Swimming Tips

Posts Tagged ‘Learning’

Backstroke, Freestyle Front Crawl etc. theres a couple more?

Brianna is just starting to learn to dive. Preparing for some competitive swimming in the future.

Learning to swim gives children and adults a skill that can protect them from accidental drowning; it can literally save lives.  What’s more, you only have to learn to swim once to have a whole lifetime’s protection; it’s like riding a bike – you never forget how to do it.

Of course, on a lighter note, when you learn to swim, you can also benefit in many other ways:

• Swimming is a brilliant way to keep fit

• It opens the door to other water sports like snorkelling, scuba diving, canoeing and water skiing, etc

• Swimming is a requirement for some professions

• It’s a lot of fun!

So whichever way you look at it, the best time to learn to swim is as soon as you can!

When can a baby learn to swim?

Babies do not have the co-ordination to actually swim properly until they are two or three years old, but early baby swimming lessons (from about four months old) can teach babies to enjoy being in the water, and to feel confident and relaxed about it – and that’s a fantastic start! Children as young as two and three can learn to swim underwater and learn to be safe around water.

Time spent together in the water is also an excellent way to develop the level of bonding, trust and communication between a young child and the parent.

To prevent accidents in the pool, special swim nappies are available for babies and toddlers who are not yet potty trained.

The best way for children to learn to swim

Learning to swim doesn’t just ‘come naturally’ to most children – they need support to build up their confidence in the water and different children progress at different speeds. No child should ever be pushed beyond his or her level of confidence in the water; apart from being unkind, it can have long term effects. Many a swim-phobic adult still remembers being thrown in the deep end as a child.

Supportive swimming lessons with a certified instructor can ensure that your child:

• develops a healthy relationship with the water

• learns correct swimming techniques

• is aware of water safety.

When choosing a swim school for your child, make sure the approach is about providing motivation without pressure – and having fun!

Is it too late to learn to swim as an adult?

Not at all. Adults who have never learned to swim can attend lessons and develop their swimming skills at any time of life. Many adults simply never had the opportunity to learn to swim whilst younger.

In many cases, people choose to learn to swim as adults because they feel that although they can swim ‘after a fashion’, they would like to learn to swim properly. Lessons with a qualified instructor or swimming school can teach correct technique and enable you to get the maximum possible benefit out of swimming as a form of exercise.

For some people, the idea of learning to swim as an adult is quite frightening. They may feel anxious about coming to swimming at a late stage. Or they may actually have avoidedlearning to swim for so long because they have a fear of the water. Such fears can almost always be overcome in a supportive environment.

How to overcome fear of swimming

For many people, the fear of swimming has arisen out of a specific frightening experience of near-drowning as a child. For others, the fear is more general – they may see the water as an unfamiliar element where they feel out of control. Many people are scared to put their face in the water or to breathe out whilst under water.

For anyone who has a fear of swimming, one-to-one private tuition is likely to be the most effective approach to learning to swim. And with the right support, it is usually possible for most people to overcome fear of swimming.

The first step is to build confidence and relaxation in the water, using gentle floating techniques, working at each person’s individual pace, and making sure there is no sense of pressure. Once a person is feeling confident about being in the water and able to manage floating face down in the water, it’s possible to begin teaching some formal swimming skills.

Whether you are thinking about learning to swim yourself, or want your child to learn to swim, it’s a skill that will last a lifetime and bring years of enjoyment!

Well I’ve finally done it. In a previous article I wrote about my lifelong ambition to go scuba diving and two weeks ago I found myself 12 metres down playing ‘tag’ with a lizard fish.

In case you didn’t read the earlier article, I’m a 44 year old, somewhat overweight but basically fit man who has a lingering fear of the water but who has wanted to Scuba Dive since watching Jacques Cousteau on TV as a small child. My plan had been to get trained in this country and then do my first dive abroad under the PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) scheme where you can split your training across dive centres. Circumstances overtook me and it didn’t happen that way at all.

Three weeks ago my partner and I had the opportunity to jet off to Gran Canaria for a short break and to my simultaneous delight and horror, I discovered the Cordial Mogan Playa (the hotel we were staying at) had recently opened a dive centre in the grounds. Years ago, my daughter (then 10 and a strong swimmer from all the lessons I took her to) taught me to swim at a local pool, simply by saying “go on daddy, just push off and swim.” The idea of my daughter watching me wimp out overcame my lifelong fear of the water so I pushed off and, to my astonishment, I discovered I could actually swim (by which I mean not drown too much)! In a similar way, finding a dive school on my doorstep with five days of no excuses and an expectant partner raising her eyebrow at me, I had little choice but to take the plunge so I found myself in the dive centre booking up for an introductory session.

