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Teaching Popup Breathing: Mastery

Once your kids have mastered popup breathing, they’re well on their way to being water safe. Here are the final steps of teaching your kids this important swimming skill.

The Next Stage of Teaching Popup Breathing

Explain what you’ll be doing before you start. While you’re supporting his body with an arm under his stomach, have your child glide in torpedo position from one side of the pool to the other. Halfway across the pool, have him push down with his arms and lift his head to take a breath. Hold him as firmly as necessary while he tries it.

Work your way to having him try to pop up for a breath halfway across the pool while your arms are just grazing his belly, providing no real physical support. Then walk beside him while he takes a popup breath on his own.

The Final Stage of Teaching Popup Breathing

Have your child practice pushing off from the side and swimming across the pool to you, stopping to pop up for a breath whenever he needs one.

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Time to Play! Popup Breathing

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. Here’s a game that will help you teach your kids to breathe when they’re in the pool.

Sing “Pop Goes the Weasel” and have your kids pop up on the word “Pop.” Make sure to emphasize that their arms have to push down to make them pop up. Support your kids loosely around the waist between pops, and let them sing along or just listen to you. Really belt it out. Singing in the swimming pool is almost like swimming in the shower. Be loud!

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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! Popup Breathing

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. Once your kids are able to take a breath whenever they need one, they’re well on their way to water safety. This game will help them get a feel for how to surface whenever they need to breathe.

One of the things that you need to teach your kids when they’re learning to swim is that pushing down with their arms moves them up in the water. To help them practice this without realizing they’re practicing, make it a game. How high up can they get by pushing down into the water with their arms?

Can they pop up so that their shoulders are above the surface? Their chests? Their waists? Can they pop up higher than the edge of the pool? Can they pop up higher than you can? (It’s up to you to decide whether to let them win.)