Why Using Floaties Keeps Your Kid From Swimming
Once in a while I’ll meet a swimmer for an evaluation who absolutely loves the water. They love splashing and making waves, going under the water, they even love jumping in – as long as I’m holding their hand. When I ask them where they like to swim, they tell me about summers at the beach house and going to their friends’ pool parties. And yet, they refuse to step off the island by themselves. But, I inquire, how do you have fun with your friends if you don’t know how to swim? I know the answer already. I go with my floaties!
Floaties are a life-saving invention. While the mental picture I have is of bright, transparent plastic armbands, using “inflatables” to safely navigate across bodies of water goes back to the ancient Romans, who pumped air into various animal skins and bladders (gross). In the early 20th century they splashed into the military scene, now made of rubber and neoprene. In that same time period swimming was becoming popular for recreation, and parents started to worry about their kids’ safety in the pool. The plastic armbands I have in mind were invented in the 1960s by a father in Germany whose three year old daughter almost drowned after falling into a goldfish pond.
Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death for kids 1-4, and the second leading cause for kids up to age 15. This is why, as swim instructors, we don’t judge parents for putting their kids in floaties. We all have the same goal: for your kids to safely enjoy the water. At the same time, the longer kids rely on floaties to navigate the pool, lake, or beach front, the harder it can become for them to learn how to swim independently.
As Coach Adam puts it, the experience of swimming is best learned by swimming freely. We need to learn how to feel the water. Being held afloat makes your kids feel safe, but that feeling of safety disappears the second the floaties come off. Suddenly, your swimmer has no idea how to move through the water, even though they can swim laps across the pool in their water wings. They don’t know how it feels to be held up by the water instead of pocketed air, and as such, they don’t trust the water and they don’t trust themselves. Floaties only keep your young swimmer safe while they are wearing them. They are no help when your child unexpectedly falls into a goldfish pond.
Floaties also get in the way of learning how to swim from a purely physical standpoint, not just psychological. We swim by being horizontal in the water – floaties keep you vertical, in a “drowning position.” Floaties, big and bulky as they need to be, also restrict your swimmer’s range of motion, making it impossible for them to to feel how their arms could move the water naturally. Some swim schools fit kids with life vests that allow for a horizontal body position and more arm mobility, but they create the same false sense of security. It’s impossible to learn how to float when a life vest is doing all of the floating for you. The most these kids are learning is how to spread out their limbs like a starfish.
So why are these schools claiming they can teach your kids to swim while using floaties? It’s the only way to safely lead a group lesson with kids who have no idea how to swim. Teaching five kids instead of one in the same thirty minutes generates more revenue. From a business standpoint, it’s great! But is it the best option for your swimmer? Coach Adam doesn’t think so. That’s why all of our lessons are private until we are sure your swimmer is safe and confident in the water. And we never use floaties, water wings, or life jackets – at Tiburon, your kids learn by swimming freely. They build trust in the water and themselves. They can keep their own bodies afloat.