Swimming Safety - Looking for your feedback

[hallomums]

Hi,

I'm an A level Student studying Design Technology and for my coursework I am looking at safety equipment that people use whilst swimming such as armbands or lifejackets.

I personally love playing waterpolo and recently trained as a lifeguard so would really love to improve the experience of others.

I would love to hear any thoughts and opinions on safety equipment available for children and also adults. Also if you have any suggestions for improvements on current lifesaving accessories.

Thank you,
Ellie smile

So what is it you are trying to do? You say “looking at”, do you mean designing a novel flotation aid, or redesigning existing ones?

As a swimming instructor I discourage flotation aids altogether in a pool environment. Armbands and jackets at best teach the wrong body position, at worst are downright dangerous.

Nothing can replace supervision for pool safety. Non swimmers should always have an adult in easy reach.

pool noodles are the only thing I use. Swimmers can hold on while learning the correct techniques and learning how to self float.

So my suggestion is bin them all.

I agree with bin them all too except for noodles, kickboards and pullbouys for the reasons given, armbands etc just force the swimmer into the wrong position.

I think armbands are an extremely useful aid for getting water confidence, and floats for developing strokes/ breathing techniques.
I don't like the float vests at all.

A mixture of the two - either looking at current solutions and redesigning them or looking at current solutions, realising they are dangerous and designing something more useful.

What is dangerous about armbands @Reallyreallyborednow?