DIY Teach Your Child How to Swim Skill #6: Roll Over
Skill #6: Roll Over
Goal: Practicing how to roll over safely in the water. This helps the swimming catch their breath and rest when needed!
Remember to continue practicing Skill #1: Get Your Face Wet, Skill #2: Blow Bubbles, Skill #3: Front Float, Skill #4: Front Glide with Kicks and Skill #5: Arm Pulls every time you go to the pool. Learning how to swim is a lifelong process. You are helping your child foster a healthy relationship with water, which will benefit him positively for the rest of his life.
How to Roll Over When Swimming
Rolling over is an important skill for all ages and abilities to learn. Being on your back can be challenging and parents don’t like seeing their children upset, so they don’t ‘make’ them do it. Please don’t go about learning to swim this way, especially when it comes to the back float. Many children (and adults) don’t particularly enjoy floating on their back and find it difficult to relax. The idea is that you can roll over, relax and get a breath and rest if you become tired. This is a necessary survival skill. So, it’s a battle you are just going to have to fight – or if you won’t, then let a swim instructor do it.
To start, help your child with a back float (Skill #7) for 3 seconds, and then gently roll them over into a front float (Skill #3) for 3 seconds. Check out Stu the Otter showing Lou the Ant how to do roll overs in Learn to Swim with Lou!
RESOURCES
- Check out the Do-it-Yourself Teach Your Child How to Swim eBook
- Visit the our Learn to Swim Shop
- Download the FREE Safer Swimming Bundle
- Subscribe to our Youtube Channel