swimming, and it’s a huge step toward teaching your kids to be water safe.

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Teaching Kids to Glide in the Pool: Stage 1

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.