Today's guest blogger is Allison Tyson of Born to Swim, and author of the Learn to Swim the Australian Way Series
Swimming learning, like any other learning, is a sequential process of steps and 'forms'. Failure... can be demotivating in learn-to-swim and have lifelong negative consequences in terms of self-efficacy and choice of leisure and or sports activities (e.g., Peden & Franklin, 2020). Allison's most recent post reiterates the critical importance of children having positive aquatic experiences when learning to swim.
... This is how I feel about teaching when it comes to swimming. Like 'bad Math', allowing a beginner swimmer to continuously practice 'bad technique' only reinforces more 'bad technique'. This slows the learn to swim journey down considerably (that's your time & money) and causes more harm further along in their journey when more complex skill acquisition is required of them.
For the sake of the argument I am going to use this picture of a child practicing a streamline (see above). I found the image on a box for a kid's toy which I made into a meme to further express my annoyance (and passion), as an example... Read more
References
Peden, A. E., & Franklin, R. C. (2020). Learning to swim: An exploration of negative prior aquatic experiences among
children. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(10), 3557. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17103557
Guest blogger: Allison Tyson (my lil sister) has been a swim mechanic for over two decades.She is a 3rd generation swim instructor, mum to 2 kids, a former life saver, and competitive swimmer. Allison knows firsthand the importance of teaching kids and adults to respect and navigate their way through water. Check out her blog https://www.borntoswim.com.au/about and books https://www.borntoswim.com.au/books
