Why You Should Be Glad Your Kid Picked Swimming

Sports are supposed to be good for kids. In theory, a sport should build strong bodies, not tear them down. It should promote sportsmanship, self-discipline, and perseverance.  Unfortunately, not all sports live up to these ideals. Swimming, however, does quite well.

 

According to many authors of articles on sports for children, the fact that swimming uniquely develops the cardiovascular systems to the maximum makes it an ideal sport for children, since an efficient cardiovascular system is the key to life-long health.  This is in addition to the fact that children run so little risk of injury in swimming. (Swimming is rated as a "most desirable" sport on insurance company premiums.)

 

Swimming is a sport in the true sense of the word.  It is a pursuit of a striving for excellence.  Its very nature demands self-discipline and great strength of purpose.  This striving for excellence is what the ancient Greeks revered as being that which brings out the finest qualities in mankind.  And, supposedly, the development of these qualities is the reason for a sports curriculum in the schools.  Swimmers learn early the relationship between hard work and results.

 

Like all extracurricular activities, competitive swimming expands upon the growth and development of its participants that begins with families and education.  Swimming offers many unique advantages over other sports and clubs that make it an ideal choice for young people.

 

Swimming:

· Uses all the body’s major muscle groups, promoting complete development.

· Offers the most complete aerobic fitness possible.

· Enhances flexibility while building strength.

· Helps develop superior coordination skills because of the complexity of the four multidimensional strokes and various techniques.

· Is a low impact sport and therefore enjoys a low rate of serious injuries.

· Adapts as one ages and can be enjoyed for a lifetime.

· Develops swimmers mentally, through strategy, concentrations and discussions of related areas, such as physiology, nutrition, and psychology.

· Develops self-discipline, which transfers over to life skills outside the pool.

 

These are just some of the obvious benefits, but the advantages are too numerous to list. Long-time swimmers can attest to the life skills gained by participation, including time management, goal setting, cooperation and independence

 

Why Swim?

Swimming is considered the ideal activity for developing muscular and skeletal growth by many physicians and pediatricians. Why do doctors like it so much?

 

Swimming develops high quality aerobic endurance, the most important key to physical fitness. In other sports an hour of practice may yield as little as 10 minutes of meaningful exercise. Age group swimming teams use every precious minute of practice time developing fitness and teaching skills.

 

Swimming does a better job in proportional muscular development by using all the body's major muscle groups. No other sport does this as well.

 

Swimming enhances children's natural flexibility (at a time when they ordinarily begin to lose it) by exercising all of their major joints through a full range of motion.

 

Swimming helps develop superior coordination because it requires combinations of complex movements of all parts of the body, enhancing harmonious muscle function, grace, and fluidity of movement.

 

Swimming is the most injury-free of all children's sports.

 

Swimming is a sport that will bring kids fitness and enjoyment for life. Participants in Master's Swimming programs are still training and racing well into their 80's.

 

In addition to physical development, children can develop greater intellectual competence by participating in a guided program of physical activity.  Learning and using swimming skills engages the thinking processes.  As they learn new techniques, children must develop and plan movement sequences.  They improve by exploring new ideas. They learn that greater progress results from using their creative talents.  Self-expression can be just as much physical as intellectual.  Finally their accomplishments in learning and using new skills contribute to a stronger self image.

 

CMA does not see the first place person as the only winner.  We'd rather look to see who behaves like a winner.  There are certain characteristics of a winner, and every swimmer, no matter where they place, has the opportunity to emulate those characteristics: concentration, listening skills, and working toward goals.

 

Swimming is not an end in itself, but a vehicle we use to teach children life skills and how to reach their potential.  We use sport as organized play to demonstrate and measure one's abilities.  In competition, the important measure is not who collected the most medals, or even who improved the most seconds. The real critical measure is who learned the most from the competitive experience.

 

Swimmers quickly forget the medals, records, and other material benefits. They will, however, remember the development of interpersonal skills, discipline, listening skills, time management, goal setting, and enhanced self- image. These are the things that make the swimmer a more successful person with a better chance of living a life closer to their peak potential, and to contribute to the world they live in.