Basic Swimming Strokes For Young Children (5-7 Years)
Basic Swimming Strokes For Young Children (5-7 Years). Learn a few techniques from our expert swimming teacher, to help build up your child's confidence in the water and their knowledge of some basic swimming strokes. Good for children aged between 5 - 7 years.
Step 1: Practise 1
For this first practice your child must already be confident in swimming widths with the aid of floats, strap on and hand held ones. Maybe do a couple of widths of the front crawl with the floats to refresh their skill. When your child is ready, try without the hand held float and direct them to use front crawl style arms. Encourage them to kick fast and hard whilst doing the arm action. If your child struggles or is not confident without the hand held float then carrying on using it.
Step 2: Practise 2
If your child is happy to move on without the hand held float, try removing some of the floats from their back. Encourage the fast, strong legs movement and slow front crawl arms.
Step 3: Practise 3
Little by little, depending on your child's ability, reduce the floats on their back, so that eventually they are swimming floats free. Only do this if your know your child has the confidence and ability to do it. Stay with them in the water, guide them along the width and be there to help them to the side if they need it. The more they practise the more proficient they'll become.
To finish off the practise, encourage your child to do something fun, so that learning to swim doesn't always seem like a chore. Let them do some safe jumps into the water - making sure to stay close by to them. As they get better at it, try to vary the jumps - a sure sign that your child feels comfortable in the water.