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Community Corner

Stay Safe Swimming

As Marin gears up for pool season, a few words about water safety.

Kids are drawn to the water and, according to aquatic instructors, built to swim.  To enjoy this most quintessential summer activity to its fullest, get your children into swim school early and be vigilant. 

Swimming is an instinctive skill that should be honed early on, according to Marinwood Community Center Recreation Director Luke Fretwell. “The older the kid the harder it is to learn to swim,” he says, emphasizing that “as children develop mentally and physically, they will develop swimming skills naturally.”

Mark Anderson, who has coached the Sleepy Hollow Swim Team for over 22 years recommends three-and-a-half-years-old as an ideal starting point for actual swim lessons (one of his four sons was water safe before age one, he says, “but we are water freaks”). He advises private lessons for this age, as the group environment may be too distracting for very young swimmers.  

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Safety skills for this set include basic floating exercises, ‘crab walking’ along the wall, breath control, ‘survival kicking’ and eventually more advanced locomotion so that a child can swim to the side of the pool and getting in and out of the pool independently.

“Floating – where you can stay on top of the water and take breaths - is the number one survival skill that we look for,” says Fretwell, along with a child’s ability to propel themselves to the wall. 

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“Kids are water safe when they can grab a breath, keep themselves moving (even with a basic dog paddle) and are not afraid to get their head under water,” says Anderson. “I know they are water safe when they can take a breath and put their face back down in water; then take another breath." Along with the above skills, a child should also have a concept of how deep the bottom of the pool is, he says.

By the time a child is seven- to eight-years-old, Anderson is looking for skills like side breathing and a good freestyle stroke. Kids can join the Sleepy Hollow team as young as age five, as long as they can swim the length of the pool. 

As a first introduction to water, ‘mommy and me’ swim classes for the pre-walking set usually involve splashy renditions of Itsy Bitsy Spider, playful head dunks and ‘bike peddle survival kicks.’ 

While swim lessons are hopefully enjoyable, Fretwell emphasizes that parents should consider swimming not as another extracurricular like soccer, piano lessons or ballet, “but as a life skill that is not an option.”

Underscoring this advice: there are 3,443 fatal (non-boating related) water accidents annually, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger.

Understand your child’s ability level and be alert.

“If your child is a non-swimmer or a beginner, an adult should be with them in the water,” says Fretwell, who emphasizes that incidents happen a lot faster than you think. “It takes a second for a child to sink. Head above water to head under water.”

At San Rafael Racquet Club, lifeguards are particularly aware of ‘wall crawlers,’ says general manager Ariel Shakeshaft. This group has learned how to crab walk or crawl along the wall, but may let go and find themselves in the deep end, says Shakeshaft. The same thing goes for kids who find they can stand in the shallow end and unwittingly walk themselves into the deep end. 

Another common scenario is that a child will set off in one direction but be unable to make  it back, according to Shakeshaft, whose facility requires that in order for young swimmers to be in the water without a parent, they must swim up to 10 feet while taking a breath, and be able to turn back to the wall.  “Until you know your child can swim up and down the pool, you should be on the side of the pool,” she advises.

The five- to eight-year-old age group is especially vulnerable to overconfidence, according to Fretwell. “They’ve learned a few kicks and started to swim, but they think they are safer than they are,” he says. “This is nerve-wracking from a lifeguard’s perspective.”

And while pools are generally well staffed with hard-working lifeguards, remember that a lifeguard is not a stand-in for a parent“I’ve noticed parents relaxing and chatting while lifeguards are there,” says Fretwell. “But they may have well over 20 people in the water and need to be scanning the entire pool. It may take time to see an incident.”

Even kids who are well into their teens need supervision, advises Anderson. “A kid can smack their head on the side of the pool or suffer a seizure – you never know.”

Nor are life jackets and floaties stand-ins for parents

While Marinwood and other local pools allow floaties and life jackets, Fretwell and Anderson both consider them dangerous. “It’s a false sense of security for the child and for the parent,” says Fretwell. “If you are using it, act like your child is without it – don’t rely on it. 

Look for signs of exhaustion: Often pool rescues are the result of kids trying to help other kids who are in trouble, say instructors, who warn that nearly 100 percent of the time rescues are the result of exhausted swimmers taking it too far. 

Enforce swim breaks, even if you don’t think your child needs one. “Adult swim is a good regulator, because it forces kids to take a break from the water,” says Shakeshaft. “When we didn’t have that break, we had more incidents.”

Don’t let kids play ‘breath holding contests,’ says Fretwell, who claims this is a new trend in pool rules. “A kid may experience sudden blackout or actually go unconscious,” he says. “Kids like these games, but they are a hazard.”

Think before letting kids dive or jump: While the general rule is ‘no diving in less than five to six feet’ (or for Shakeshaft, “no diving in anything less than your own height”), always know the rules of the given pool, and look for ‘too shallow for diving’ signs. 

Obeying the diving rules is huge because kids can hit their head and suffer serious spinal injury, says Fretwell. “Listen to the lifeguard. Some parents teach kids to respect the lifeguards; others don’t pay as much attention. Encourage your kids to take the lifeguard seriously.”

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