The Coolest Pastime

Swim for Year-round, Lifetime Fitness

By Leigh Brown Perkins

ISR follows a behavioral psychology and childhood development model that teaches infants what to expect in the water and how to respond to save themselves. Repetition of skills every day for 10 minutes over a six-week period is the standard. By the end of the course, 6- to 11-month-olds are able to roll onto their backs to float from a face down-position. Babies of walking age are taught to swim head down and then roll onto their backs for a breath, in a swim-float-swim sequence.

Even kids who are competent swimmers, however, must be watched carefully. "There is no such thing as a drown-proof child," Kreitman says. "No matter how well they can swim, it's not carte blanche to sit by the pool and read a book."

Who would want to sit next to the pool when diving in is such a kick? The fitness benefits of swimming are abundant. It is a no-impact cardiovascular workout, which means swimmers reap all the rewards of, say, runners (heart, lungs and muscles shape up) without the pounding of the road, so joints, tendons and bones are spared injury. A 150-pound swimmer burns up to 600 calories an hour, making it an excellent sport for weight control.

Kevin Mackinnon's book A Healthy Guide to Sport: How to Make Your Kids Healthy, Happy, And Ready to Go (Meyer & Meyer, 2005) offers 3 tips for better swimming at any age:

• Kick from your hips, not your knees (which can generate more of a backward motion).
• Breathe out while looking at the bottom of the pool, not as your head turns to catch an inward breath.


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