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Many studies show the immediate benefits of learning to swim early in childhood. Additionally, the benefits of childhood swimming can be carried throughout each swimmer’s life.

Here are just some of the lifelong benefits of childhood swim lessons:

Water Safety

According to the CDC, about two children under the age of 14 die from unintentional drowning each day in the United States. In our country, drowning ranks fifth on the list of unintentional injury deaths. Teaching children to swim, educating them on how to behave around water, and helping them develop a comfort in the water will significantly reduce your child’s risk of becoming a drowning statistic.

Low-Impact Sport

While no one can claim that swimming injuries do not occur, the low-impact nature of swimming is gentler on the joints and gives children’s growing bodies a break from the harsh, high-impact effects of running-related sports. Additionally, if injuries do occur, swimming offers more options for remaining active during recovery. For instance, if an individual suffers from a shoulder injury, they can still perform kicking exercises or sidestroke on the uninjured side without experiencing any jarring motions to disrupt the healing process.

Teamwork And Individuality

Swim teams provide the unique developmental benefit of teaching teamwork while supporting the individual’s sense of self. Nearly all team sports aim to develop a deeper understanding of trust, cooperation, respect, and cooperation; swim teams do the same. However, swim teammates also must develop their own self-motivation and individualized perseverance. After all, while they experience the team atmosphere outside of the pool, in the pool they are focused solely on their own performance.

Goal Setting And Achievement

In many swim circumstances, each individual swimmer is setting his or her goals and working to achieve them. They are making decisions for themselves, improving their skills, and practicing goal-oriented training. This is a life skill that has relevance through every aspect of adulthood.

Exercise For Life

As we age, many of us begin to give up our preferred sports, such as running, for exercises that are kinder to our bodies. Not only do pool sports have a lower risk of serious injury that can haunt the athlete later in life (think of those often discussed old football injuries), but also swimming can decrease disability in older adults by allowing them to weightlessly exercise and move their joints.

Swimming is an activity that can bring lifelong joy to an individual and increase his or her wellbeing throughout life. Premier Aquatics Services is currently enrolling all age group in our fall swim programs. Click here to learn more about the Premier Aquatic’s year-round swim lesson programs.

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Many people view swimming as a summer sport. However, swim lessons provide more consistent benefits when children remain actively involved throughout the year.

Here are just some of the ways year-round swim lessons can benefit your child:

Skill Maintenance – Similar to how math skills diminish after a long summer away from school, swimming skills can get lost over time if they are not regularly practiced. By enrolling your child in year-round swim lessons, you ensure that their skills continually improve and don’t need to be relearned each summer.

Consistent Skill Building – When children remain in swim lessons throughout the year, their ability to learn new skills increases because they continually build on the skills they have already established. This leads to improved water safety and a more confident child.

Physical Fitness – Most parents would agree that physical fitness is important for their children’s overall wellness. Being in the pool throughout the school year offers children a fun way to exercise with a relatively low risk of sports-related injury. It can also provide a smooth transition into team water sports, such as swim team or water polo, as a child gets older.

Academic and Developmental Benefits – An array of studies have shown that children who participate in consistent, early childhood swim lessons experience more advanced cognitive and physical abilities than other children. Additionally, swim lessons can help your child’s ability to focus. Read our post: Can Swim Lessons Make Your Child Smarter.

Improved Coping Skills – According to a study by the German Sports College in Cologne, children who learn to swim at an early age are more comfortable coping with new or unfamiliar situations. As children learn to overcome fears and insecurities in the water, they build faith in their ability to deal with unknown circumstances. This skill directly translates into a child’s ability to feel comfortable with new classrooms, teachers, and classmates.

Social Skills And Friendships – Children build relationships with their pool teammates and their instructors. As children meet new people from season to season, the consistency of the pool and program provides a safe setting for each child to develop their social skills and build new friendships.

Parental Bonding – With young children and infants, pool time with a parent provides a unique bonding experience. The close physical contact, quality time spent together, and further development of trust strengthens parent/child relationships.

As fall quickly approaches and summer swim lessons begin to come to a close, it is time to enroll your child in next season’s program. Click here to learn more about the Premier Aquatic’s year-round swim lesson programs.

Sign up for our Newsletter to receive discounts on offseason lessons!

