Tips on improving swimming confidence

Rebecca Adlington, double Olympic Gold Medallist, is passionate about getting more people swimming which is why she is the face of Speedo’s Learn to Swim campaign. Here she shares her top tips on developing your child’s confidence, technique and enjoyment of being in the water.

• Introduce your baby to the water at an early age. Babies and children who have taken swimming classes have been shown to do better in gripping, reaching and balance tests than those who haven’t. Making water fun is really important so splash and play with toys in the bath to help water confidence.
• As your child starts to progress with swimming, Speedo’s Sea Squad Floatsuit and Back Float are great for this transition stage. As your child becomes more confident in the water you can gradually remove layers of foam as they become less reliant on the equipment and more reliant on their own abilities.
• It’s important to encourage your child to be adventurous in the water and the best way to do this is by making it fun! Speedo has a colourful
  range of games and toys including dive rings and water balls to get them excited about swimming under water.
• Speedo’s Sea Squad Mini Kick is great for helping develop breathing and kicking technique. There’s a lot for kids to concentrate on when they first start learning so by using a kickboard they have one less thing to worry about!

Babies and children must be supervised at all times whilst in water.