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Swimming....my dd is asking for any MN tips on how to stay afloat

19 replies

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 09:38

My dd is 61/2 and has been close to being able to swim for the past couple of years. She knows all the theory, can kick well and use her arms, she just can't quite stay afloat!
We're going swimming this morning and I told her I was hoping this would be the week she managed to swim - she said - "why don't you ask on that mums website for some swimming tips?"....so, here I am, asking...
Any ideas on methods to encourage her to keep her body afloat? She's sooo close to doing it!

TIA

OP posts:
Misdee · 20/01/2008 09:39

can she float on her back?

LIZS · 20/01/2008 09:40

keep moving and tummy in straight line with feet (ie don't drop legs)

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 09:42

She can almost float on her back but looses her nerve just as she's about to do it and always puts her feet down.

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VeniVidiVickiQV · 20/01/2008 09:43

To keep moving, OR totally relax.

Keep bottom in the air if front crawl or breaststroke, and tummy pushed to the air if backstroke.

It's the swimming strokes that keep you at the top of the water, you just need to use them to keep you there (a bit like steering).

Human bodies naturally float (if you can relax enough to do this you'll see).

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 09:46

That's the kind of advice I give her- as soon as she stops kicking etc she'll sink so it's important to keep going...
I think part of the prob is that once she manages a few strokes she's so pleased with herself that she stops to check I've seen her do it

OP posts:
spudmasher · 20/01/2008 09:48

DD2 succeeded by going completely underwater and kicking arms and legs underwater. Then she just gradually learnt to lift her head out to breathe.

smartiejake · 20/01/2008 09:48

Shoulders well in the water and preferably head if she can- coming up for breaths obviously. Keep legs straight but relaxed. Tell her to pretend she is shaking loose socks off her feet.

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 09:50

oh, loose socks is a good one.....

OP posts:
roisin · 20/01/2008 10:18

No tips, but a bit of encouragement.

DS1 didn't swim until he was 6.5, despite loads of lessons and loads of going swimming for fun. All of this friends could swim. Like your dd I felt he was 'very close' for years, but just had a psychological barrier and kept putting his feet down.

For us the breakthrough was a half term holiday when I took him swimming every day for the week and he cracked it. Within 5 weeks he had swum a length (25m)! And has just gone from strength to strength.

Now (10) he swims for the swimming club and is a far better swimmer than I ever was.

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 11:52

That is encouraging roisin, as dd is actually starting to get quite frustrated with herself about it all. She tells me all her friends cxan swim so she's the odd one out and is worrying about being put in a different group to them when the time comes for swim lessons at school in the summer term.

We went thi smorning for about 45mins and she's done really well - she rememebred to try to keep her bottom up and kicked well. She can mange with a float to swim well, but with arms and legs together she sinks.

Has anyone used one of those tube shaped floats? Do you think they'd help, or is she better off learning without? (we haven't used anything so far except the flat floats you borrow at the pool)

OP posts:
Surfermum · 20/01/2008 12:12

She needs to relax. Try getting her to lie on her back with her arms and legs outstretched and do a starfish float. She'll get used to the sensations of being able to float without moving. You could put your hand under her back to give her confidence and take it away gently.

The woggles are great. They will enable her to practice her strokes without having to worry about sinking.

ProfessorGrammaticus · 20/01/2008 12:16

DS2 aged 6.10 has only just cracked it. We found a back float helpful and that's what they use in his lessons. (I assume your DD is having lessons? - if not then that is one obvious thing you could do!)

He has had a weekly lesson plus at least a fortnightly trip with DH and we have gradually reduced the number of floats on his back. He now swims (after a fashion!) without and has just got his 5m badge - he can do 10m on his back but his swimming teacher hasn't tested them for the 10m badge yet.

snorkle · 20/01/2008 12:21

I'll almost put money on her body type being quite lean. The thinner children always find it harder to float.

