Training a Child Swimming Safely - Term Paper Example

 Training a Child Swimming Safely Introduction Swimming is a form of recreational sport that is practiced globally. The sport is done in water bodies, and, therefore, requires one to denounce being water phobic. It is argued by several professional swimmers that when one is trained how to swim a tender age, there are high chances for exemplary performance in the future (Costill, & Maglischo, 1992, pg 78). Imparting skills requisite for swimming to a child can be challenging, because of the body size. This term paper is going to focus on how to teach a child of eight years how to swim. To start off, it is necessary to understand the term skill, which simply refers to action one gain through learning in order to accomplish specified goals. Skills required for swimming can be categorized using several factors. 2.0 Closed skills The skills required for swimming to the child can be considered to be closed because of the nature of the environment on which it is conducted. The child will be trained in a swimming pool that is closed, this makes controlling of the environment easier, thus enhancing stability of the environment. In that line of thought, instances of waves that are predominant in open water bodies will have been done away with and this will enhance predictability of the skill the child is being trained. 3.0 Simple skill Swimming skills can be considered to be simple because of repetitive of basic activities (Wulf, & Shea, n.d.). However, this might not be the case for swimmers in a competition such as Olympic because fast thinking while engaging in different actions is required. 4.0 Continuous skills A swimmer will start the skills for instance butterfly, finish the first cycle, but still continue. This is how the continuity of the skills is evidenced. Repetitive of actions while swimming clearly shows cycle after cycle of actions being repeated (Greetham, 2010, pg 57). A swimmer plunge one of his arm into the water and push the water backwards and repeat it with the other arm. The skill has neither a specific beginning nor end, the action continues on for some minutes. This cycle continuous till the swimmer reach end point. 5.0 Safety of the child A Child is not prone to cold water; therefore the first step is to ensure the health status of the child is fine with cold water. Goggles are important to prevent water from entering the eyes of the child, thus causing irritation. Swimming costume is required to facilitate their movement in the water. Ensure a towel is available to dry the child after several sessions. According to (Raatma, 1999, pg 23), the essence of this is to prevent much shivering of the child that can make them get pneumonia. 6.0 Mechanism control How the child will be able to maneuver in water is critical. To better understand this, it is vital to know the mechanism involved in the process of swimming. It is know that the first day on swimming, one finds it difficult to maintain the body from sinking and propelling forward. This is due to the imbalance in the position of the body. Balance in swimming is as equal important as when one is riding a bicycle or skating. According to (Thomas, D., & Thomas, D. 1990, pg 56), to ensure the child balance in the water, the child should maintain the streamline body position, horizontal body position, and hip roll. 6.1 Proprioceptive Sensory information Proprioceptive sensory information provides information about the state of the body itself and originates from the child. The sensory information influences the child movement and balance in the swimming pool. In this case the angle created by the child between the elbow and shoulder not exceed 180°. The legs should only be spread when the child tries to grasp air, but the legs should continuously kick the water. In conjunction with the elbow movement and kicking of the water the child is able to maintain his balance and propel forward. As the child changes the swimming style for instance butterfly, the angle between the elbow and shoulder will be within 180°. However, the legs will be attached throughout while kicking the water; the head is usually on a neutral position facing the water. It is through this movement of the arms that makes the child move. How fast the child moves the arms determines his fastness in water. 6.2 Exteroceptive sensory information Exeroceptive information originates from the external environment that dictates on skills used in swimming. The child will be influenced on the surrounding around the swimming pool and this will impact on his efficiency in applying different skills. Cold water hampers the efficiency of the child and advisable water temperature to be 30-31° Celsius. Presence of other people near the pool has two effects depending on the child’s esteem. But there will be other people whom the child will visualize their movement. Noises originating from the group of people around the pool will distract the child from hearing his instructor. Presence of lighting and music in the pool makes the child feel more rejuvenated and focus on the training. However to o much lighting can led the child to lose focus and stare on the lighting. The depth of the pool should not be too deep to frighten the child but roughly a depth less than one meter is advisable. The length of the pool will be fourteen meters, however for complex skills; the length per lap will be reduced. The essence is to calm down the child from chances and instill hope in them. Combination of both proprioceptive and exteroceptive information enhances the swimming capability of a child. 7.0 Literature review 7.1 Demonstration Training someone on a given skills can be done by demonstration. A Demonstration can be defined as a visual display on how different actions should be carried out to achieve certain goal. Demonstration is best method of dispensing skills if the resources required is unavailable or the task requires voluntary thinking. In this study, demonstration can be used to train child on basic skills requisite for swimming before the child goes to the pool. Demonstration, in this case, will enlighten the child on what is expected of him during the practical training. 