This centre (part of the Extra Divers group) offered SSI (Scuba Schools International) courses rather than the PADI courses I had previously looked at but the basic pattern of training looked much the same and I had heard of SSI before, so I booked up for the half-day “Try Scuba Diving” course at a cost of the equivalent of about 60 GBP.

My instructor for the course was Carlos who had excellent English (I try but my Spanish goes not much beyond ordering coffee). Reassuringly, Carlos turned out to be an ex-military diving instructor and local expert on dive safety, so I knew I was in good hands.

The first part of the course was classroom based and one-to-one, where Carlos taught me about basic techniques and safety issues such as pressure equalisation, illustrating its importance by running through the calculations based on bars and depth in metres. He did a wonderful job of tying the theory to practice by letting me calculate the sort of thing that would happen to my ear drums if I dived to 20 metres without equalising as well as what would happen to my lungs if I surfaced from 20 metres while holding my breath (in both cases, the short answer is “bang!”).

From there we moved into the pool and, suitably kitted out, I got my first taste of breathing underwater. Apart from the exercises (mask clearing, retrieving a dropped regulator, and basic buoyancy control) I can’t describe the thrill of my first go at diving. Initially, like most first timers, my concentration was on breathing but I soon learned to trust the equipment and switch over to thinking about how my lung inflation was affecting my buoyancy and using this to make brief buoyancy corrections while adjusting the inflation of my BCD (buoyancy control device or “jacket” as Carlos called it). On about the third go round I was able to swim round the deep end of the pool holding a steady 2-3 feet from the bottom and could switch over to thinking about how I was using the fins. Carlos had pointed out that the aim is to use leisurely rather than frantic effort to conserve air, so I slowed down my finning speed, straightened out my legs and found myself smoothly cruising through the water and able to look around. This was the moment when it hit me that I was finally doing it – I was scuba diving, looking up at the underside of swimmers and motoring along with a level of comfort that, while I could not afford to be arrogant or lax, allowed me to feel that I was here, I was doing it and this was my space to explore.

The final part of training was a dive in the sea and for this we were joined by a couple of excited school girls from Germany doing their next level of training. We drove round to Amadores beach at Puerto Rico on the South-West coast of Gran Canaria, a popular crescent-shaped beach in a cove protected by two rocky jetties. Getting kitted up provided the opportunity for another lesson in equipment and safety checks (I must remember to lie my cylinder back down after connecting the regulator), then Carlos took us through the hand signals for the dive and finished by jokingly telling us he would permit “no mistakes” as we were diving in front of a rival dive school here. Walking down to the beach through the crowd of sunbathers was a thrill, as heads turned towards us and I could almost hear the thoughts of “damn, wish that was me” that were behind some of the envious glances.

I must confess I was a little clumsy both at getting into and out of the water, in fact I trod on my own flipper on the way out and fell over into the surf, but Carlos tells me this is not unusual and you get less clumsy with practice, so I guess this was a forgivable mistake. Entry to the water was from the beach and initially the water was so cloudy with sand that I had to hang on to Carlos’ BCD to make sure I didn’t get lost. Once we were in, though, all I can really say is wow!

We worked our way down the stepped sand banks, dotted with eroded volcanic rocks, to a depth of about 12 metres. While he kept checking on me and included me in the underwater exercises (more mask clearing and regulator retrieval), Carlos’ main concern was to keep an eye on the children and this left me free to explore while keeping close by. We swam gradually deeper until I had my first aquatic encounter, which was with a lizard fish. I hadn’t noticed it until I was about 2 feet away, when it startled from its almost buried or well camouflaged position in the sand. It darted a few feet ahead and as this was on our course I kept on swimming. This turned into a magical game of ‘tag’ where I would swim to within a foot or two of the fish and it would dart ahead again. After three of four goes at this, Carlos signalled we were turning to the right so I had to leave my gilled friend behind and follow along.

This wasn’t my only encounter with the denizens of the deepish. Further along, while going knees down on the sea bed for an exercise I managed to disturb a hidden flatfish that made me jump. Later, as we were in the deepest part of the dive, Carlos found a couple of cute little cuttlefish, one of which seemed quite happy to hover above his outstretched hand as the girls tickled it. I am not sure how long we were down, enough to exhaust my tank down to 110 bars before we turned back to the beach, but it felt like an age. Hanging on to Carlos’ BCD once again, we ascended through the submerged sand storm and arrived back at almost exactly the spot from which we had entered. Flippers off and out of the water, I may have felt good coming down the beach but going back up I felt on top of the world – I had finally done it – I might still have a lot to learn but I could at last say I had been scuba diving.

