In addition to the preparatory exercises, some core exercises are required.
As a preparatory exercise, you can also let your child jump off the forearm. However, you need two people for this. A person angles their arm so that a bench is created in front of the body (see picture). The other person first holds the toddler in the armpit grip and then places it on this “bench”. Then the second person takes a distance of one meter and tries to get the child to jump off. Ideally, the person to whom the child should jump is a closer person of trust (father or mother) so that the child has an additional incentive to jump to the mother or father. If you can clearly see that the child absolutely wants to see the mother or father, the person who benches can also lean forward a bit. Then the child only has to actively lean forward to get to the mother or father. This is a lot easier than with the edge of the pool, where the child has to actively overcome the frictional resistance of the floor.
This exercise is easy to explain. Hold your baby in an armpit grip and hand it over to another person in the water. Then move away from the two of them a few meters, come back and hold the child again. Always keep eye contact with your child whenever possible. This exercise is intended as preparation for the following “jump off arm” exercise.
During this exercise, you also place the child on the edge of the pool. Then sit next to it and drop yourself into the water. As soon as you reappear, you will be visibly pleased. Then try to get your child to do the same thing. It would be even better if another child (for example the older brother or sister) demonstrates the exercise and has fun doing it, because toddlers learn best by imitating.
As already said in the video, we recommend around one meter. We are well aware that your child is more willing to jump off at a shorter distance. For safety reasons, we still recommend that you stick to one meter. How long the distance should be also depends on the jumping power and size of your child. For small children, one meter usually fits relatively well. However, if you want to do the exercise with your three or four-year-old child at a later stage, you should increase the distance