7.2 Motor learning An inclusion of internal control processes with an experience that leads to a relative permanent change in the ability of skilled behavior is what is being referred to as motor learning (Schmidt, 1991, pg 31). This technique has three stages namely; cognitive stage, associative stage, and autonomous stage. Cognitive stage it is the first stage and the child is expected to learn the objective of being trained on swimming. In this stage, the instructor should let it be known to the child the difficulties they will experience in the process of swimming. The second stage, associative, the child will be showing improvement in the swimming. The skills and difficulties sensitized in the first stage are put into practice and revealed respectively. The final stage, autonomous, the child will be flexible in manipulating the skills she has acquired. In addition to that new skills from the child will be manifested. 7.3 Transfer of skills The instructor is endowed with skills requisite for swimming, but the child is challenged in performing the task. Transfer of those skills to the child is the responsibility of the instructor. However, dispensing the skills is not a walk in the park and the trainer need to know how to handle the child while training. It is advisable to train the child on the basics first before letting them perform complex skills like butterfly stroke. 7.4 Augmented feedback Augmented feedback is only generated after an action has already been executed. It is from the action that that the information can be assessed to determine the level of performance of the participants. In this case, teaching a child how to swim will require observing the movement the child performs. From the movement is when solution on how to enhance the performance can be decided by the trainer. Terminal feedback will provide results for the entire skills used by the child during swimming. 7.5 Attention focus A Participant is required to pay close attention on the skills being practiced by the instructor during training session. External focus is controlled fully by outside factors outside as opposed to internal focus where the instructor will swim along with the child. The child will have to grasp the technique the trainer demonstrates as he stands beside the pool the water. This is an example of external focus because the trainer will set an example for the child. 8.0 Problem Statement The training will be carried on a child of 8 years old, it will be expected that after four sessions the child will be able to swim on his/her own. 8.1 Hypothesis After training the child, for the first two sessions the child should have shown progress in swimming. The hypothesis will be tested to determine its achievability. 8.2Method To ensure the hypothesis and the problem for the training of child are achieved; it will require the use of participant, equipment, and protocols. 8.3 Participant The age of the child to be trained will be eight years. This age is when the child mind is still active and eager to know new thing and complexity surrounding it (“Swimming manifesto calls for every child to have lessons.”, 2012, pg 60). The child will be of male gender, with a height of fifty-five inches and weigh twenty-six kilograms. The child is medically fit and is not under any medication that can affect his swimming capability or swimming affect his health. 8.4 Equipment for the training First the safety of the child is of paramount important, and each child is expected to have all gears requisite for swimming before allowed for training. The equipment to be used by the trainer is to measure the performance of the child during the swimming exercise. The following are the equipment the trainer will have: 1. Stopwatch- to measure the time a kid uses to complete a lap of swimming. 2. Camera- will be used to record the movement of the child while swimming. Reviewing the clip will show the weakness of the child and the trainer will capitalize on that. The following will be used by the child 1. Goggles- To prevent irritation of the child’s eye while being trained. 2. Kickboard- it will be used to enhance the ability of the child in kicking the water more vigorously. 3. Swimwear (costume)-Will facilitate moving in water, because of its anti-absorptive feature. Other apparel absorbs water and this makes the child to gain weight. 8.5 Protocol The training will have five sessions, but at the end of the second session the child should manifest the capability of swimming freely. The trainer will monitor the child swimming progress till the fourth session. The fifth session will be an evaluation of the capacity of each child in swimming. 8.6 Content of each session First session- The child will have been taught the theory part of the basic skills, but the practical approach is vital. The trainer will ensure the child know how to control their breathing while swimming. Swimming mechanism should now be implemented by the child. The session will be long and will take approximately four hours inclusive of breaks. Second session- The instructor will have monitored the performance of the child on the basic skills. Once the instructor is satisfied the child will be allowed to start the second session, which will be basically training on different swimming strokes. The stroke for this session will be freestyle. The session will last for three hours under the supervision of the trainer. Third session- At the end of the second session, the child should be able to demonstrate the capability to swim freely. The instructor will introduce new swimming stroke to the child. To be specific, in this session the child are expected to learn backstroke. The session will also last three hours. The sessions are arranged from simple skills to complex because it is believed that complex tasks are made easy if they are preceded by simple ones. Fourth session- This will be the last session for the child of being trained on new skills. Butterfly stroke will be introduced at this session, and the child will be expected to liaise with their trainer, since the skill is a bit complex (Ryan, 1974, pg 19). The session will last for five hours inclusive of breaks. Fifth session – The child’s skills will be evaluated using different equipment. How flexible a child is in applying the different skills will be determined in this session. This session the trainer will just watch how the child is swimming; no more skills will be imparted to the child. A point to note is that the training sessions will not take place on a single day, rather each day will have its session. A child is not supposed to be in cold water for a long time since it might impact negatively on their health status (Ryan, 1974, pg 15). 