A backyard pool is a great place for your family to hang out and take a break from the heat. Summer is just around the corner and backyard pool season is about to be in full swing.

Even though, backyard pools are fun, they are a safety hazard for children. Life-threatening dangers can turn deadly in an instant if the proper safety precautions are not taken ahead of time. Each year hundreds of accidents occur in backyard swimming pools, and some of them are deadly.

Every pool owner is responsible for making sure that their pool is as safe as possible for everyone that enters their backyard.

Follow our safety tips below to ensure you have a safe backyard pool.

Install A Fence

It is essential to have a fence around your swimming pool. Having a fence around your pool will prevent anyone from swimming in it that isn’t supposed to. Make sure that the fence is at least 42 inches high and has a self-closing and latching gate. This will ensure that the gate is never left open.

The latch should be high enough so that it is not reachable by small children. It is also important to make sure that children cannot climb the pool fence.

Studies have shown that a barrier separating a pool from the home reduces a child’s risk of drowning by 83%.

Completely Remove The Pool Cover

Pool covers can be extremely dangerous. If a pool cover is not removed from the pool all the way, a child can get stuck underneath it and will be unable to breathe. If you are using a pool cover, make sure to completely remove it from the pool when it’s time to go swimming. It is equally important to make sure everyone is out of the pool before you put the cover back on.

Keep Away From Drain Filtration

In California, pools must have an anti-vortex cover on all pool drains. However, just because it is mandatory does not mean that all pools will have them- especially older pools.

Since it is always better to be cautious, make sure you inform your children to keep their hands and hair away from the drains in the pool. A child’s finger or hair can get sucked into a drain without an anti-vortex cover.

Be Vigilant and Informed

It is important that one adult is always in charge of watching children in the pool. If you are in charge of supervising the children, make sure that you do not get distracted. Your only focus should be on keeping the children in the pool safe.

If you have a pool in your backyard, you should also know how to perform CPR and First Aid in case an emergency does occur. It is important to be prepared for an emergency.

Drowning is preventable, and it is your duty to make sure that your family and loved ones stay safe around the water. Taking these necessary precautions for your backyard pool will help ensure that your loved ones are safe.

If you are interested in learning CPR and First Aid, Premier hosts certification classes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can register for a class here.

The weather is starting to warm up and pool season is quickly approaching. Swimming pools across Southern California will quickly start to fill up as families flock to the water to take a break from the heat.

Swimming pools can get crowded, and children can be rowdy. Whenever your child is around water, there is always some level of danger involved.

To keep your child safe at the pool this summer, follow our three best safety tips.

Be Vigilant

When your children are in the pool, you must remain vigilant. This means not leaving the pool area at any time without having someone in place to watch your children for you.

When your children are young and are new to swimming, it is best to keep them within arm’s reach at all times. That way, if they suddenly go under the water, you will be there to scoop them up quickly. As your kids grow older and become more proficient swimmers, you can increase the distance, but you should be watching your children at all times.

Think of yourself as the guardian of the pool. It is your responsibility to remain vigilant to protect not only your children from drowning, but others as well.

Set Rules

It is important to set boundaries for your child when they near the pool. These rules should also include outlining the behavior that is expected while they are on the pool deck.

Here are some ground rules:

• No running on the pool deck
• No diving into the pool
• No roughhousing or grabbing onto other children in the water
• Do not go in the pool without an adult present (you should never leave a child by a pool without an adult)

It is also important to set rules for yourself while your children are swimming. This can include not checking your phone, making snacks or anything else that can take your attention away from the pool when you should be watching your child swimming.

Start Swim Lessons

One of the best ways to prevent drowning is to make sure your kids are enrolled in swimming lessons. Swim lessons are not just another summer activity; they can and should happen year round.

Your child can start taking individual and group classes as young as three years old. There are also parent and me classes for children younger than three. These classes are designed to provide children with a safe and comfortable learning environment where they can begin to learn basic swimming skills in the comfort of their parent’s or guardian’s arms.

Did you know that 2014 was one of the worst years for drowning in Orange County? Every drowning is preventable.

Learn how to keep your children safe around the water by attending our Orange County Drowning Prevention Task Force meeting on Thursday, March 19, at the Aliso Viejo Aquatic Center at 5:30 p.m.