Why Swim?
The USA Swimming age group swimming program is America’s largest program of guided
fitness activity for children. Age group swimming builds a strong foundation for a lifetime of
good health, by teaching healthy fitness habits.
Physical Development
Swimming is considered the ideal activity for developing muscular and skeletal growth by
many physicians and pediatricians. Why do doctors like it so much?
- Swimming develops high quality aerobic endurance, the most important key to physical
fitness. In other sports an hour of practice may yield as little as 10 minutes of meaningful
exercise. Age group swimming teams use every precious minute of practice time
developing fitness and teaching skills.
- Swimming does a better job in proportional muscular development by using all the
body’s major muscle groups. No other sport does this as well.
- Swimming enhances children’s natural flexibility (at a time when they ordinarily begin to
lose it) by exercising all of their major joints through a full range of motion.
- Swimming helps develop superior coordination because it requires combinations of complex
movements of all parts of the body, enhancing harmonious muscle function, grace,
and fluidity of movement.
- Swimming is the most injury-free of all children’s sports.
- Swimming is a sport that will bring kids fitness and enjoyment for life. Participants in
Master’s Swimming programs are still training and racing well into their 80’s.
Intellectual Competence
In addition to physical development, children can develop greater intellectual competence
by participating in a guided program of physical activity. Learning and using swimming skills
engages the thinking processes. As they learn new techniques, children must develop and
plan movement sequences. They improve by exploring new ideas. They learn that greater
progress results from using their creative talents. Self expression can be just as much
physical as intellectual. Finally their accomplishments in learning and using new skills
contribute to a stronger self image.