Emma’s Swimming Tips – Part 1: Blowing Bubbles

21 April 2020

“Learning to blow bubbles is a vital skill which is useful for all levels, particularly when starting to swim unaided and when learning side breathing.”

This break has been brought upon very suddenly and while I know we have lots of children who are missing their weekly lessons, hopefully with some of the activities below, you can help your children to continue to gain water confidence. And if you have a sibling waiting to join us or if you’re on our waiting list, why not try these activities to get your child ready to start their lessons.

It is to be expected, with a potential break of several months, that children will regress when they return to their swimming lessons. Therefore, the more practice we’re able to do between now and then, will help keep this regression to a minimum.

Bath time is the perfect opportunity to practice swimming skills as your child should feel comfortable in the shallow water and in the familiar surroundings. Be aware that bubble bath can irritate the eyes so it might be best to have a wash after these activities. Also, I’m sure it goes without saying, but please never leave children unattended in the bath.

One of the first things we work on in the water is practising breath control (and children in Swimmer 1 and Swimmer 2 can still benefit from this). Learning to blow bubbles is a vital skill which is useful for all levels, particularly when starting to swim unaided and when learning side breathing. We want to be encouraging children to slowly blow out through their mouth and nose and to breathe in through their mouth (if they breathe in through their nose, they will get water up their nose).

There are many ideas you can use here to develop breath control in the water:

• Blowing a floaty toy around the bath or a bowl of water.
• Blow bubbles into a drink through a straw – you need to take your mouth away from the straw to breathe in in the same way you need to take your mouth out of the water to breathe in in the pool to avoid getting a mouth full of water.
• Blowing bubbles in the bath. Why not make a game of it, perhaps with a sibling:
  • Can you blow loud bubbles? Can you blow quiet bubbles?
  • Can you blow big bubbles? Can you blow small bubbles?
  • Who can blow the biggest bubbles/loudest bubbles?
• Stretching out on their fronts and blowing bubbles in the water. They can progress onto doing this a few times in a row and taking just one breath in each time they lift their mouth out of the water.

Let us know how you get on with these activities. Why not post on social media and tag our Facebook, @WoodrowHighHouse!

Check back on Friday 24th April 2020 for part 2! 

Written by Emma Collins