Aqualink Nunawading, Fraser Place, Forest Hill, VIC – 3131
Developmental Benefits of Kids Swimming Lessons
Swimming Success: Building Healthier, Happier Kids
The coordination needed to swim works the whole body and gives the heart and lungs a healthy workout. Swimming conditions children’s bodies with low-risk exercise compared to running sports that put more pressure on growing bones and joints. Mentally, overcoming fears and learning to float and kick unassisted, builds confidence to take on future challenges. Socially, making friends at the pool and in lessons and being part of a team teaches children about taking turns, cooperation, and empathy.
Swimming lessons give children much more than just safety skills. As young bodies grow and young minds develop, proper swimming technique provides a full workout that establishes lifelong healthy habits. For parents, this guide shares tips on using swimming’s many benefits to raise confident kids while pulling them away from excessive screen time at home. Because the foundations children build by navigating the pool help them navigate deeper waters ahead as adults.
Physical Benefits
Swimming is an exercise that develops the entire body inside and out. The all-over motion of swimming works most of the major muscle groups in both the upper and lower body, improving muscular strength, endurance and cardiovascular fitness. The full-body workout swimming provides is highly beneficial for young kids in building well-rounded athletic capability.
Total Body Toning
The continuous arm rotations paired with forceful up-and-down leg kicking required in swimming engages the shoulders, back, chest, abdomen, hips and legs in near equal measure. Swimming thus tones and strengthens the whole body musculature better than most other youth sports where kids mainly use just their lower or upper half. Building balanced muscular development from a young age prevents overuse injuries down the road and instils keen body awareness and coordination.
Muscular Endurance
The constant motions involved in swimming build localised muscular endurance. Children grow accustomed to the simultaneous arm and leg movements required by swimming lap after lap, increasing reps over time. Unlike walking or running which are episodic motion, the sustained nature of swimming keeps targeted areas working nonstop. Swimming lessons for kids help in building up muscular stamina to keep powering through the water and on land for extended periods.
Enhanced Flexibility
The wide range of limb motions utilised in the various strokes enhances flexibility in multiple joints including ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and wrists. The reciprocal pulling, rotating and stretching movements take kids’ joints through fuller ranges of motion to make them more agile in and out of the pool. This added flexibility is especially beneficial during childhood as it allows for easier mastery of proper technique once kids transition into more advanced swimming levels.
Low-Impact Cardiovascular Training
As an aerobic activity done horizontally in the water rather than upright like running, swimming provides an intense cardiovascular workout for kids without excess impact on weight-bearing joints. The water’s buoyancy offers cushioning that reduces strain on the hips, knees and ankles so children can swim longer without skeletal or muscular fatigue compared to land sports. This makes swimming an ideal foundation for ongoing heart and lung conditioning early on and aids them in building breath control.
Enhanced Cardiorespiratory Fitness
The immersive aquatic environment enhances cardiorespiratory fitness more than any other exercise. The hydrostatic pressure kids face when submerged makes the heart work harder to circulate blood through additional vascular resistance. Meanwhile higher respiratory rates are required to offset breathing constraints caused by horizontal torso alignment. Together these effects result in tremendous cardiopulmonary gains for kids.
Injury Prevention
Swimming offers highly effective prevention and rehabilitation as its non-weight bearing nature avoids putting excess strain on children’s tendons, ligaments or growth plates like running or jumping might.
Mental & Social Benefits
Conquering Fears
For many first-timers, learning to swim helps kids overcome fear of the water potentially derived from primitive survival instincts telling us to avoid depths. But with proper acclimation to being submerged plus instruction on floating, kicking, arm motions and rhythmic breathing, young minds gradually build the confidence and remember the skills to counter those instincts and feel safe in the water. That breakthrough moment when kids can finally swim without assistance does wonders for building up their confidence.
Social Skills Development
Group swimming lessons allow kids to interact with same-age peers and practise social skills like taking turns, sharing lane space cooperatively and making pool buddies. The team dynamic taught in youth swim programs mirrors classroom cooperation. Beyond social growth, having friends to swim with makes swimming less intimidating.
