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Swimming aids for the non-swimmer

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19th January 2012

When someone first enters the water, they might be very afraid to go it alone. Those first steps, or an arm stretched out to touch the bottom of the pool can be a milestone for a child or adult whose only contact with water has been a hot shower or bath.

It is not, in my experience, a good idea for a teacher to let a non-swimmer go it alone first time round. A colourful aid to float with or to touch gives them a feeling of security and stability.

I always have an array of colourful water things, like plastic balls, animal shapes, woggles and floats on the side of the pool.

For young children a few steps in the water can seem as long as a walk in the park. So I go into make-believe land, each step they make in the water is an animal they know, or a colour, and then each step is another colour, or animal or something they know about.

When they have made ten steps in the water, and counted to ten, or thought of ten colours, you can see the smile on their faces.

I always have an array of colourful water things, like plastic balls, animal shapes, woggles and floats on the side of the pool.

The children like the hoops best, especially when they are capable of gliding through a hoop and back again.
Another favourite is the rings they have to dive down to retrieve. Children also like toy watering cans and rubber ducks.
Woggles are universal in their appeal to the young swimmer and the more mature. They sit with ease around the swimmers body, on both the front and back, and swimmers gain confidence and some swimming techniques by feeling this around them. Adults in particular seem to get a great sense of mobility and confidence by using woggles to try out all the different stroke.
Swimming floats help with improving stroke technique especially for the legs. They come in all shapes and sizes, and in various different guises like animals, numbers , letters and building blocks. You can use them on your front or back, two floats together or one float at a time. Swimming floats are used just as much with advanced swimmers as with beginners.
Pull buoys are floats which are held between the legs, they are mainly used by more experienced swimmers who need to rest their legs.
Kick boards are similar to floats but are bigger and allows a more experienced swimmer to concentrate on the leg kick.

When you see young ones in the water you always notice their bright red or coloured arm bands. They help keep a swimmer off from the bottom of the pool, but I always find them a bit cumbersome and they get in the way of a child learning some early swimming techniques with their arms.

They also tend to be a bit lopsided which means the child isn’t being encouraged to swim in a straight line.

I tend to find armbands a bit cumbersome and they get in the way of a child learning some early techniques with their arms.

In my day of course you learned to swim by using a rubber ring! But they are not the safest of ways to learn to swim, and you have to hang on tight if you are to keep within the hole.

All the aids and learning games for swimming may have been around for a very long time, but with the feeling of safety and confidence they give to both the non-swimmer and swimmer they will be around for many more generations to come.

Happy swimming.

Useful?

Talk

5

7.05am 11th February 2013
gman from vancouver

I would suggest the best online source for the water toys would be Amazon. No excuse! Buy one for your child and help them out in liking the water more! http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=water+toys
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3.29pm 30th March 2012
gman from vancouver

My two kids? They just want fun things, then the learning happens. Time in the water takes some sort of toy as mentioned here. Personally I used life jackets in the local pool until they learned to swim. They were happy with that.
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11.02am 31st January 2012
Christine Gage from Dingwall

Sue - the shark fins…..OK but if you have a very small child that is kicking but hasnt quite got the motor skills to master arm movements yet, they tend to tip forward if they dont have any arm motion and its best to pair the fin with arm bands or a float for some frontal buoyancy; encouraging them to use their arms with various games etc until some form of action is established to prevent tipping forward.
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10.39am 31st January 2012
Christine Gage from Dingwall

Agreed Sue. We use pull buoys in synchro for teaching sculling and ‘resting’ they are not! I dont think I’ll be subscribing to the blog… Also depends on the ‘cumbersome’ arm bands! Agreed the roll up ones are awful and make smaller children especially move their arms like the michellin man. However if you check out different designs Zoggs have a good one where the child has good arm/elbow mobility and a more realistic body position for swimming. Dont write off arm bands. Its far easier to seek out a well designed pair, give a child independence and safety from the word go. Rather than peel a child of a beloved woggle….you cant deflate them!
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12.35pm 24th January 2012
Sue Gilbertson

Not much help for teachers I am always hoping to find new ideas.
A bit basic may be OK for parents.
What about shark fins-OK for non swimmers to confidant swimmers. Arm discs that can be used as singles and up—and don’t need blowing up and do keep swimmers level plus come in bright colours. Body suits are great for little ones who want their freedom and the level of flotation aid can gradually and symmetrically be removed, tummy bands much the same and do work. I have used all to good effect it often depends on the swimmer.
Having worked in a club environment I thought pull buoys were to aid in the use of the arm technique and also to strengthen the upper body holding a pull buoy in place hardly rest the legs.I also find them invaluable to aid with floating and teaching sculling.