Pushing up from the bottom of the pool
In your Level 4 Penguins course, we introduce our very exciting ‘High In The Sky’ skill. This always has a particular wow factor for parents. For this skill, parents take their child to the bottom of the shallow end of the pool so that their child’s feet touch the bottom during a short (3 sec) vertical submersion. Fully assisted by a parent at this stage, they are then encouraged to push against the pool floor in order to come back to the surface.
We have developed this activity for our programme as a fun way to learn this life saving skill. This is particularly useful should they ever accidentally fall into the water or voluntarily jump in.
There are some things to look out for to ensure that you get the most from this skill. For example, sometimes children bring their knees up and don’t make contact with the pool floor, or a parent is too deep to be able to get them fully down. Your teacher will look out for these things and advise how you can overcome them to experience that powerful push from the bottom of the pool. A lot of fun can be had by practising at home. You can encourage your child to bounce on your knees, or the sofa while you hold their hands, making it fun and enjoying those playful giggles. When they are in the pool, they will remember this fun game and will be delighted to jump up and down.
