In today’s modern world, swimming is not only an essential skill but also brings many great benefits to children’s development. Swimming not only helps children prevent drowning but also helps children develop comprehensively, from physical to psychological. In this article, we’ll explore the huge benefits of learning to swim for children, from encouraging confidence to building important life skills.

Proactively prevent drowning

  • Practice swimming to improve health, fitness, physical development, stature, and limit drowning. Students who know how to swim are considered to have an extra life preserver and a pair of oars to escape when threatened by water, save themselves, and be able to assist in rescuing friends when encountering problems in the water.
  • Proactively ensure your safety when bathing, playing, and doing water activities. Know how to handle objective situations such as suddenly falling into water (falling, shipwreck,…); While swimming, you get cramps, encounter whirlpools, get swept away by water, encounter floods; When underwater, being hugged or held by someone else.
  • Increase the ability to rescue drowning people (depending on the specific situation, age, and ability of each student).

Comprehensive development

Physical improvement

Nervous system

  • At the age of students, the nervous system is functions well, thinking gradually shifts from intuitive action to symbolic thinking. In general, students love new things, are very active and interested in intellectual games, physical games, and especially like playing in water.
  • When moving in the water environment, there is no fixed fulcrum, so it requires children to adjust their psychology and make physical efforts to ensure buoyancy and movement in the water. Thanks to that, swimming helps students balance excitement and relieve nervous system inhibition, while strongly stimulating and having positive effects on the development and functioning of the nervous system.

Musculoskeletal system

  • Skeleton: At a young age, children’s bones are in a period of rapid growth, the ossification process is strong, there are many organic components in the bones, and inorganic substances such as calcium are still low, so bones Their bones are still soft and can easily be bent or broken. The characteristics of children’s skeletal development at this stage are suitable for learning to swim, because when swimming, the horizontal body is affected by the force of the water, which reduces the pressure on the joints of the skeletal system. . Therefore, the cartilage system is developed to increase elasticity and especially help reduce the load on the spinal system, so swimming can help the spine return to the correct position, especially good for children with curvature. scoliosis, obesity. Because children’s skeletal systems are flexible and flexible, they are very suitable for swimming.
  • Muscular system: Children’s muscles are in a period of strong development, so they love to exercise such as running, jumping, playing, etc. During this period, the muscles are soft, fat, fluid, and inorganic. There is relatively little in the muscle but there is a lot of water and myosin fibers (dark color) so the ability to provide oxygen for muscle activity is relatively strong. That’s why children get tired quickly when exercising but quickly recover. Children should participate in physical games from simple to complex levels. Swimming activity will mobilize all muscles of the whole body, especially muscles involved in the respiratory process. Because, thanks to the above characteristics, children who practice swimming regularly will have good health, a slim and tall figure, and a balanced body shape.

Cardiovascular system

At children’s age, the heart’s capacity and volume are small, and the heart muscle fibers are less elastic. Swimming training will help the cardiovascular system develop well, the heart will grow stronger, the heart beat may decrease, blood pressure will increase but under control.

Swimming is very beneficial in improving heart contractions, increasing blood and oxygen supply, making it easier for the heart to perform daily tasks. When swimming, the body will be in a horizontal position, the heart does not have to work as much, helping blood pressure stay under control. Swimming reduces heart rate, helping to prevent the development of certain types of heart diseases.

Respiratory system

At a young age, children have a narrow chest cavity and shallow breathing, so their respiratory frequency is quite high. The body’s metabolism is strong, the need for oxygen is higher than adults. Therefore, their bodies will get tired quickly when exercising.

When underwater, the water has great pressure on the body, so swimming requires deep breathing. Therefore, swimming exercises have a good effect on developing children’s respiratory system. However, with the characteristics of children’s respiratory systems, they are at very high risk of drowning when exercising in water, especially when they do not know how to swim, do not know how to swim well, or are not healthy when swimming.

Note: When teaching students to swim, they should not be allowed to practice heavy exercises, prolonged exercises or breath-holding exercises because these exercises will not be beneficial for the development of their cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Metabolic processes in the body

The metabolic process in children’s bodies is better when they regularly practice swimming because when exercising underwater, water massages the skin, peels off dead skin cells, and increases circulatory activity.

Water absorbs 4 times more heat than air, thus enhancing the body’s metabolism.

Cultivate qualities and psychology

When first learning to swim, children must overcome initial difficulties such as fear of water, fear of cold, fear of drowning, and feeling of being unbalanced because their bodies move in prone, supine, or sideways positions. This is different from the familiar daily movement posture. Children have to try very hard to know how to swim and overcome their feelings of fear, so they gradually form and practice good qualities.

  • Practice agility: Learning to swim will help children practice agility, flexible response, willpower, courageous spirit, determined effort, and a love of age-appropriate sports activities. .
  • Training in discipline: Due to the outstanding psychological characteristics of children being hyperactive, liking to explore, and playing, their attention span is not high, they are easily distracted, easily undisciplined, and push others when they When learning to swim, the risk of accidents and injuries during exercise is higher than that of adults. Therefore, when teaching children, teachers need to pay close attention to training the children’s sense of discipline.
  • Forming and developing concentration at work: When swimming, it is necessary to focus on coordination of leg, arm, and breathing movements, not being able to pay attention to other things. Therefore, through regular swimming practice, children will practice focusing on their main work, gradually forming good habits and focusing on their studies and main tasks.
  • Develop social behavior skills: The safety principle to prevent drowning is not to bathe, swim, or wade alone, especially in secluded places. From there, create an environment for learning to swim, practicing swimming, playing, and doing underwater activities always in a crowded environment. Thus, when learning to swim, children can develop behavioral skills to interact with people around them.
  • Cultivate confidence: From being afraid and lacking courage when first entering the water, children will gradually gain confidence in the water and become more and more confident in their abilities when swimming in the water. The process of getting to know each other will dispel the initial fear and timidity and give them passion and excitement to discover new things in a new environment. From there, form and develop confidence in yourself, especially when you firmly grasp the knowledge before entering the water. At the same time, when learning and practicing swimming, students will have a feeling of harmony not only with the water environment, but also with a fun atmosphere with peers and similar interests while swimming. At that time, each student will have more interactions with teachers and friends, build relationships of cooperation and solidarity, and they will feel more refreshed, happier, more confident, and overcome their problems. self-esteem in each person.
  • Practice perseverance, persistence, and determination: Learning and practicing swimming is a process from not knowing to knowing; from being able to escape from dangerous situations in the water to being able to rescue drowning and support others, especially at high school age, when approaching adulthood. While swimming, you need to try to rise to the surface and swim to the destination, the safe zone. All student activities are decided by themselves, gradually freeing themselves from the support of swimming teachers and adult supervision as they gradually mature. It is the process of practicing perseverance, persistence and determination.

Learning to swim and swim has been proven to have many benefits for children’s development. However, these benefits are only maximized when learning to swim takes place safely. Please find other information about Drowning Safety:

In addition, you can equip knowledge and skills for safety and drowning prevention through SSVN Survival Skills courses at:

Source: Department of Physical Education – Ministry of Education and Training