Getting afloat is mostly to do with having a good body position, together with an efficient kick. The two are inter-related - the better her kick, the more horizontal her body position will be and keeping her face down in the water will also help enormously. The kick also needs to be sustainable for a long time, so it shouldn't be frantic and splashy, but with long legs and feet only barely breaking the surface with loose ankles as people have said. The more propulsion you get from your kick the easier it is to move on, so even though you say she can kick well, it is still something worth practising lots.

Then it should be a progressive thing: kick with a float held in front with arms outstretched (elbows straight) and face down. Then without the float (arms still outstretched) and then add the arms (but slowly, one at a time). She may find it easier to get afloat without arms as using them often compromises the streamlined shape and children often stop kicking so well when they start using their arms. So try just a few strokes at a time, arms moving slowly and without breathing and concentrate on keeping the kick going as well.

Push-glides from the side on her front are always good to develop a streamlined shape. Keep trying to go a little further and also try adding a few kicks as she begins to slow down. If she does this towards you, you can gradually move back a little each time so she has to do a little more each time to get to you (and as you get further away you can add the arms in too - but always glide first, then legs and then arms and build up slowly stage by stage).

Lots of children get to the stage on their front (- and this may be your dd's problem) where they can swim a few strokes but have to put their feet down when they breathe. They need to be able to kick, use their arms and turn their head to breathe all at once and until all those actions are virtually automatic it's too much to think about so the legs stop when you start to think about breathing and you sink.
They need to practise rolling head to the side to breath while the arm on that side is coming over. Practise arm/head action with feet on the bottom first, then practise breathing to side using one arm (on the breathing side) and holding a float outstretched with the other one. This IS a lot to think about and takes time to learn, but keeping the head low in the water when you breathe makes it much, much easier for low bouyancy people to keep going when they breathe. Also blowing the air out before your mouth is out of the water so you only need your mouth out for the intake rather than the whole blow-out, breathe-in cycle helps.

I've rambled on as usual, hope it's been some help and good luck.

BiancaCastafiore · 20/01/2008 20:23

She's very lean, you're right snorkle great tips, thanks, we be trying them out next week.

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aintnomountainhighenough · 20/01/2008 22:24

I think one of the issues with floating on their backs is that they don't put their heads back, this means their feet automatically go down. Get her to lie back and relax and look at the ceiling. Her ears need to be in the water. I used to ask my DD to see if she could see the spiders on the ceiling! Also get her to push her tummy up as this should help flatten her out.

Good luck to your dd!

aintnomountainhighenough · 20/01/2008 22:24

I think one of the issues with floating on their backs is that they don't put their heads back, this means their feet automatically go down. Get her to lie back and relax and look at the ceiling. Her ears need to be in the water. I used to ask my DD to see if she could see the spiders on the ceiling! Also get her to push her tummy up as this should help flatten her out.

Good luck to your dd!

aintnomountainhighenough · 20/01/2008 22:24

I think one of the issues with floating on their backs is that they don't put their heads back, this means their feet automatically go down. Get her to lie back and relax and look at the ceiling. Her ears need to be in the water. I used to ask my DD to see if she could see the spiders on the ceiling! Also get her to push her tummy up as this should help flatten her out.

Good luck to your dd!

Ubergeekian · 21/01/2008 09:17

One of the biggest misunderstandings about swimming is that humans float naturally. We don't, or at least we don't all. We're mostly water, so it's the fine balance between heavy stuff like bones and light stuff like fat (and lung contents) which determines whether we sink or float.

Put bluntly, skinny people sink and fat people float. When I was at school we had a swimming teacher who told us we would all float if we relaxed, so I would take a deep breath, relax, and sit on the bottom. Floating my bottom.

If your daughter is skinny, she's not going to float. Simple as that. So she needs to do something to keep herself up. The tiring way to do that is to use her hands and legs to pull up. The easy way is to use her hands and legs to move her forward, and then use the shape of her body to pull herself up.

Would it help if she tried to think of herself as a surfboard? Body as straight as possible, front slightly higher than the back, propelled by hands and legs?

titchy · 21/01/2008 10:25

On back to float it can help if she takes a deep breath - air in lungs gives more buoyancy.

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