When Your Child Loves Swimming: How to Prep for Competitive Swimming
What should you do when your child loves to go swimming and expresses a desire to compete? The next step is to get them lessons that teach them how to swim competitively. Helping your child prepare for competitive swimming requires finding a qualified swim instructor who will give them the training they need to excel at swim meets.
Ocaquatics Swim School is dedicated to providing
swimming lessons for children of all ages, from beginner to advanced. Our certified and experienced instructors use proven teaching methods to help kids build confidence, improve technique, and achieve their goals in competitive swimming.
In this blog post, we discuss how you can assist in preparing your child for competitive swimming with the expert guidance and programs offered by Ocaquatics Swim School.
Preparing Your Child for Competitive Swimming
If you’re interested in helping your child prepare for competitive swimming, here are the top tips you need.
Make Sure They Learn The Swimming Basics First
You need to learn to walk before you can run, and with swimming, it’s the same basic principle. To swim competitively, your child must first learn how to swim. This goes beyond simply being able to stay afloat. Your child should first progress through lessons to learn proper techniques and swim skills before they can start training to compete.
Practice Is Key to Excellence in Competitive Swimming
Swimming is a sport, so practice is the only way to go from good to great. It helps if you have a pool at home where your child can get daily practice. If not, you should look for public or private pools where they are welcome to practice their swim strokes regularly.
Enroll in Competitive Swimming Classes
Once your child has mastered basic swimming skills and techniques, they can be enrolled in competitive swimming classes. These will help them fine-tune their swim strokes and acquire competitive-level skills for freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly as well as flip turns. It’s the ultimate way to help your child prepare for competitive swimming.
Keep Them Training Outside of the Water
The things your child does outside of the pool can help them to become stronger competitive swimmers. Preparing your child for competitive swimming will require training on dry land as well as the water. Encourage them to continue their exercise and training on days they aren’t swimming and to maintain healthy habits.
Ensure Proper Nutrition and Hydration
One of the biggest mistakes made when a child is training for competitive swimming is not focusing on hydration. Since they are surrounded by water, it is an easy mistake to make as they’re not sweating like they would when playing soccer, football, baseball, or other sports. However, helping your child prepare for competitive swimming will require you to keep them hydrated. Even in the water, your child needs to drink plenty of fresh water to stay healthy.
Similarly, getting the right nutrients is essential for competitive swimmers. Swimming burns a lot of calories very quickly. The food your child eats should sustain them through their swim competitions. Some great options are:
Full-fat yogurt topped with nuts- Oatmeal
- Hummus with pita chips and fresh vegetables
- Tuna, chicken, or egg salad
- Cheese and crackers
- Peanut butter
- Potatoes
- Olives
Maintain a Healthy Balance Between School and Swimming
When helping your child prepare for competitive swimming, balance is critical. They must be able to keep up with their studies while preparing for swimming competitions. It’s also vital that they maintain their social interactions beyond the swim team.
Give your child guidance now and they will learn how to balance their school and competitive lives, which will be useful throughout their lives. They will learn to rise to the occasion in all areas when they can keep their social and competitive lives balanced.
Don’t Forget About the Fun Factor
At its core, swimming is supposed to be fun, even at the competitive level. It’s great to win, but remind your child that winning isn’t everything. They should still be embracing the fun aspects of swimming, bonding with their team, and being gracious in the face of victory or defeat.
Choosing the Right Swim School for Your Child
When preparing your child for competitive swimming, they will need swimming lessons that teach them the skills and techniques used in competitions. Your child will have a better experience when you choose the right school that has what it takes to help your child prepare for competitive swimming.
Certified Instructors Who Specialize in Working with Kids
Always choose a swim school that has instructors with the proper certifications. Additionally, they should be experienced in working with children and helping them progress and advance in swimming. Visit the swim school and you should see the credentials of each coach clearly displayed. You may also find these details for each coach on the swim school’s website.
Check the Class Sizes
It’s not only dangerous for swim class sizes to be too large, but they will not be able to provide the proper level of instruction. Too many kids in one class isn’t the only problem. One-on-one classes won’t benefit your child in their early days of swimming because they will not get group encouragement or cultivate a sense of team bonding.
Availability of Progression Levels
When preparing your child for competitive swimming, check to see how the levels progress. If your child wants to compete, then you should make sure the swim school you choose has the capability to support this desire with the right training.
Positive Reputation and Reviews
When comparing swim schools, look at how long each one has been in business. A swim school that has been teaching children to swim for decades is one that likely has a solid reputation in the community. Additionally, ask other parents for recommendations and read the reviews to narrow your search.
When you sign your child up for competitive swimming lessons with Ocaquatics Swim School, you’ll find reputable instructors and tailored training programs to meet your child’s needs. Contact us today to sign your child up for competitive swimming lessons.
