Read To Know Why Your Child Must Learn To Swim!

Swimming is an important life skill that everyone must possess. And it helps that it's also an extremely good sport. Swimming helps with physical fitness, instills a competitive spirit and so much more. We list reasons why everyone should learn this skill.

Safety First - Drowning remains one of the most significant causes of unintentional injury-related death on an international scale. Therefore, it is crucial that your child knows how to swim from an early age. To be fair, there is water all around us, and there is a risk of drowning even in a shallow bathtub. What swimming does is- teaches kids important skills such as making sure that the child is comfortable in and around water, knows how to breathe underwater, and knows the basic safety skills in an emergency scenario. Your child need not engage in competitive swimming- just learning the basics gives them an important life skill!

Low Impact Sport - Physical activity may intimidate kids, fearing that they might not do well or get maxed out from the effort. However, swimming has minimal impact as it is performed underwater. The body is almost 90% buoyant when swimming up to one’s neck, so you are not exactly hitting the ground with the same weight that you carry on land. It is truly an ideal sport for every age group and promotes well-being eventually. Even in the case of injuries, you can often rest the injured part of the body and still carry out swimming using healthy and active body parts. Usually, the injuries are mostly from overuse and exhaustion. It is quite easy on a person’s body as opposed to other sports where they are constantly under the threat of a sprain or a break from running and jumping.

Confidence and Team-Work - Swimming, at the end of the day, is a sport. With any sport, there comes the confidence of finishing a lap in good time, while simultaneously building team spirit and humility through losses. Your child can make life-long friends while building a lifelong skill! Teammates support one another, creating a positive atmosphere and helping each other build their self-confidence. There is also an individual aspect to swimming through competitive swimming where you set some goals for yourself and learn to achieve them through a process of self-motivation and perseverance.

Building Muscles and Motor-Coordination - Swimming involves engaging multiple muscle groups in a highly intensive scenario and is a gruelling cardio workout. Usually, adults take it for weight loss, and with the rising rates of paediatric obesity in India, it is genuinely a great preventative measure. It burns calories quickly, and it is also easier for overweight individuals to take up this sport as it is low impact while still being a challenging workout. It will also build a lifelong healthy habit, as once they learn how to swim, they will hop into a pool at any point for a great workout. Learning how to swim can also help with coordination as your child learns to use their muscles and motor skills to float in water. Swimming also releases endorphins, which aid in decreasing depression and improving moods.

It’s essential that every child learns to swim, especially to be water-safe. But there are so many levels of swimming and benefits that come along the way. Introduce your child to swimming early on so that they have the skill for their whole life. This can help improve their overall physical and mental health. Hopefully, they will fall in love with the sport and lap it up for years.