Exhale underwater
The first exercise that children must master in virtually all swimming lesson systems is bubble diving. The child takes a deep breath and completely submerges under water for a total of at least 5 seconds. During the dive phase, the first thing you do is open your eyes. All air under water is then exhaled through the mouth.
Through this exercise, the two core elements of water habituation and breathing are trained.
The following exercise from the infant course helps as preparation:
Please read the Safety notes before you start.
Preparatory exercises
Treasure hunt
Diving rings (or something similar) are placed on the floor in the children's pool. The whole thing is staged as a treasure hunt, with the rings being the gold that the pirate should search for. The child should therefore search for the rings in the pool and then pick them up to bring them to the edge of the pool (into the hiding place).
A large number of children's pools are getting deeper and deeper. It's perfect for this exercise. The child can still get close to the first few rings without having to bend down too much. With the remaining rings, it has to bend down strongly and with its head close to the water and in the last rings, it even has to put its head under water for a second to get the ring. The production about the pirate treasure motivates many children to get even the last piece of gold.
Blow on ping pong balls
A ping pong ball is placed in the water in front of the child. After that, the learner should try to get the ball to the other side of the pool just by blowing it on. The child realizes relatively quickly that they have to get as close as possible to the ball and therefore also to the water surface in order to move the ball forward as efficiently as possible. Bringing their heads closer to the water is already a big step for many children.
If you have already done this exercise once or twice with your child, you should go one step further and by showing off, get the child to blow into the water and create bubbles.
Rain dance
This exercise is very easy. Water is sprayed up with both hands. The falling water has a similar effect to a shower, only a little more uneven. It is best to do the exercise together with your child. First, a parent should spray themselves wet and then the child should join in. Children who are afraid of water in particular can therefore decide for themselves how hard they want to splash around.
The exercise should be repeated over and over again during several visits to the swimming pool. With a little luck, the exercise is more and more fun and can even be expanded into a splash against the parents from the point at which the child splashes wet themselves without fear.
Sea Monster
When doing this exercise, you need a gymnastic hoop. Alternatively, you can also use a swimming noodle. It's about your child diving under the ring (or the swimming noodle) and then ideally coming back up with a big jump. However, the important part is diving.
The standard reaction of children who are not yet used to diving is to raise the ring with their arms. With the first few attempts, you can be a bit generous and allow this to trigger a few small experiences of success. But the more often you do this exercise, the stiffer you should hold the ring so that at a certain point the child has no choice but to go under water with their face.
Recognize colors
In this exercise, children learn to open their eyes underwater. In the picture, dive rings are used for this purpose. However, you can also use any other type of object or even hand signals if necessary. Dive under water at the same time as your child and hold the objects behind your back. As soon as they are both underwater, pull out the objects, point for a few seconds and then hide them behind your back again before they both reappear. After both of you have reappeared, ask your child what he/she saw underwater.
As you may have noticed, this is already a more advanced exercise. The child should already be used to diving. Make sure that you use an object that can be easily seen underwater. Finding out the number of fingers, for example, is less suitable. Bright colors are recommended.
Common mistakes
Force
We are well aware that it can be extremely frustrating for parents when a child refuses to dive their head under water for months and starts crying even at the slightest drop of water on their face. Nevertheless, we clearly advise against forcing your child to get used to water in any way. Also try to hide your frustration as best you can and instead convey the joy of water. Children who are already pushed too hard in these initial approaches can develop a strong negative attitude towards water that is difficult to get rid of.