swimming

[MummyToToby]

when did your child learn to swim without any armbands?

wow cat, that sounds fantastic for your DS!

Funny thing i I can't get DS INTO armbands, he's highly suspicious of any device for floating! Just wants to do his own thing.

the skinny thing is so true - if you get a group of children to do mushroom floats, once they've stopped bobbing up and down, some (the floaters) have quite a lot of their backs above the surface. Others (the sinkers) have the tops of their backs up to a foot below the surface. The sinkers (more often boys than girls, I have to say) need a more efficient stroke to swim than the floaters do. Most often it's the legs that sink when swimming, the cure is a more efficient kick.

Wow cat64 what an achievement! I suppose the fat thing would make sense for the boys sinking more than girls. Girls tend to have more 'fat' on their bodies than boys (not that they 'look' fatter, just the makeup of female bodies IYSWIM)

anyone used those strap on back floats? would you recommend them or not snorkle?

I haven't actually seen them but if they are on the back only (none on the front) then the child wont be able to swim on their back with them easily I should think. On the plus side they will be out of the way and won't restrict movement.

you mentioned you preferred swim vests earlier - can they swim easily on their backs with those? i'll see if i can find a link for the back float things.

/link{http://www.gb-sports.co.uk/childrens_swimming_aids.html/here it is}

hmmmm why didn't that work!let's try again!
\link{http://www.gb-sports.co.uk/childrens_swimming_aids.html\here}

wembley: you mention your DD uses a toggle - what's one of these. anyone got a link?

They look fine. With not too many on a child might manage on their back I should think - or you could try it back to front for that. For a very young or inexperienced swimmer it might take a little while for them to orientate themselves in the water properly (this is true of all the float suits/vests) so lots of close supervision/help to start. What I'm trying to say is it will tend to position them face down, prone in the water - an excellent swimming position, but they need to learn to rotate their body to the feet down and head up position to feel and be safe.

do swim vests allow them to swim on their backs then?

basically the floats will want to float - ie: be on top. If you try to force a float underwater it will try to bob up, so if it's on your back it will tend to flip you over. Once you become good at orientating yourself you may be able to balance yourself to keep it under, but it will always be trying to get to the top and it will be your skill that keeps it down. If there are floats on the front as well as the back, then you don't get the 'flipping over' effect so much because on say your back, the back ones might want to come up but to counterbalance that the front ones won't want to go down, so there is more stability.

With float suits/vests where the floats can be removed, if you have an uneven distribution then you will get the same effect to a degree, but with floats correctly in place you can swim on your back in them without needing to be an expert swimmer first.