Meditative Qualities
The conscious breathing control, repetitive movements and relative quietness of swimming induces an almost meditative state for kids. The focused activity redirects attention inward to block out external distractions and relieve stress or anxiety better than competitive land sports. After a good swim, children often concentrate better, feel more relaxed yet energised and sleep more soundly. The therapeutic relaxation swimming fosters is key for balancing childhood emotional highs and lows.
Building Self-Esteem
Mastering new swimming skills develops children’s self-confidence exponentially. With each achievement like learning to open their eyes underwater or swim the entire width of the pool, kids gain pride from reaching tangible goals. Small milestones that may seem insignificant to adults provide immense self-assurance for young minds. Teachers celebrating small wins makes children believe in their capability to conquer greater challenges.
Emergent Leadership
For children on recreational swim teams, group practices teach leadership organically. More adept swimmers start informally guiding struggling teammates simply by demonstrating efficient technique. Leading by example to motivate peers reflects empathy and maturity. They learn how effective leaders uplift others to do their personal best rather than just focus on individual performance.
Sportsmanship & Teamwork
Swim teams reinforce concepts of selflessness critical for young kids to integrate. During relay meets, faster swimmers must patiently cheer on slower teammates for overall squad success. This evokes the significance of working towards shared objectives. Being part of a team gives young children purpose beyond just individual progress. It introduces notions of collective responsibility.
Visit Just Swimming Near You
Tintern Grammar Cnr of Loma and Morinda Streets, East Ringwood, VIC – 3135
Mt. Scopus Memorial College, 87 Station Street, Burwood VIC – 3125
Wesley College, 620 High Street Road, Glen Waverley, VIC – 3150
Primary Aged Swimming Lessons
Our Primary Aged swimming lessons are designed for kids from 5 years to 12 years of age and are a great way to keep your children active and fit, while also learning an important life skill.
Whether your child has been in swimming lessons or just starting to learn to swim, we welcome all abilities. Our program is designed to teach children to swim well and to swim safer. We place a strong emphasis on teaching correct technique and provide a number of pathways for the more competent swimmer.
When kids start Primary School, it feels like parents have to begin to let go of the reigns a little. They are now being looked after by their school, perhaps having playdates without a parent or even a couple of nights on school camp. It’s a daunting feeling, and we all want our kids to be prepared and equipped with the right skills. Learning to swim and having the ability to know what to do in a sticky water situation, is vital – especially when children start primary school.
But let’s not forget about the joy of swimming too. Holidays by the beach, lazy summer days around the pool or even a camping trip along the river, we are surrounded by beautiful water. The joy of being a competent swimmer, and the memories attached to having fun, splashing around with a friend or family is irreplaceable. That being said, we always want them to be safe around water.
Enrolling and attending weekly swimming lessons will provide your child with valuable water safety knowledge and skills that they will keep for life.
Our Penguin and Seal levels guide our students through water safety and have a strong emphasis on building confidence in the water.
When looking at our Penguin level swimmers, we’re seeking a strong underwater pull, propulsive kick and great breath control. We also look at breaststroke kick if there is any understanding of the kick or even survival backstroke.
With our Seal levels we are looking for our swimmers to show a great understanding of freestyle, backstroke and developing an understanding of breaststroke and an introduction of butterfly.
We also want swimmers to increase the endurance and stamina in these levels; it may take 3-4 lessons before the swimmer doesn’t feel utterly exhausted at the end.
We understand that all students learn and progress differently, so don’t be surprised if your child’s class is doing a drill on the wall or even out of the water where the teacher can help manipulate limbs. By doing drills out of the water, it creates a greater awareness to the swimmers of what techniques they may need to work on.
If you’re not sure if weekly swimming lessons with Just Swimming will be right for you and your family, give us a call on 03 9878 7055 or send us an online enquiry, and we’ll extend an obligation-free swimming lesson trial and assessment.