Swimming backstroke

“On our back we lie nice and flat” so goes the song at Waterbabies to prepare them for swimming backstroke.  But until now (and we’ve been swimming since 4 months old, he’s now 27 months), N’s flat out refused to be on his back in the swimming pool.

Occasionally he’ll ‘sit’ and kick his legs for certain tasks, but generally anything on his back he’s always protested about and wriggled over onto his front.

But today, first class back after three weeks, we were focusing on swimming on their backs and keeping straight. Uh oh, I thought.  Surprisingly he was quite happy to have the woggle under him so he was holding on, and was kicking away across the pool.  He did his usual turnover to his front half way across, but didn’t moan when I put him on his back again to carry on across.

I was so impressed he was happy on his back finally.  Let’s face it, it’s much easier and less work to swim backstroke than on your front.  The toddlers were also doing pushing off from the side on their back and he liked doing that (anything to avoid having to hold on to the side which he hates doing).

We’ve still got to work on him being willing to let go and go underwater.  He’s still not keen on that, although he will splash under if he’s dropping in from the side or off the float.  Considering he’d had 3 weeks off thanks to snow and Easter, he did really well.  All his practicing his arms and legs on the sofa while chilling out has obviously kept his mind on swimming.