Swimming is sport which primarily relaxes and can also provide an all round body workout. In swimming your child learns the technique of breathing in water and moving across it with agility and speed, thus toning the upper arms, torso and leg muscles. But the first step is to learn swimming which should be done at an early age.

WHAT DO YOU NEED ?
You need to concentrate on 3 areas before swimming. Equipment, Players and Location.

Equipment :
To swim you basically need a good pair of swimming trunks. For boys they should be like briefs and need to be comfortable but not too loose since they should not provide any obstacle to water flow. For a girl the swimming suits come in one piece and two pieces and should follow the same fit as that of boys.

Your kids may also need a pair of goggles to keep the water out of their eyes. Chlorine in the pool tends to irritate the eyes and make them red. Goggles are the perfect way to circumvent that problem and your child will also be able to see clearly in the water while swimming.

When your child is learning how to swim a pair of floats would come in handy. They are basically cork based or inflated tubes that go around the arm or the waist and help keep the body afloat. They help to build your child's confidence and after a while they won't need them as a crutch.

Finally a swimming cap would also help your child in the pool. It keeps the hair out of the eyes and is specially helpful for girls.

Players :
There is no minimum or maximum number of players because a race can be between even 2 friends. The objective of swimming is to ascertain who makes the most number of laps in a particular amount of time or who races the fastest.

Location :
For swimming you will also need to find a pool. You should make sure that the pool is clean and is chlorinated to kill germs. At the same time you should ensure that it is not over chlorinated. Because too much chlorine in a pool could be more harmful to your child and is not worth the risk. When your child is starting to learn swimming, a medium sized pool will do just fine. As he develops his strokes you can find a larger or an Olympic sized pool for him to swim in.

LET'S SWIM !

The main effort for your child is to learn swimming. It is not always easy for every child. Some pick it up very fast while others take a while. The trick is to make them comfortable. The more they panic, the more difficulty will they face. Start them off in the shallow and teach them how to free float and basic kicking techniques. Once they get more comfortable you can show them the breast stroke. It is the easiest and the most relaxing.

There are 4 main swimming styles: Breaststroke, Forward Crawl, Butterfly and Backstroke. The forward crawl is the most efficient for water locomotion while butterfly is the most complex as regards body movements. The backstroke is as relaxing as the breaststroke if not more.