Of course scuba divers need to know how to look after their gear so once we returned to the dive school, the final part of my lesson was rinsing off and packing away the gear I had used before saying goodbye to the girls and thanking Carlos for his encouragement, training and stewardship. He’s an excellent instructor and I cannot recommend him highly enough.

Experienced divers would no doubt be completely unimpressed by what this dive offered but I’ve heard before that you never forget your first dive and I would have to go along with this. This first dive gave me the opportunity to enjoy the richness, thrill and feelings of freedom and achievement that you get when exploring the undersea world. Since then I’ve read a few dive magazines and seen the amazing sights and experiences on offer throughout the world on reefs and wrecks. Because of the SSI web registration system, I can continue my training at any SSI dive center in the world so I don’t know where my next dive will be. What I can tell is that there will definitely be a next dive, and soon. Scuba diving is everything I expected it to be and more, and no matter what happens next I am sure I will never forget the thrill of that wonderful first dive.

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Going by the number of people who mention it among their key hobbies, swimming is certainly a popular undertaking in many places all over the world. The popularity of swimming among human beings is remarkable, keeping in mind that man is not amphibian by nature, and swimming is an activity we are not very well adapted for evolutionary. Yet through persistence and focused exercise, there are people who have been able to perfect swimming into a fine art, and who have in the process developed swimming speeds which make them serious competition for animals that are evolutionary adapted for swimming, at least for short distance swimming sprints.

People who undertake swimming can be seen as falling into two major categories.

The first category of swimming enthusiasts is made up of people who undertake swimming for recreational purposes, and this is the bigger of the two swimming categories. It is the people in this category who list swimming as their hobby. People who undertake swimming for recreational purposes vary from those who do it regularly as a part of their daily routine (like those who must take a dip in their home swimming pools before leaving for work) to those who undertake it only occasionally, like when they happen to visit a club with a swimming pool or when they happen to be visiting a coastal town.

The second category on the other hand is made up of people who undertake swimming for occupational purposes. These are people who make their livelihood wholly from swimming. Among the prominent groups of people in this category are swimming instructors (whose ranks are swelling by the day as more and more schools start offering swimming lessons to their students) and lifesavers, as the authorities in more and more jurisdictions make it a requirement for every swimming pool and beach where people go to swim to be manned by knowledgeable swimming ‘lifesavers.’

Swimming is of course not without hazards, and it is essential that new people taking it up be aware of them, and take precautions to avoid being victims of the same hazards. These swimming hazards include the risk of drowning in the water, infection through various disease vectors resident in the water and encounter of objects (like stones) in the water one happens to be swimming in, which has in some cases been known to have fatal consequences. And while the hazards of swimming are scary, the truth of the matter is that they can be avoided by consistently observing the relevant precautions which have been developed and perfected through years of experience in swimming.

Learning is an important aspect of everyone’s life and it should continue for the sake of progress and growth. No matter in which field or business you are, unless you are not well educated about your field and are not familiar about the latest things that are going on in the field, you can not make any progress. There are many web sites that provide you with the e-learning course for beginners which is really helpful in making the things clear to the starters and for those who have just entered some field. The online training sessions are considered to be better than the other ones because in the online ones you are saved from the hassle and trouble of going to the school and you can utilize that time of traveling in learning more new things. There are many web sites that offer great courses to the people for the sake of improving their current position and for providing them with great learning solutions. Some of the areas for which you can easily find the online courses include the statistics, accounts, stock exchange and finance etc. You can also find great trainings and online courses for the subject of economics. The economic course can be really helpful for the people who are into the banks or in other financial institutions in order to better judge their current standing. The online economics course is really helpful in making people understand about the different concepts and terms that are used in this field. You can find many online economics courses that are organized in such a way that are suitable not only for the experts and those who have great knowledge in the field but are also intended for those people who are new to this field and are just starting off their careers in this area. There are complete training sessions arranged by the web sites that are interactive and help people out with their problems that are related to the field of economics. Not only economics, but there are numerous other subjects and areas for which the online courses and trainings are available. People can learn about many difficult subjects without any problem because of the efforts and great work done by these web sites. Now it is also possible to learn about the stocks exchanges with the help of the online stock market courses available today. All you need to do is to get yourself listed in some web site and after that you can easily take the lessons for the subject of your desire.

Learning is a great thing and it should continue throughout your life. Learning new things is sometimes not that easy but with the help of the modern techniques and methods, learning has become quite exciting and interesting. You can be in any field and with the help of the e-learning course for beginners it is not difficult to learn about any field. You can now be an expert after taking the online courses and training sessions of the subject of your interest. There are many web sites that offer e-learning courses that are also intended for the starters and beginners. It is for those people who have no prior knowledge in that field and want to learn about these new concepts and terms. There is a long list of the subjects for which the courses and training sessions are available on the internet. All you need to do is to look for any good web site that can provide you the learning material which is related to your field. You can find many different courses such as the economics course, finance course, stock exchange course and many others over the Internet that can be really helpful when you are a beginner and do not know much about these subjects.

