Often Overlooked Swim Safety Skills

Learning to swim and safety definitely go hand in hand. Safety skills should always be at the forefront of your mind when teaching someone to swim. Sure there are some obvious safety skills, like floating and treading water, even swimming short distances to the wall. But here are 5 safety skills that are often overlooked for the non-swimmer.

Safe way into the pool

No swim skills at all are needed for this safety skill, and each pool trip should begin with this. Know when it’s appropriate to swim (with a grown-up), what to do before approaching the pool (ask the grown-up), and how to enter the water (after the grown-up, backwards).

Submerge/Jumping

Of course jumping can be a fun activity for all swim levels, but as a non-swimmer and beginner it is also an important safety skill. Its almost a guarantee that if a child falls into the pool, they will go underwater. Jumping is a great way to practice this to prepare if an accident ever occurs.

Turn around

If a child falls into the water, there’s a very good chance that the wall behind them is just a turn away. Knowing how to turn around and grab the wall could save their life.

Climb out

After a fall, turning around and grabbing the wall is great, but then what? Next learn to climb out of the pool without a ladder. It takes some practice and some arm strength, but definitely important for safety.

For smaller children though, the edge of the pool might be too high for them to have the strength to climb out. This is where the wall-walk comes in. Think of it like “cruising” between the crawling and walking milestones in babies. Wall-walk is a great go between after learning to grab the wall but before being ready to climb out.

Turn over

What happens if the wall isn’t nearby? That’s where the ability to turn onto the back and float comes in. Floating can allow a child to take a breath or call for help, and knowing how to turn over can allow them to take advantage of this resting position.

Bonus for the tall non-swimmers: Stand up

Do you have a non-swimmer who can touch the bottom of the pool? Perhaps the best skill for them to learn would be how to stand up after loosing their footing, or falling into the pool. This is especially helpful since taller usually means older (which typically comes with fear) and this is a much needed confidence boost that make other skills easier to learn.

Bonus for the next level: Escape

Once you have a swimmer who has mastered the water basics and beginner swim skills, safety skills don’t go out the window—they just get more advanced. Once a kid starts gaining a bit of independence, its important to know how to get away if someone grabs hold in the water. Yes, it should be a pool rule to keep your hands to yourself, but a struggling swimmer isn’t going to follow rules, their instincts will take over and tell them to grab on.