We often hear the myth that if you throw a baby into a swimming pool, they’ll instinctively know how to swim, but how true is it?
Okay, while we’re not about to fling our precious kids into a body of water anytime soon, according to the London-based International Academy of Swimming, there is a grain of truth to it: once you teach kids to float, the swimming will naturally follow.
In a video – that as a parent will probably freak you out a little – a toddler is repeatedly dunked by instructors into a swimming pool. But unfazed, the cutie orientates himself and swims to the top.
This, the Academy says, is thanks to the “simple yet revolutionary” method called ‘Swim-Float-Swim’, which seeks to empower confidence and courage in swimmers from the offset by teaching what they deem the most important water skill, the ability to float.
This approach is becoming prevalent internationally, particularly in the US. However it is yet to be adopted across Europe.
“I’m teaching children from six months how to be an independent swimmer, how to behave in the water and how to have too much fun being very safe in the water,” says Silvia Garcia, who brought the technique to the UK with fellow instructor Miguel Jerez.
Instructors like Sylvia teach kids how to float and self-orientate underwater to rise to the top. They only ‘dunk’ the child once they have fully mastered this.
“Most of the swimming schools are teaching children to rely on floats, to rely on mum’s support how to jump in the water without knowing how to swim, and that’s very dangerous,” adds Sylvia.
“So every week we have families from different programmes coming tired of spending time and money and after years and years the child doesn’t know how to swim of float.”
It’s certainly an interesting technique that seems quite organic in its approach.
Have you tried it? Or would it be something you would like to give a go? Or did you find that traditional swimming classes did the trick?
