The Bub in the Belly

Sunday began with Ryan's swimming lesson as usual. I was happy to see that new and slightly advanced exercises were introduced, because it means that Ryan has made enough progress to do more challenging stuff.

The short swims were lengthened - previously the parents stood in a small circle around the coach and the children swam a short sprint from the coach back to their parent. Now the parents stand in a line along the side of the pool and the children swim a slightly longer distance from the middle of the pool back to the parent.

The "dive in" or "jump in" exercise also had a longer swim time. Previously, the children just jumped/dove into the pool and the parents picked them up straightaway. Now the children have to dive in and swim a little further to get to the parent. Ryan was so excited at this new game and was busy yabbering on and pointing at the other children diving in. He was particularly interested to watch one boy who backed up as far as he could, ran all the way to the pool and literally leapt into the air before landing feet first in the water. Fun!

This is the first time we are trying this and the children are not yet used to swimming forward once they hit the water. They still expect to be picked up and so they don't move. So there is a heart-stopping moment when they go underwater, before they start moving. Some children do the flying leap into the water and go in feet first like a diver - they end up going straight down and sink deeper into the water which makes it harder to start swimming forward. They spend a little bit longer underwater, so the parent usually panics and rushes forward to grab them instead of waiting (and waiting and waiting... those few seconds when a child is underwater can be unbearable). Ryan dives in head and arms first, like a swimmer, so he's already in a swimming position when he hits the water. I just have to get him to understand that he has to swim to me.

Here's another of Ryan's favourites - the aeroplane. Coach always asks him, "Big one or small one?" Ryan never answers him. Coach used to give him a big aeroplane (Coach literally throws Ryan into the air) but lately, he has been giving him a small one (hardly any lift-off at all), because Ryan hasn't been wearing his suit and it can be painful to land on the water bare-skinned.







There are also more exercises focusing on arm movement, some rudimentary breast stroke and free style. Not easy! Ryan definitely needs more water time to build up that muscle memory. As planned, I did bring him down to our pool at home last Friday, after we got back from the clinic, but it was just too cold for me! Cold water is one thing, there was a cold breeze as well, which put an end to my idea of doing any exercises. We ended up just playing with Ryan's toys in the tiny children's pool (which is like a wading pool for adults). I'll try again, fingers crossed that the weather will be kinder.