The Difference Between Knowing How to Float and Knowing When to Float

Swimming is a vital skill that every child should learn, but it's not enough to just know how to float occasionally. Knowing when to float can make all the difference in keeping your child safe in the water.

Traditional swim lessons sometimes teach your child the mechanics of how to get into a backfloat.

What does this mean?

Many children in traditional lessons will learn to get into a back float from a standing position or from pushing off a wall. They will also learn to get out of their float (this is typically done in a manner that gets them back to a standing position).

These skills are taught in isolation, in an environment where they can usually always rely on physical support if they need it. If they don’t get into their float, someone will help them stand up, shake it off, and get back to it.

But that doesn’t happen in an emergency.

In fact, learning to initiate a float by bouncing off a pool bottom or side is counterproductive and teaches people that if they get in trouble in the water to put their feet down. But what happens when there is no pool bottom to touch? They will go vertical and sink.

Also, with this limited knowledge and these isolated skills, there is almost no way they will learn to respond in an instant. It will feel odd to fall into the water with their clothes on. It will feel strange to have to get to their float from a prone position in the water. If they haven’t practiced these skills (especially if they haven’t practiced these skills over and over), they will not know how to respond.

When your child learns survival swimming, they learn to get to their back for air in a variety of entries, clothing, and scenarios.

This means that they know where the air is, and they know how to get there, even if they’re fully clothed, face down, in shallow water, or they’re having fun in the water. We are guiding them through the process, and through positive reinforcement and mapping the correct behaviors, we are shaping your child’s response to the water.

When they go through these motions over and over, they are not only developing the muscle memory to make these things happen, but they are also building pathways in their brain to help them respond to a certain set of circumstances.

When they know where the air is, and they know how to get there, the only thing left for them to decide is when to get to their backs for air. We are setting your child up to make decisions in the water that will keep them safe.

And you know what? They do!

This is the difference between a child who plays in the water, and a child who has a fighting chance to survive in the water.

Infant Aquatics® lessons have more benefits than creating strong swimmers though.

These lessons buy your child time, should an accident occur. They give you peace of mind, and throughout your child’s session, you’re going to learn about the importance of implementing layers of protection around the water wherever you go.

Infant Aquatics® instructors go through a rigorous, hands-on training over the course of an entire 6-week session with kids of varying ages and abilities. As a result, we’re not only trained in the mechanics of survival swimming, but the developmental milestones children experience as they grow. This allows us to tailor each lesson to that student’s age, mood, physical ability, and their current water experience.

When you’re looking into swim lessons for your child, make sure you’re choosing a curriculum based on competency and safety first. Fun lessons and lessons geared toward developing stroke techniques will come later. But the ability to have a fighting chance around the water is the piece that’s going to make those other lessons possible.

If you’re looking to enroll your child in Infant Aquatics® lessons and find an instructor near you, view our lesson information here.