The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children at least four years of age or older take swimming lessons. Water is more resistant than air, making swimming a great strength-building workout without the impact of other sports. Water fitness routines can be created for kids of all levels to help them become more comfortable in the water and become stronger swimmers. It is important to develop routines that can be modified for children of different swimming abilities. According to USA Swimming, children can start focusing on more structured swim practice around the age of 6.
Children's Water Fitness
Step 1
Warm up with kick boards. Children should be instructed to grab onto a small floating kickboard and practice kicking up and down the length of the pool. This will warm up the muscles while also strengthening the legs, feet and hips.
Step 2
Incorporate breathing drills. Continuing to use the kickboards, direct the child to keep her face in the water and breath by turning her head to the side as she would while swimming the freestyle stroke. This will help them become more comfortable holding their breath and kicking while still having a flotation device for support.
Step 3
Create games to help increase lung capacity. Use diving sticks or rings that are weighted so they sit on the floor of the pool. Instruct the child to dive underwater and bring the object up. This helps to progressively train children to hold their breath, move through the water efficiently, and become comfortable underwater. Move the sticks to deeper water as children improve and their comfort level increases.
Step 4
Add fun props to better develop skills. Foam pool noodles or other flotation devices are inexpensive and useful for many of these drills. Place the toys floating in the middle of the pool. Ask the child to retrieve it and swim back to the side of the pool with it. Games and obstacles help develop strength without a formal workout.
Step 5
End each session with a relay or routine made up by the children. If there are several kids, you can break them into teams. For a single child, make up a routine incorporating several of the day's activities. An example would be, bob up and down in the water twice, retrieve a diving stick from the bottom and swim a width of the pool while kicking or dragging a flotation device. Turning it into a game both enhances the child's endurance and allows him to show off his new swimming skills.
Tips and Warnings
- If a kickboard is not available, the warm-up routine can be done holding onto the side of the pool and kicking. If children are new swimmers, this routine can be done using the width of the pool in the low end instead of the entire length.
- An adult should always be present when children are near water, even if they know how to swim. KidsHealth has many useful tips for swimming safety.
Things You'll Need
- Foam pool noodles
- Weighted diving sticks
- Kick boards
- Swim goggles
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