Conditioning on the Steps
Why: Breath Control
How: Instruct parents to take a seat on the steps and hand them each a cup or watering can. Encourage parents to begin by pouring water gently from the back of the child’s head to the front so it is less intimidating. This technique is used to teach the students to hold their breath in response to the water being poured over their head, eyes, nose and mouth. Proper conditioning is a crucial first step to preparing for submerging!
FOR MORE ADVANCED STUDENTS; Rotate around to each parent and child pair for an underwater swim from teacher to parent while the others are conditioning.
During the initial introduction of learning breath control, submersion’s of young children must be brief (approximately three seconds) and few in number (no more than six per lesson). Once the child can consistently initiate the submersion’s AND can demonstrate competent breath control, submersion’s can become longer and more frequent.