8.7 Performance Variable At the end of the training session the performance of the child at for the different skills will be analyzed. The following variable will be used. Mean- The average time in each category a child spends to finish a single session. In this case, the category that uses less average time will be considered as easy to learn and flexible in performing different skills. Correlation- Correlation analysis between the skills in practice and the time consumed to complete a lap will be conducted. From the analysis relationship between the two variables, that is time and skill will be determined. A value of +1 indicates perfect positive correlation while -1 indicates a perfect negative correlation. Zero indicates no correlation between the skills and time spent. 9.0 Results Results for various skills performance Code number for skill No. of laps Errors Average time taken to complete 14 meters Successful laps performance 1 Basic skills 15 6 5.6 Minutes 9 (9/15)*100= 60% 2 Freestyle stroke 15 3 5.1 Minutes 12 12/15*100= 80% 3 Backstroke 15 7 6.7 8 8/15*100= 53.3% 4 Butterfly stroke 18 7 7.2 11 11/18*100= 61.1% Overall performance (61.1+53.3+80+60)/4 ; 254.4/4=63.6% 9.1 Qualitative Description of technique; Movement of the child in the various sessions (techniques) he was engaged in generally is good. However, for the backstroke and butterfly the child performance and movement was not that admirable. The child confused how the arms and legs were supposed to move, in some cases the legs in the butterfly were spread which is not supposed to happen. When performing backstroke, the child turned himself and start using freestyle stroke. The movement of the arms and legs during the freestyle stroke was fabulous. To enhance the child’s capability in using backstroke and butterfly stroke, the child will have to see other swimmers using the two strokes. Since the strokes require much energy short distance is recommended and increased as the child shows improvement. Quantitative results; Speed of the child in each style he engages can be identified by calculating (distance/time). The technique which has the highest recorded speed of meters/ minute will reveal how efficient the child was in coordinating his movement in the water. For instance the speed for backstroke technique can be identified by (2*14)/6.7= 4.2meters/minute. So in one minute the child was able to move 4.3 meters. 9.2 Interpretation of the results The graphs presented in the analysis above pinpoints the performance of child during the training sessions. The first session the child committed numerous errors because it was the first time in swimming and it is expected. The child did manage to score sixty percent from the first skill training which is above average. The second skill became little easy for the child because it entailed used of basic skills only. The time spent by the child to complete a single lap reduced by 9 percent, which is a great performance. Backstroke and freestyle stroke are more complex, it is evidenced in the child performance, which were below the average performance (63.6%). Errors committed by the child were low for the first two skills but increased for backstroke and freestyle stoke. In addition to that the child spent much time on the two skills to complete a single lap. This is because the skills requires much coordination of muscles, which drained much energy of the child 9.3 Limitations of the protocol The first session can be regarded as the pillar for the other session. The session laid foundation for the development of the other skills when training the child. Teaching the child basic skills made learning of the other skills (backstroke and butterfly) a bit easier than if it was not included. Weakness of the protocol was manifested on the length of the pool which was constant throughout the training. The child gets fatigue faster especially when employing vigorous skills. The next training for a child will require reduction of the swimming lap need to swim. For freestyle and basic twenty-eight meters is recommended, but when it comes to the complex skills a fourteen meters will be advisable. The length will be increased as the child shows improvement as far as time is concerned. A session to introduce the child to a swimming pool for visualizing skills used in swimming will prepare him psychologically of what is expected from him. Even with the shortcomings the protocol was able to deliver the goal of training a child swimming. 10. References Costill, D., & Maglischo, E. 1992. Swimming. Boston: Blackwell Scientific Publications ;. Counts, C. 1991. The effect of swim training on plasma somatomedin-C levels in 8- to 10-year-old children. Greetham, B. 2010. Thinking skills for professionals. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Raatma, L. 1999. Safety at the swimming pool. Mankato, Minn.: Bridgestone Books. Ryan, F. 1974. Backstroke swimming. New York: Viking Press. Ryan, F. 1974. Butterfly swimming. New York: Viking Press. Schmidt, R. 1991. Motor learning & performance: From principles to practice. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics Books. Swimming manifesto calls for every child to have lessons. 2012. Nursing Children and Young People, 5-5. Thomas, D., & Thomas, D. 1990. Advanced swimming: Steps to success. Champaign, Ill.: Leisure Press. Wulf, G., & Shea, C. n.d.. Principles derived from the study of simple skills do not generalize to complex skill learning. 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