RESEARCH:
Can You Swim in Waves? Children’s Swimming, Floating, and Entry Skills in Calm and Simulated Unsteady Water Conditions
UNIVERSITY OR ORGANISATION: Human Kinetics Inc
SUBJECT: Aquatic Education, Competence and Swimming
TYPE: Experimental Study
DATE: 2013
Little is known about the transfer of swimming skills from indoor, flat, calm conditions to outdoor, wavy, unsteady conditions. The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in swimming, floating, and entry skills in children between calm and simulated open water conditions. The results show an 8% decrement in performance on the 200 m swim between calm and unsteady conditions for those who completed the 200 m under both conditions. When weaker swimmers, who only completed 50 m of the 200 m test distance were tested, the performance decrement rose to 14%. The diving entry, the rolling entry, and the floating test had decrements of 16%, 21%, and 24%, respectively. We concluded that 11-year- olds should not be expected to reproduce swimming skills they have performed in calm water with the same proficiency in unsteady conditions during an emergency.
COUNTRY
Norway
AUTHORS
Per-Ludvik Kjendlie
Tommy Pedersen
Trine Thoresen
Trond Setlo
Kevin Moran
Robert Keig Stallman
JOURNAL / PUBLICATION
International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education
RESPONDENTS
66 children
11 year olds
Norway
ACTIVITY
Swimming
Swimming lessons
ENVIRONMENT
Ocean
Beaches
Private swimming pools
Public swimming pools
AGE
11
GENDER
Male
Female
ETHNICITY
Norwegian
