When to start swimming

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The question is often asked: at what age is it possible to play sports? When should I start swimming? It is not "possible", but "necessary", and not necessarily sports, but physical education. These are different things. And most importantly, you should start when a person is... a few days old. Of course, such crumbs are engaged in physical education not independently. First nurses, and later moms move their legs and arms, but both legs and arms belong to the kids, so you can safely say that gymnastic exercises do them themselves.

They do not argue, because they do not know how to speak yet. And, of course, they can't walk yet. This is where an interesting thing turns out: it turns out that you can not walk, but you can swim. And how!

Infants swim

In the seventies of the twentieth century in the USSR, European countries, Australia, and later in Japan, the United States, England, began to teach infants to swim. Not everyone can, floating on his back, to last long on the water. And the pupil of the German coach Bauermeister lasted 7 minutes and 23 seconds. The baby was brought to the pool in his arms - he could not walk yet, he was 9 months old. But this is not a record. Vanyusha, grandson of the famous movie actor and director Sergei Bondarchuk, began to swim almost from the first days of life.

When he was six months old, he swam in the bathtub for 46 minutes! You can collect a whole book of such examples. In Germany on the issue of teaching swimming infants worked research institute, involving scientists hygienists, biochemists, physiologists, physicians, therapists. The questions considered were:

• whether it is possible to teach infants to swim,
• how beneficial it is for health,
• whether such an activity is advisable.

The results showed that such children are more physically developed, they started to walk earlier, were much less often ill, were more active than their peers, more balanced, had a good appetite.

And how great it is from infancy to be able to dive, swim, stay under water! After all, it's for life. Such children, and later adults, are not afraid to drown, cross a wide river, cross a turbulent stream. By the way, they are not afraid to fall from the bridge into the water.

Ability to swim

Who knows, maybe some of them will be able, like the once famous marathoner Iskander Faizulin, to overcome the sea or river 50 and 100 kilometers. And what service the ability to swim served to our soldiers during the Great Patriotic War!

Let's remember at least the world record holder Leonid Meshkov, who managed, seriously wounded, not only to swim across a wide river, but also to save his comrades. And how many thanks to the ability to swim saved during shipwrecks, how many helped drowning! And most importantly, there are no sick swimmers. They do not know neither flu, nor sore throats, nor colds. In Moscow, among infants who are engaged in swimming, sick five times less than among those who do not swim.

Unfortunately, not all children start swimming at such a young age. It's a pity! It is necessary to realize that the earlier you learn to swim, the healthier, more confident and braver you will be. Of course, in coastal and riverside cities, children are usually accustomed to water early, and there are more swimmers there than in other places.

But now swimming pools have been built in many cities. In addition, in the summer the kids go out of town with kindergartens and pioneer camps, which are almost always located near the water. So it is never too early and never too late to start practicing swimming. Any skill acquired by a person stays with him for life, and so does the ability to swim.

Swimming as a sport has gotten younger in recent years. Many famous swimmers are now very young.