Confined, deconfined, re-confined, redeconfined… Swimming pool closed, then reopened, then closed, finally reopened; we don’t know where to turn! Fortunately, despite the closures of the swimming pools and the stopping of swimming lessons during confinement, we still have our bathroom to train.
Closed swimming pool in confinement: find 7 ingenious ideas to continue to progress in swimming from home
1. Put your head under water
Running a hot bath with enough water to submerge the head is an opportunity to get your child used to wet his face, at his own pace. The important thing is never to force so as not to traumatize him and make the initiative come from his own will.
No tub? No problem, the shower head is a very good technique for learning to gently and gradually wet your face. In addition it’s funny!
You can also use a sponge soaked in water, which your child will have fun wringing on the top of the head to run the hot water gently over his face.
2. Hold the breath and blow bubbles
It’s time to close your mouth tightly and pinch your nose if necessary to hold your breath. Next, tell your child to blow on the water as you would blow out candles on a cake, keeping the mouth and chin in the water.
To learn not to drink the cup, blowing bubbles is an essential exercise to control your breath and understand how to reject water through your mouth (instead of inhaling it!)
3. Listen to the sleeping water with the ears
When the ears are soaped, they should be rinsed well. Slowly but surely, accompany your child so that he gently puts the right ear on the water, then the left. This exercise will provide a sensory experience and will also help calm your child.
Ask if he hears the noises made by the water. It almost feels like the sea!
4. Entertain and progress with bath toys
Finding colored rings on the bottom of the water is an exercise enjoyed by children during swimming lessons in the pool. But the bathtub version is just as nice! Because a multitude of toys, shapes and colors can hide in the water. This part of hide and seek will still allow him to put his head near the water or under water.
5. Closed swimming pool: doing a starfish in the bath, it also works
The starfish is the safety position in the event of a fall in the water. Why not practice it in the tub? The arms and legs will not have the same amplitude as in a swimming pool, but it is ideal for training. Ask your child, when rinsing for example, to lie down on his back and look at the sky so that his ears are in the water and his chin out of the water.
Tell him to “do like Poulpy”, our favorite drowning prevention mascot!
You can even have fun counting to 5 or 10, like our coaches do.
6. Practice getting out of the bath on your own
Ho-hoist! Now that the in-house course is over, it’s time to get back to dry land. In the same way that you learn to save your life when you get out of the swimming pool, you take your wrinkled skin out of the water to wrap yourself in your soft towel and move on to the pajamas step. The principle is to get your child used to moving to overcome obstacles and reach the bath mat, in balance and without hurting himself, one leg after the other for example, and with your assistance if necessary.
7. Closed swimming pool: learn to jump elsewhere than in the swimming pool
As jumping in the bath is absolutely not recommended for reasons of safety and flooding the bathroom, we recommend a high bed to teach him to jump in your arms. It is not the jump that is difficult, it is the psychological preparation for the jump and the assessment of the height. It is also the decision to soar in the air to arrive in a new uncontrolled environment, that is to say the water (or your arms in this case). But in your child’s bedroom, perched on the mezzanine, you eliminate the fear of water and jump. Repeat the jumps a few times and it will become a game, while you will surely have spent 5 minutes convincing him to jump the first time. Patience pays off! And the efforts too!
With all these great ideas, we bet your child will have the right predispositions for learn to swim and (re) start swimming lessons!
