Sometimes I think back to the day I decided to take our first born to baby swimming. She was just a few weeks old and one of our antenatal group mums suggested it (thank you so so much!)
At that time I had never given a thought to baby swimming. However, I was an enthusiastic parent and lucky enough to take a year of maternity leave so was exploring a variety of activities for me and my new little one. After all, we were spending every minute of every day together so we had plenty of time to try out new things. We enjoyed all our activities, baby massage, baby singalong, social gatherings, but baby swimming, well that was something else. I loved it and so did my enthusiastic little partner. So much so that by the time number 2 came along, I was already exploring how to train to be a swimming teacher, specializing in baby swimming and ready to change my career.
Fast forward almost 15 years and here we are, living on this little rock that we now call home, running a successful swim school, with 2 daughters who are still loving and excelling at swimming and have literally been doing it for their entire lives. What I have learned from all of this is that the benefits of swimming documented in a variety of journals are very real and extraordinarily valuable. If either of our daughters gave up swimming now (which I am pretty sure they are not planning to), the years of commitment would have been worth every cent and every effort in what they have gained as they grow into young women.
- Life saving skills
- Ability to be safe and comfortable in the water
- To be able to enjoy water sports to the full
- Confidence in themselves and their abilities
- Pride in their achievements
- Understanding that hard work and commitment to something gets results
- Organisational skills
- Ability to prioritise and plan ahead
- An active and healthy approach to life
- Mental endurance
- Being part of a team
This is a just a window into the gains. We were not a swimming family before but we certainly are now and it has given us the life we love. Seeing babies, children and adults learn new skills, laugh and have fun as they start to really love the water makes our business so amazingly enjoyable. Alongside that seeing how our own babies, from their first float, their first swim underwater, their first bubbles, blossom into national swimmers, who travel with their team and explore the region, maybe one day the world, doing the thing they love, as part of a team.
Whatever age, whatever ability, whatever your aquatic goals, learn to swim. Who knows where it will take you. We didn’t know and are excited about what the future will bring – Learn, laugh, love the water!