Survival Lessons
Survival around the water is our top priority for children 6 months and older. Your child will have our undivided attention for 200 minutes of one-on-one lessons with a series of lessons and testing in diapers, pull-ups, spring/ summer and winter clothing. With parent education and “in water training” to review and practice your child's acquired skills.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Your child may be upset and fuss on the first day or every day. Crying is a child’s only form of communication. We want to make you aware of this because it is hard for us to see our children upset. Remember, these emotions do not mean your child is “fearful,” but it may be hard to watch at first. We will explain as we go. TRUST THE PROCESS!
SURVIVAL FLOAT
We will typically start teaching children when they begin crawling, rolling, and sitting unassisted on the survival float. This is where the child will rotate from a face-down position to a face-up float position until the child can be saved.
SURVIVAL SEQUENCE
For children who are walking, we teach them the survival sequence– where the child will be face down using their crawl technique, then rotating onto their back to the survival float, then flipping back over to continue the front crawl technique to get to the side or steps. Completing the survival sequence.
SURVIVAL skill refresher
These lessons are advancing from front crawl, to a more coordinated swim technique such as freestyle. We will go over survival skills and make any adjustments to body posture possibly due to growth or interference. After the survival skills refresher is done, we will go into more stroke-specific techniques.
stroke-specific
Students must test with an instructor to see if they are ready to advance to the four strokes taught: breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke. Immediately after testing they will know if they can sign up for stroke specific lessons.
Interference
Interference is an interruption of retention in muscle memory due to the student being exposed to scenarios that don’t encourage proper swimming and floating that are required for independence and ultimately survival! Please do not practice with your child until you are taught how by our instructors.
Anyone that will be in the pool with your child should attend the last week of lessons so they may learn how to keep the learned skills in place. You will be in the pool with an instructor and your child.
Some interferences include:
FLOTATION DEVICES including life jackets being used to play in the water.
JACUZZI/PLAYING ON STEPS
ZERO ENTRY POOLS
BATHTUBS
Please speak with your instructor about how to work through bath time, pool time, lake time, etc. Our job is to teach your children skills they will use for the lifetime and educate you along the way.