When September gets here, most parents consider that their kids’ swimming season is done. They may think that there isn’t much in the way of opportunities for swimming until next spring or summer.
But you know that isn’t the way it has to be!
It’s transition time and all of your summer swimmers’ parents should know every opportunity you’re your school offers for them to continue swimming – and why it is important for them to do so.
Besides the fact that it provides a great energy outlet, exercise opportunity and enhances learning aptitudes and boosts the health for children, there three messages that are critical for the parents of your swimmers to know about their kid’s continued participation in swimming.
Continuing to Learn Requires Repetition
Improving swimming skills requires that kids do them over and over again. Learning some skills this summer and then dropping out until next spring puts your kid behind the swimmers who swim year round – even if they don’t move up a swimming class level during the winter. This is because the body needs a reminder to get going on its previously learned skills. It requires a refresher period so that its muscle memory comes back and it will allow the kid to success move on to a new more advanced skill. The kids who don’t experience a gap in their swimming are ready for new skills and move ahead while their seasonal swimming friends are back-tracking.
Regardless of the Weather
Swimming can take place at local swim schools anytime – no matter what the weather is doing outside. This means swimming is an option regardless of where your school is located too. Even in the coldest climates, a warm indoor facility provides an inviting and healthy place for kids to exercise, have fun and learn. Because of the ability to swim anytime, children can learn quickly at a young age in a supervised and regulated environment. They often come alive and become adept in ways that they’re not able to do in other activities.
A Lifelong Skill
Swimming isn’t just something that’s fun to do or even something that can wear a little excess weight away. It’s a skill that can keep kids safe in the water for the rest of their lives. In fact, unlike many other children’s activities and sports, they can swim all through their adulthood and golden years. Research from the Centers for Disease Control have found that children who participate in lessons are 88% less likely to drown. No other recreational children’s activity can make such a claim. While all have their amazing pluses, none is a lifesaving skill for every single person on the planet.
Your school’s “summer” parents may be tempted to put their kids in other activities besides swimming since summer is over but remind them that young swimmers can better handle themselves around water when they aren’t seasonal swimmers. The importance of becoming a strong swimmer as a child is critical to their safety as they visit friends with pools, vacation near water, attend camp or just visit a state park. Water is all around us and – even if parents are close by – they cannot swim for their kid if they fall in the water or get in a crisis situation while they are swimming. That’s why it is the parents’ responsibility to make sure that their kids can be safe. You can help them do that.
