Floating on your back
The child stands in water about chest depth and leans backwards with arms extended sideways. It then releases the legs from the floor and floats in a supine position. This position is held for at least five seconds.
This exercise primarily trains the two core elements of getting used to water and floating.
Helpful exercises from the infant course:
Please read the Safety notes before you start.
Preparatory exercises
Land exercise
It is best to do these exercises together with your child. Stand straight on land or in shallow water. The legs are closed and the arms rest on the sides of the body. Then raise your arms sideways first so that they form a big T. After that, push your hips forward. That should also look a bit of an exaggeration. As a final step, rest your head on your neck and look at the ceiling or at the sky. Hold this position for at least five seconds. The child should imitate your every step.
Through this exercise, the position, which you then have to perform in a horizontal position, is first practiced in a vertical position. This makes later exercise easier. Pay particular attention to the forwards pressed hips and the chin set back. These two components are central to the subsequent core exercise.
With human help
You can really help your child with this exercise. During the core exercise, a certain balance must be found in the supine position. Hold your child's upper and lower back with both hands. In a later step, she should only help with one hand and at some point with no hand at all.
You will notice that during this first phase, the child puts a lot of weight on the helping hand on the lower back. The main goal of this exercise is to reduce this pressure and finally completely disappear. Tell your child to push their chin back and help with your hand if necessary. The position of the chin and the lowering of the hip are interrelated. Correct the chin first and then tell your child to push their hips up.
With aid - mat
Use mats and swim noodles to help with this exercise. Your child should lie down on the mat as shown in the picture. Here, too, the hips (or buttocks) are upwards and the chin is backwards. When you feel that there is virtually no weight pressing on your lower back, you can slowly pull the mat away from under the child.
If you don't have a mat available, you can also use a swimming noodle. The exercise looks a bit different there. The swim noodle is held behind the back through under the armpits. Then the child should stretch their arms sideways and try to push their hips up here too. The swim noodle gives a certain stability in the water. However, it primarily supports the upper back and shoulders. This makes it a bit harder to push your hips up.
Common mistakes
Chin and hips below
This is the main reason why so many children have big problems with this exercise. The supine position in water is unusual and this fear is usually reflected in the fact that you contract your body and try to straighten yourself up. Many children just try to lean back slowly and want to be sure that they can stop the exercise at any time without water getting into their nose or anywhere else. That's why the chin and hips stay down. However, it is impossible to pass the exercise this way and the children must trust their own floating skills. The exercises above help to strengthen this confidence.