There are also different kinds of trainings that make you an expert in that field as you would not only have the theoretical knowledge needed for the course but also you will be familiarized with different tools used in that area. The learning methods are quite simple and so are the enrollment ones. You can easily get yourself into some online school for example the online finance school for learning everything about finance. The ways of learning are very simple and you do not have to waste a lot of your time for going actually to any school as you can gain a lot more knowledge by sitting right in front of your computer. No matter if you are just a beginners and do not know much about this field already, you will get to know about everything as soon as you join some online school, which offers you great training sessions and many online courses so that you can be an expert in this field soon. You only have to search for any good online school and your task would be done. At the end you will be an expert in that field with the help of the online school.

Businesswoman mom gives her kids the learning advantage with the E-dictionary
THE profile of the today’s moms includes duties that go beyond the call of one’s home. A lot of mothers today are also career women – managing their own enterprise or working in the family business with their husband in the hope of providing a better life for the family.

Read more on Malaya

Lord Gautam Buddha was awakened or enlightened under the tree of Pipal or the Bo-tree which is famous for the story of how Prince Siddharth became Lord Buddha. So that particular tree has been famous by the name of BodhiVruksha. Now, that tree also signifies us something other that we don’t often care to understand. We do see the huge setup of the tree but we often forget how deep in the ground the roots of the tree are! Unless the tree grows its roots meters in the ground, it cannot gain the sky catching height we see. That teaches us that to reach heights of knowledge it is absolutely necessary to have roots of basics firm. So learning the basics of any subject will provide you knowledge that will be thorough and long lasting.

As far as Verbal is concerned good knowledge of English is necessary and that doesn’t mean that people, who don’t get on with English language well, won’t do well. Learning the Verbal section with right approach is necessary. Many students have a common misunderstanding that learning wordlists by heart is the only way to score good in verbal sections. I would suggest learning in right approach will make it easier to understand, interesting and long lasting in memory. How many words will you memorize? 300? 400? 500? And how long will you remember them? There are some 4000 words that are commonly used in Spoken-Written English in countries like U.S. and U.K.

The aim for keeping this Verbal section in exams like GRE, GMAT, SAT is that the students should get familiar with the type of language, the variety of words that are commonly used in English speaking countries. Not with the aim of ‘lets see how much can you memorize?’ Ok, You will learn Nouns, then Adjectives, then Verbs-Proverbs and all the parts of speech; so you can tell me that you have learned everything for Verbal section and you are now ready to take on the test. But I will ask you, ‘Have you learnt English?’ The aim of learning often gets sidelined. Then what is the use of learning it? There are techniques of learning. If you follow them the learning will become a merry journey rather than prolonged, boring and unending process.

The way to prepare for Verbal section goes through understanding of construction of the language. Every word that comes before us has been made up with some basic elements like suffix, prefix and the main root or stem of the word. Now, the approach towards learning should be like a Surgeon; you should look to dissect the word in its elements. Try to separate the root of the word and then look for its meaning. Then go for the prefix and suffix that are attached to the root and get what information they provide about the word. This method should be followed for each word that comes before us, that may be in Eveready’s newspaper, in any book or in day to day listening. It’s all about getting it as a habit. Look at a verb- “confine” that means “to restrict”. Now instead of just memorizing it, lets dissect it! ‘con’ is the prefix that signifies ‘within’ and ‘fin’ is the root which tells us ‘limiting something’. The whole word turns out ‘to limit within’ or to say ‘to restrict’. Now lets see word ‘finite’, which is a noun. Look for the root; it is ‘fin’ which now we already know. It says something about ‘limiting’. And the given word is a noun without any prefix. So can the meaning be derived as ‘limited’; yes, that is the step towards getting the meaning.

Students must get the habit to look beyond just the word, the sentences and create awareness about what and how they read, listen or speak. This awareness is more important while preparing for SAT as SAT test have a bit weight on Grammar. Learning the language as a whole will be the better option than trying to memorize the words. Same goes with the writing of essays. Once you get the central idea of what to write, the ideas will start to flow automatically. It’s all about explaining yourself the same topic. Once you convince yourself that you have understood the subject, it will be matter of typing the same matter on the computer screen and the reader will understand it as you have understood it. Nothing makes the joy of understanding something more appreciable than knowing it thoroughly and in right approach. Learn to enjoy the process and then results will follow you.