The Easy Lifesaver

Of all the skills children learn when swimming, back float is by far the most underrated. It seems to be the simplest and the most boring, but from a swim instructor's point of view, it is the difference between swimming and drowning. A current coworker of mine, Marvin, told me a story that he still remembers after five years. He remembers because if it wasn't for him teaching back float and treading water, he might have never seen one of his students again.

“While teaching an upper level class, I integrated treading water and back float in deep water for about three weeks. One day, a mother of a former student came up to me and told me about a white water rafting trip they took in Wisconsin a few weeks ago. She said that her 10 year old son was going down the river on his raft when it hit a giant rock. He got knocked out of the raft and the rapids took it down the river away from him. Her son surfaced and she noticed he wasn’t wearing a life jacket, which is when the group leader started to go up the river along the side to rescue him. It took five minutes before he could be saved, and the whole time he just treaded water like it was no big deal. She didn’t think the outcome of her son’s accident would have been so fortunate if it wasn’t for me teaching treading water.”

If a child is still too young to learn treading water, a back float is the perfect substitute. It keeps the face out of the water, arms and legs can rest, and the body doesn't have to exert any energy.

Pool Tip: Back Float

If the back float is on a child's list of fears, parents can practice by putting their child's head on their shoulder while the parent sinks to collar-deep water. With one hand on the child's back and the other over their outer ear (to keep water from getting in), the child will begin to relax. When they get comfortable, sing a song such as the “ABCs” or “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” After a couple tries (this could take days, not minutes), parents should slowly ease their arms away from the child's back and ear, then sink lower. This may need some assurance and trust that the parent will not swim away, but this method has worked countless times to ease the fear of allowing water to hold the body.