If you child is being taught to blow bubbles in the water as part of their Personal Aquatic Survival Skills then I need you to consider the following.
Unless we have a very high percentage of body fat most humans will sink, if they are in a body of water, unless they have air in their lungs. It is for this reason that in the unique Shapland Swim in Five Process we do not teach our pupils to blow bubbles in the water until they are in the fourth and fifth step of our unique process.
The reason we do not teach our babies and toddlers to blow out their breath is simple. While they hold their breath a baby/toddler will float on top of the water. If they are taught to blow bubbles during their early skill development and this becomes a habit then when a baby/toddler falls into a body of water they will more likely blow out their breath.
As soon as they blow out their air they will sink.
I pose this question for you. “Would you rather have your baby/toddler in sight on top of the water even for a short period of time because they have been taught to hold their breath (until they can’t hold their breath any longer and have to let their breath out) or have them sink immediately because they have been taught to blow their bubbles out during swimming lessons”?
To me it is a no brainer; as I would welcome an extra 5-10 secs of being able to see a body lying on top of the water as that may make all the difference between seeing your child in the pool or missing them because they were on the bottom of the pool up against the wall. At this point I suggest you take the time to count off ten seconds and see how long that really is.
There is a time to work on your child blowing bubbles in the learn to swim process and over Six Decades of developing our swim in five process Shaplands’ have identified the best time to introduce blowing bubbles (exhaling) into your child’s Personal Aquatic Survival Skill development.
When that time comes we spend time teaching your child the correct way to exhale and the correct breathing rhythm to adopt.
Remember if your child blows out all their breath when they are in the water they will sink so if your child is being taught to blow bubbles before they are using their arms and legs to move them through the water then I suggest you take this matter up with your swimming teacher and ask for a reason. If the reason is they are being taught this skill early in their development so that later on when they start to learn how to take a breath they will be familiar with the skill then I would suggest that this is flawed reasoning because teaching a child to blow bubbles in the water when they are ready is NOT difficult. Teaching a child to blow bubbles in the water before they need that skill is to me a failure in our duty of care to ensure a baby/toddler is being taught worlds best practices.
If your baby/toddler is taught to hold their breath, relax and float on top of the water it may make the difference between life and death for that child.
Chris Shapland.