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Swim Workouts for Kids

Amruta Gaikwad
Swimming is among the most sought after activities during the summer time. Many children join swimming classes as it is a great way to keep healthy and is a fun activity. To make the swimming sessions more interesting, here are a few tips.
Swimming is an effective form of exercising and can be enjoyed by all. It's a skill that many acquire from young age and continue to practice it even in the later stage of life.
Swimming is a recreational activity and a competitive sport too. Many swim for fitness purpose, pursue it as a hobby or master the skill to an extent to become a swimmer. Swimming can make this activity challenging, fun and interesting. So, jump into the pool and learn some better ways of swimming.

Learning the Basics of Swimming
Some kids love splashing and playing in the water while some hesitate to get into water. No matter what the reason might be to learn swimming, kids take time to get used to the pool, its depth. Introducing some basic swimming workouts can help children getting warmed to learn the different swim styles and their body adapts to the water temperature.
Teach them basic techniques of breathing underwater, floating and some hands and legs strokes.
When the children are learning the basic strokes, turn the session interesting by asking them to kick a ball as far as possible. Make the children stand in horizontal line and hand them different colored balls to each child.
Allow them to take the support of the edge of the pool and once you blow the whistle ask them to kick the ball as far as possible. This workout can strengthen the leg muscles and slowly increase their stroking speed.

Step 1

Once the kids get used to the water and have learned basic techniques of breathing, encourage them to move away from the edge of the pool.
Allow them to use floaters and some of them might not have gained enough confidence.
Though the children have learned basic leg strokes, it is now time to train them to attain the right body posture while swimming.
Provide the little swimmers with a flat floating board and ask to stroke their legs as fast as possible. This will train them to float well on water and gain more confidence to swim.

Step 2

After acquiring the right posture and balance, teach some of the basic hand strokes to the children. Let them be in a standing position and ask them to move the hands in circular motions. This will strengthen the shoulders and also train the muscles.

Step 3

The pool is build in two parts, Shallow and Deep. Once the children get acquainted with the pool, encourage them to swim in the deeper section of the pool. This way all the fear and hesitation will be overtaken by confidence.

Fun activities in The Pool
After learning some of the basic ways of swimming, introduce some more activities to add variety. Coming up with some innovative workout sessions can make swimming interesting and enjoyable for children.

Kicking

Kicking is a good workout for kids. It helps to improve the posture for swimming styles such as freestyle, butterfly and backstroke. Children enjoy splashing of water and kicking in water gives them that pleasure. This exercise is easy and enjoyable.
Ask the children to hold the edge of the pool and lie on their back. Give them time to get into a straight posture. Blow a whistle and ask them to begin stroking the legs as hard and fast as possible.
After sometime ask them lie on their stomach and follow the same procedure for kicking. Once the children have gained enough stamina, make the workout more challenging by timing their leg strokes per minute.

Touching the Pool Floor

This is an interesting swimming activity that children might just find fun to do. Let the kid be in a standing position. Ask them to take a deep breath and go underwater and touch the floor.
Sometimes the task might turn difficult and children might show disinterest. In this case, keep an object underwater, and make them retrieve it. This might seem more challenging and children will totally enjoy this task.

Race

Conduct race for different swim styles. This will teach the kids to stay in their lane and even prepare them for swimming competitions.
Keeping a healthy racing competition, boosts the confidence of the children and even increases their stamina. They also begin to develop their own techniques of winning.
These workouts could make swimming easier and enjoyable for children. So, borrow them and let the fun begin!