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Swimming is one of the favourite recreation activities in the early days where internet,television, mobile devices are not that popular. Would you be surprise if an 11 year-old child do not know how to swim nowadays? I found that frightening,especially when during a pool party where no adults were supervising the pool and children are playing on their own. In some cases, there may be other children who were keeping an eye out for the child who doesn't know how to swim, but tweens are not permitted to be official lifeguards for a reason.

Adults need to be at the pool side to at least supervise the fun time and ensure safety especially for the children. I hope to share about the importance and benefits of teaching children how to swim.

Singapore weather is fine all year round, there is never a bad time to learn how to swim.There are many studies and proven benefits which show how swimming helps individual and perhaps save others life.

You probably know that your kids need to learn to swim. Kids drowning can be quite disheartening news especially for parents and this kind of misfortune news are often seen as irresponsibility part of the parent by the public. It is one of the leading cause of accidental death for children under 14. Enrolment in swim lessons is the best thing parents can do to prevent drowning. Studies has found that that children enrolled in formal swimming lessons had an 88% reduced risk of drowning.

Despite those statistics, and just by looking around my adult peers, there are probably 3 out of 10 of them who do not know how to swim. Learning to swim means more than just being able to doggy paddle across the pool and float around on your back a few seconds.

Ifyour kids had some swim lessons when they were little and are generally confident in the water, why continue with swimming into the ‘tween and teen years? There are plenty of reasons to get AND keep your child involved in swimming. Here are my top five.

1.Swim lessons reduce the risk of drowning.

You read the stats above, right? This is serious stuff and as your child gets older, they are more likely to be around water when you might not be present(say on a trip to the beach with friends). Swimming in essential life skill and you want to be confident that your child has mastered it.

2.Swimming builds whole body strength.

A swimming workout is a great total body workout, strengthening everything from the core to the legs to the arms. In swimming, a whole lot of muscles are working together as your kids are pushing, pulling and kicking their way through the water. Swimming is a full-body workout. It's simultaneously works muscles from triceps and biceps to abdominals to hamstrings and everything in between. Great!

Swimming is also fantastic cardiovascular alternative to running, and is much easier on your children’s joints because there isn’t that constant foot-to-cement impact.Basically, muscles have to work harder to perform aerobic activity with the water resistance. As a result, they get stronger, lengthen and gain flexibility.

3. Swimming helps kids do better in school.

You heard right: your kids’ time in the pool translates to higher marks at school.Swimming has been scientifically linked to better academic performance. Studies have found that children who swam during their developmental years achieved several physical and mental milestones faster than their non-swimming counterparts. Researchers found that the type of instruction and sensory learning kids are exposed to early on in swimming lessons translates almost seamlessly into the type of learning they’ll do in the classroom.

4. Kids who swim get the benefits of participating in an individual AND team sport.

This is one aspect of swimming that really makes it unique. Swimmers compete individually AND as a team to kids develop the skills needed to excel in a team environment. For example, at a swim school, the Recreational Swim Team is perfect for young swimmers that are proficient in the freestyle, backstroke,breaststroke and butterfly stroke techniques, but are interested in either pursuing swimming competitively or enjoy swimming as an after school activity.Aside from the obvious benefits of continued exposure and experience with the water, kids who participate in a swim team get instruction and encouragement from instructors who are in the water with them during practice. They have the opportunity to compete against the other swim teams and learn about the world of competitive swimming.

5. Swimming is something they can do at any age!

Swimming is for everyone, both young and old. This activity is something that lasts a life time -- and you can always improve at it! Expose your child to swimming now and they will have a recreational, aerobic activity that they can continue to enjoy throughout the rest of their lives! What a gift!

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The benefits of Swimming are numerous, significant, and undeniable. Swimming can be beneficial to people across a broad range of ages and abilities: the very young to the very old, the very slow to the very fast, those with injuries or degenerative conditions, pregnant women, beginner to serious athletes, and fitness buffs. Swimming positively affects many aspects of life, including physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It’s no wonder that physicians,physical therapists, exercise physiologists, and fitness coaches alike laud swimming as one of the best ways to stay in shape.

Swimming is the ultimate all-in-one fitness package, working most muscles in the body in a variety of ways with every stroke. When strokes are performed correctly, the muscles lengthen and increase in flexibility. The significant repetition of strokes improves muscle endurance, and because water creates more resistance against the body than air does in land exercise, the muscles are strengthened and toned. Swimming also significantly enhances core strength, which is important to overall health and stability in everyday life. The hip, back, and abdominal muscles are crucial to moving through the water effectively and efficiently. Swimming builds these core muscles better than any abs video or gadget advertised on television. Finally, a properly structured swim workout provides incredible improvements to the cardiovascular system. The nature of breathing when Swimming-with breath being somewhat limited in volume and frequency-promotes greater lung capacity and a consistent intake of oxygen.Both aerobic and anaerobic gains can be made in the same workout.

