Is your child ready to hit the pool?
Laura Miller
chats to some of Hong Kong’s top swimming
coaches for the low-down on swimming lessons.
Bold bathers and
confident crawlers
L
iving in Asia, where almost
any body of water is an
inviting playground for most
of the year, parents spend
a lot of energy planning swimming
lessons for their children. This focus
on learning to swim is completely
understandable. According to the
World Health Organization, children
under five years of age have the
highest drowning mortality rates
worldwide. In China, drowning is the
leading cause of death from injury in
children aged one to 14 years, and
even in Australia, one of the most
swim-savvy nations in the world,
drowning is the leading cause of death
from injury in children aged one to
three years.
Yet we don’t want our children to
learn to swim just for their own safety:
Swimming is a fun, exhilarating
and healthy pastime, and the more
confident and competent a child is in
the water, the more enjoyment they get
out of it.
After a recent holiday in Sri
Lanka however, I realised that
confidence and competence do not
always go hand in hand. With a
swimming pool and lagoon to choose
from, my almost-three-year-old gained
confidence in the water at a rapid
rate. By day five, she was throwing
herself in from the top step shouting,
“Cannonball!” This was extremely
entertaining to watch. What wasn’t so
entertaining was on day eight when
she didn’t want to wear her inflatable
armbands any more so she could
“go underwater more easily” – and
discovered she could remove them
herself.
We arrived back in Hong Kong
determined to capitalise on her
confidence in the water, and to get her
swimming unaided as soon as possible.
Chatting to Hong Kong’s swimming
experts from Innate Fitness, Dragon
Swim Centre, Platypus Aquatics and
FloatPlus Swimming – couldn’t have
been better timed.
How young is it possible for children
to swim unaided?
Sharon says:
It depends on what you
wish to classify as “swim”. We have
many children who, at two years, are
able to independently swim using an
underwater dog-paddle for about two
metres to get to the side and climb out
of the pool. Even some of the toddlers
as young as 18 months can manage
a small dog-paddle from the parent
to the wall. If you mean formal
swimming with strokes, then we
have some three-year-olds who are
able to swim breaststroke and crawl
for short distances, some up to
about five metres.
When should lessons start?
Andrew says:
The earlier the
better. Before six months, babies
still have an innate affinity for
water as a result of life in the
womb. Build on this to generate
enthusiasm for water: In the bath,
pour (soap-free) water over your
baby’s head to get him comfortable
having his eyes and ears in water.
Katie says:
Once a baby has had
his first immunisations he can start
lessons. If you have your own pool,
I’d feel happy putting him in from
six weeks. For public pools, I’d
recommend three months.
Sharon says:
Infant Aquatics
recommends beginning formal
lessons in a class situation from six
months old. We teach “formal”
strokes when children are
developmentally able to complete
March 2016
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