Mom Praise The Benefits of Swimming

It's article about redding mom praise benefits of swimming.

Although many young people grimace at the thought of leaving home on another cold, snowy morning at the school this winter, many local children are already in place for a couple of hours of swimming.

Joel Barlow High Harder Morgan Scarth and Robb Wilton Wilton YMCA Wahoo are part of the national swimming team that practices regularly several mornings a week at 05:15 and practices in the afternoon and Saturday morning. What have these young people to be willing to make such a commitment, when many kids today have difficulty in detaching from the computer screen, even on hot days? A conversation with the mothers in the local swimming provided some answers.

“They love it,” was the general consensus among the mothers. While their children have swum for years, their continued involvement appears to be a combination of not just enjoying the sport but the relationships they have formed along the way.

As Lauri Harder noted, “Swimming is one of the only sports that involves boys and girls together.”

Allison Gurley, mother of two girls who swim for the Wahoos, said, “It has expanded their circle of friends beyond Redding … they aren’t reliant on their school friends to have fun.”

“The kind of kids that are willing to put in that kind of time and effort tend to have pretty strong character, which can contribute to some great relationships,” said Penny Scarth. “Given the amount of time these kids spend together over the year, they have lots of opportunity to get close.”

But a strong social life was not the only benefit these swim moms see for their kids. Scarth noted the obvious physical benefits.

“Swimming is one of the best exercises that there is as it involves upper and lower extremities, excellent cardiovascular conditioning, and is essentially a no impact sport lessening the likelihood of injuries,” she said.

An occupational therapist working in two local school systems, Scarth stated that she sees increasing numbers of children who are in poor physical condition. “Our levels of childhood obesity continued to climb and many children are far less active than they once were,” she said. “One of the disadvantages of living in the suburban area that we do is that kids seemingly need to be driven everywhere to do things, so many end up spending a lot of time sitting at home inactive.”

Scarth, who has taught swimming and worked as a lifeguard, urged parents to get their children in the water early, when they are infants. At that age, they typically have not developed a fear of the water and it is much easier to get them comfortable with it.

Many local pools have “mommy and me classes,” which can be a very fun activity for parents with younger children but will also provide a foundation from which they can learn to swim.

“I think everyone should learn to swim at least well enough to survive in the water if need be,” said Harder. “There continue to be too many drowning accidents that occur because people do not know how to swim. “Teaching your kids to swim and to be comfortable in the water is a gift you give for life.”

Gurley added, “I can pretty much guarantee that at age 80 they probably won’t be fielding a soccer team (although they may prove me wrong), but they will still be in the pool swimming in some way, shape, or form.”

Besides the social and physical benefits, the Redding swim moms cited numerous other ways that swimming has contributed to their children’s lives. “Swimming is such a time commitment that is has taught my daughters great time management skills when it comes to homework,” said Gurley. “My daughters find the practices very meditative and it helps to de-stress them. Also, they are seen by everyone is a swimsuit all of the time, therefore they have really good body self-image, which isn’t always the case with young teenage girls.”

Gurley also values the improved confidence the sport has given her girls. “When they get up on the block to race, it’s like being on a stage. They are not shy about public speaking and can carry themselves with confidence.”

While all three moms stated the sooner you start your kids the better, they also noted that swimming is a sport that kids may get involved in at any point. “It is different from typical team sports in that while you swim for a ‘team’ you still swim for yourself and you create your own destiny,” said Gurley. “There is no letting your team down.”

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