Compare all this to other activities, which offer benefits to only certain parts of the body or areas of fitness. Running increases cardiovascular fitness and tones the lower body. Rowing builds endurance and strength in both the upper body and lower body. Weightlifting tones or builds strength in the muscles targeted. Pilates and yoga improve core strength and flexibility. But the beauty of swimming is that it literally does all of the above in every single workout! When you’re a swimmer, there’s no need to choose each day whether you’ll focus on your upper body or lower body, muscular strength or cardiovascular endurance, core strength or overall flexibility. Swimming also is easy on the body, as long as a proper warm-up and cool-down are incorporated into each session. The pounding the body takes during running, high-impact aerobics, basketball, tennis, and kickboxing is replaced by near weightlessness in the water. In short,consistent swimming tones the body, improves cardiovascular health, and lengthens the muscles, all without breaking down the body.

Swimming is also good for the mind and spirit. The methodical repetition of swimming combined with its non impact nature creates a soothing, relaxing form of exercise. A good swim can clear the mind after a tough day at work, calm the spirit with a sense of quietness to give the brain a chance to sneak up on problems with creative solutions, and give you time to catch up with elusive ideas. Swimming is a great way to be alone in a world that increasingly demands that we be available to anyone and everyone 24-7. Carrying a cell phone or pager is totally feasible on land-and reaching the point where it’s almost expected-but you can’t swim with a PDA strapped to your chest like a heart-rate monitor. In addition, swimming for more than 20 minutes or so signals the body to release pain-killing,euphoria-producing endorphins that promote a keen sense of well-being. Regular swim workouts help on an emotional level, too. The discipline it takes to commit to swimming and to push yourself through tough workouts improves self-esteem, instills confidence that other challenges or hurdles can be overcome, and inspires dedication to taking care of yourself in all facets of life. All of this culminates into feeling really good about yourself, inside and out.

Besides the physical and mental benefits provided, swimming has many practical advantages over other forms of exercise. As long as lifeguards are present, swimming is extremely safe. Swimmers don’t risk getting hit by a car or chased by a dog;they never have to choose between finishing a workout and being alone in a dark or dangerous area; and they don’t have to wonder when the equipment was last sanitized. Also, workouts can be completed with equal ease alone, with a partner, or with a group of swimmers. Environmental conditions are relatively consistent regardless of time of day or year, so the amount of equipment,preparation, or planning changes very little. Swimming for fitness is also relatively inexpensive. The amount of gear can be quite minimal, and the most useful gear is inexpensive and durable. There is no fancy equipment or machine to maintain. The cost of using a pool is comparable to that of joining a gym or health club, and often the facility offers additional perks such as weight equipment or group classes that come standard with facilities that have a pool.

I believe the benefits of swimming are enough to make everyone want to rush out to buy a suit and appropriate gear and to begin swimming every day of the week!Physically, you’d become as fit as ever; mentally, you’d slow the effects of aging and begin solving problems in a single workout; and emotionally, you’d be on a constant swimmer’s high. But, as we all know, it never works out quite like that. Life happens, and even the most dedicated swimmers will encounter difficulties in keeping to their routine. Some people might struggle to find the perfect facility that has the perfect lap swim schedule. Others might cringe at the idea of getting wet in the middle of the day, of putting on a still-damp swimsuit from the previous day’s workout, or of wearing a swim suit in public in the first place (although it’s amazing how quickly the awkwardness of walking from the locker room to the pool in a swimsuit fades). Even after 20years, the hardest part for me remains simply jumping in, especially when the water or air is chilly. Despite the benefits swimming offers, the excuses or interruptions that threaten our consistency of getting any form of exercise can be daunting, especially to newer swimmers.

Regular swimmers know that sticking with an established schedule allows them to experience the all-around healthiness and well-being their workouts bring. A few motivation boosters, such as working out with a partner, joining a masters swim team, and, most important, having a plan, coupled with the knowledge of the tremendous benefits of swimming, will help beginner and veteran swimmers alike get to the pool more often and work hard once they get there.

Most people would benefit from working out with at least one other like-minded person. The single most important characteristic of a great training partner-more so than comparable ability-is comparable commitment to the activity. Differences in speed can be addressed with equipment or workout design. But a lack of dependability, such as always being late or prone to cancel, is detrimental to the concept of a workout partner. Meeting another person at a specific time is usually all the impetus needed to get there when motivation otherwise wanes. But even after getting in the pool, a buddy often makes the time there more pleasurable. Completing a full workout as written is tough some days, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally. Pushing yourself to swim hard is easier when someone else is right there testing his or her limits along with you and helping to break up the workout with friendly competitions. Afterward, it’s great to have that friend to chat with about the session’s high and low points and to be there for encouragement during a string of difficult sessions.

Whether you swim with someone or alone, the single most significant way you can help yourself improve is to have a plan. Schedule your workouts into your day rather than let the day determine when you get to the pool. Without the premeditated effort of adding your swim workouts to your calendar every week, fitting them in will be a long shot on most days and a reality on very few.

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