It is my intent to give a new understanding to the swimming skill of the back float. So much attention to floating is as an end rather than as an alternative to swimming. Please visualize a child or person floating in water - face up (supine) with an appearance of DOING NOTHING! Face is out of the water (maybe even smiling), arms are away from body (maybe even 90° to the chest area), and legs are extended (maybe even with toes near the surface or breaking the surface). In fact this child is DOING IT ALL!! This child or 60-year-old is exercising and demonstrating a fabulous learned skill with three very significant components that all have to exist. They are 1) Comfort; 2) Trust and 3) Knowledge of Skill. Please allow me to explain in detail these three components.
The COMFORT comes from a feeling of wanting to be where you are. “I like it here and I want to stay!” In other words not thinking “I do not want to be here! How can I get out of this water? I need to go to the steps, edge of the pool, the boat, or shore!”
TRUST is a sense of knowing that whatever happens next or whatever I do, I will be all right! “I know that the water will hold me! I know that the person I am with is there for me! I trust myself.”
KNOWLEDGE OF SKILL is a sense of knowing what to do next. “If I do not want to keep floating I have other choices and skills I can use to change what I am doing right now! I can roll around and swim to a different place and return to this nice float if I choose. I can gently kick to move myself in the water. I can stand up (An adult can tuck knees to chest and put feet under shoulders to become upright). I can swim to the wall, to the steps, or to the person in the water with me.”
Back floating in water is not a skill you can isolate or designate as a sole behavior. It is an integral part of learning to be in the water. Consider having your swimmers spend more that 50% of their swim starts going from a supine to a prone position. Accomplish this with babies with your own special hold and cue (release) to swim. With older swimmers you can set up a backstroke start. “Hold on to the wall, toes on the tile, get ready, go!” In conclusion, a floating child is DOING IT ALL! A floating child or 60-year-old is demonstrating a skill that is an alternative to swimming and this skill is being performed with Comfort, Trust and the Knowledge of Skills.
SUE HOWELL
P.O. Box 3022
Tequesta, FL 33469
(561) 747-1416
