If there is one isolated skill that seems to be emblematic of a child’s ability to swim, it’s the act of ‘going under the water.’ I get asked this question repeatedly by parents with children as young as 4 or 5 months, on upwards: ‘when do they start going underwater?’

I think, rather unfortunately, that the act of swimming underwater has become associated with a water safe child and that once a child can in fact swim underwater, they have passed that barrier of non-swimmer, so that finally the parent can breathe easier about their child’s safety.

However, I have worked with too many children who can ONLY swim underwater, cannot regulate their breathing properly (my personal gauge for a truly competent and water safe child) and have no stroke ability.

In my practice, we teach swimming in the following stages: 1) comfort, relaxation, breathing, floating 2) breathing, gliding, floating, strokes 3) breathing, strokes, underwater swimming

In actuality, a child needs to know what they are doing on top of the water before you can introduce them to underwater swimming. I know it looks impressive when an 18 month old or a two year old child can hold their breath and swim a few feet to you underwater, but I can assure you, if your child does not learn to breathe properly, they could easily grow up to be one of the adults I often speak to who say things like ‘I would probably like swimming more if I knew how to breathe’ or ‘I never learned how to breathe properly in the water and now I hate swimming.’

I know when you as the parent see your child swimming underwater, holding their breath, you see a child swimming. When I see a child swimming underwater while holding their breath, I immediately think ‘I want to see what that child does on top of the water’ and ‘I want to know that this child can breathe properly or they will run into trouble later on.’

It is tempting to fast track your child’s swim experience because swim lessons spread out over time can be inconvenient, expensive and time consuming. However, the flip side is, in the big picture, it is just a few summers, it is most definitely money well spent if you have a great teacher, and it is a skill set that once learned, will literally last a lifetime and be a lifesaver to your child.

I encourage you to look beyond going under as a sign of water confidence and start to recognize that a child who swims a moderately competent freestyle or breaststroke, while breathing in and out comfortably is well on his way to being a great, water loving swimmer, who just happens to be water safe too!