Teach your kids to swim early in life and get them into an organized swim program for at least a few months a year.
Here’s why:
I got an opportunity to teach at a surf camp in Malibu this Summer for 3 weeks. I taught children between the ages of 5-9 years old. There were other age groups represented going up to about age 16. I probably interacted with about 90 little kids over the 3 weeks. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the goings on with the older kids which were about 250 strong.
Out of those 90 little kids 4 of them stood out like sore thumbs. How? Well, they “GOT IT”, Meaning they were one with the water and tended to be less shy when it came to dealing with the cold and the surf. They picked up the idea of surfing very quickly. They learned to stand up on the board really fast. Faster than any of the others. And they really wanted to take big waves on the outside. Why? They were on swim teams. They were comfortable in the water element. They took getting dumped off a board as if it were part of a fun ride.
It was a joy to work with these kids.
Fast forwarding 20 years I can see them picking up triathlons as their sport and adapting quickly to the notion of swimming in open water. To them open water will be NO PROBLEM!
When my wife and I have kids we will definitely start them in swimming at a young age. I really wish that my parents had put me into some sort of a swim program when I was a kid. This summer before I started training for tri’s I could count the number of laps I had done in a pool on one hand and thus it was/is my primary limiting factor in races. Good post and good reminder!
my oldest son started swimming at 2.5. He is now turning 5 in 2 days, i took him surfing last weekend, he stood up on his first wave. =]
my 11 month old has been in swimming class with my wife for a couple months. I agree, kids should be learning to swim at early ages as well as learning multiple languages.
When I was a kid my mom tried to put me in swimming lessons. I refused to have anything to do with the water. It was pretty close to a Calvin/Rosalyn situation - the main difference being I spent all my time on my bike (can you guys believe that?)
I self-taught myself to swim somewhere along the way (many years later), which Paulo and Brian can attest is NOT the optimal path.
Take home: if they’ll do it, put your kids in swim lessons. If they won’t, they’ll turn out like me.
