Streamlining! Moving Like a Fish! – Steve Wallen Swim Schools in El Dorado Hills and Roseville
Now that your child has mastered floating, blowing bubbles, and being at home in the water, it’s now time to introduce another essential foundational skill: streamlining. Your child is at their closest to being a dolphin, shark, or whale in this position! When in the streamlined position, the body is at its most hydrodynamic and meets with the least amount of resistance and drag. Another bonus of streamlining well is the high-speed rate with which one can cut through the water!
Learning to Swim begins in infancy and is a lifelong skill!
Learning How To Streamline
Learning to streamline is a skill that most children love to learn, as it involves moving through the water quickly and doesn’t involve any tricky arm and leg actions. This skill is introduced early because it is so essential to develop. It lays the foundation for adding on those challenging arm and leg movements like freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke. When done correctly, the body is just at the surface of the water when streamlining on both the front and the back. There is no movement from either the arms or legs, but the entire body works hard to maintain the ideal position.
Your child will require hands-on instruction; coaching their limbs into the correct position is key to their success. Once your little bundle of energy is guided into the proper body shape and then gently pushed into propulsion, they will love streamlining on their front and back. One method of encouraging the correct body shape is to have your child streamline through a small hoop. The goal here is not to touch the hoop with any part of their body, thus reinforcing the correct body position. This is not only a fundamental skill but one that needs to be practiced regularly. Bath time is a perfect opportunity to stretch out into the streamlined position.
Learn to Swim With Steve Wallen Swim Schools in El Dorado and Roseville
Teaching Kids How To Streamline
Streamlining is always taught with expertise and fun, with attention to your child’s abilities, age, and learning style. Your child’s imagination plays a key role here; using imaginative real-life cues will help your child hold their body in the correct shape. For example, streamlining is likened to being a rocket ship blasting through space. Arms are held tightly at the ears to keep the bubbles out. Holding the hands tight and straight like the sharp end of a pencil will help them cut through the water. Magic spells are used to “freeze” them, encouraging the maintenance of the position.
Learn to swim, learn to be water safe…programs for the entire family!
Once your child can hold the streamlined position, they will learn to push and glide. Your highly-trained Steve Wallen Swim School Instructor will help them to overcome inertia by getting them going in their glide. Soon, they will learn to push off the bottom and side of the pool into their streamlining and then take joy as they cruise effortlessly across the water. Blowing bubbles is also practiced here, as is keeping the head in the ideal position. Just as with floats, if your child lifts or ducks their head, their bodies will move out of the desired hydrodynamic position.
Get Started With Swim Lessons at Wallen Swim School!
Just as with other skills, this is a foundational skill that requires mastery before adding on new elements. For example, a strong streamliner can be introduced to a kick because they won’t need to work terribly hard to keep the rest of their body in the correct position. At Steve Wallen Swim School, we strive to keep your child engaged, challenged and having fun as they learn the essential life skill of swimming.
Next up, adding a flutter kick to swim even faster with the fishes!
Steve Wallen Swim School is the best swim school…come swim with us today!
