Core aquatic skills are the essential abilities that allow individuals to stay safe, float, and move confidently in water while preparing for swimming.

The Importance of Core Aquatic Skills

Core aquatic skills form the foundation for safe swimming, water confidence, and progression to advanced techniques. They are typically taught through fun, age-appropriate activities, often using games or themed characters to engage children and encourage practice. Mastery of these skills ensures that learners can enjoy water activities safely while preparing for more advanced swimming and lifesaving skills.

These range from 

• Entries and exits
• Bouyancy and Floating
• Rotation
• Submersion
• Aquatic Breathing and Breathing Control
• Streamlining
• Travel – including early paddle stroke

Safe Water Entry and Exit: It is fundamental to learn how to enter and exit the water safely using steps, pool edges, or ladders to prevent accidents and build confidence (Pip the Polar Bear is Swim England's character to give children a picture to follow). 

Breathing Control: Proper breathing techniques, including putting the face in water, blowing bubbles, and coordinating inhalation and exhalation, help swimmers stay calm and avoid fatigue (Haley the Hippo helps demonstrate this). 

Buoyancy and Floating: Understanding how to float on the back or front, maintain balance, and adjust body position in water is crucial for safety and stroke development (Piper the Penguin shows us how to do it).

Push and Glide / Streamlining: Practising streamlined push-offs from the pool wall and gliding through the water helps to develop efficient movement and body alignment.

Travel Techniques: Learning to move forward, backward, and rotate in water using different strokes and kicks enhances coordination and confidence.

Stroke Introduction: Once basic skills are mastered, children can begin learning basic stroke techniques, including arm movements and leg kicks, gradually progressing to all four competitive strokes. 

Rotation and Coordination: Rotating from front to back and back to front and performing 360-degree turns in water improves spatial awareness and control. 

Water Confidence and Safety Awareness: Developing comfort in water, understanding hazards, and practicing safe behaviours are overarching goals that support all other skills. 

Aquatic Skills 

Skills such as treading water, surface dives (which fall under submersion/inversion and aquatic breathing), and sculling are all aquatic skills that combine one or more techniques to create a new swimmer's skill.