Make a splash!

Make a splash with your children and dive into the numerous benefits of swimming – from improving the whole families physical and mental health to building confidence and creating lasting happy memories.

Swimming is a great activity for adults and children alike, with multiple benefits. Not only is it a fun way for the whole family to stay active, but it especially improves everyone’s health and development.

Here are some of the key benefits of swimming for children:

Physical Development: Swimming is a full-body workout that builds muscle strength endurance, and flexibility, it also helps develop:

Coordination, balance, and posture
Increases cardiovascular endurance
Enhances lung capacity and respiratory function
Boosts metabolism and helps with weight management
Improves flexibility and range of motion
Reduces inflammation and joint pain

Mental Health: Swimming is a low-impact exercise that can help reduce stress and anxiety in children and boost their mood and cognitive function, other advantages include:

Boosts mood and promotes relaxation
Improves sleep quality
Increases self-esteem and confidence
Boosts cognitive function and brain health
Provides a sense of accomplishment and mastery

Safety: Learning how to swim is an essential life skill that can help keep children safe around water, in addition to building confidence and self-esteem. Sadly, drowning is still one of the most common causes of accidental death in children, so being able to swim is an essential life-saving skill.

Socialisation: Swimming is a great way for children to make new friends and interact with others in a fun and safe environment, many pools now have splash zones and flumes to enjoy once your enjoyed teaching them some swimming skills.

Access a range of other sports: If your child can swim, they can also participate in a whole host of other sports including:

Kayaking
Canoeing
Scuba diving
Surfing
Triathlon
Yachting
Water polo
Diving

Swimming aids brain function: Regular exercise, such as swimming, improves memory function and thinking skills. Useful for both the classroom and work, and for us parents it’s great for the old grey matter! Regular exercise reduces inflammation and insulin resistance in the brain, which fosters new brain cell growth.

Swimming is good for asthma sufferers: Swimming is great for people who suffer from chronic lung conditions including asthma. Many of those who suffer with asthma struggle to exercise outside when the air is dry or cold as the loss of heat and moisture causes the bronchial tubes to contract resulting in irritation, shortage of breath and coughing. Those who struggle with asthma find the water provides moisture and doesn’t trigger their lungs.

At PTC sports we understand that swimming lessons can be expensive but there are things you can do to support their learning skills by teaching them back floating, kicking, breathing, and putting their heads underwater.  Make learning fun by making up games. Challenge your kids to swim further distances to catch a ball, swim through a hula hoop, or collect diving sticks from the bottom of the pool. Use toys and floaters and have races to make your child more inclined to learn to swim, for especially competitive children setting relay challenges with a timer and encourage them to beat their times.

Overall, swimming is a great activity for children that offers a wide range of physical, mental, and social benefits, encouraging your child to swim regularly can help set them up for a healthy and active lifestyle, as well as an enjoyable family activity, so grab your swimsuit and head to the pool!