Learn to swim, learn life skills!

Mass sports activities in Ho Chi Minh City are more exciting than ever every summer. In particular, learning to swim together has gradually become a popular choice for people, helping to dispel the summer heat and improve their physical fitness and life skills.

Children learn to swim at the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center. Photo: DUNG PHUONG

Enjoy summer

Entering the summer, swimming pools become the ideal destination for many people, especially children. Being able to freely immerse yourself in cool water not only dispels the feeling of heat, but swimming also helps children practice skills, improve physical and mental health. With the mentality of helping children relax after a school year, registering children for swimming lessons is the top choice of many parents.

From early morning, the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center (old Yet Kieu swimming pool, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street, District 1) was bustling with swimming classes for all ages or groups of friends practicing swimming together. After the initial confusion, Ha Thi Phuong Lan (10 years old, living in District 1) excitedly said: "The first day I learned to swim, I was very scared. But now that I know how to swim, I no longer feel afraid of water like before and always look forward to the time when my parents take me to practice with my friends."

Meanwhile, Tran Minh Quan (8 years old, living in Binh Thanh district) shared: “I really like swimming because it helps me a lot to exercise. Compared to the time when I first learned to swim, I feel like I have improved a lot. Now I can dive and swim the breaststroke. In swimming class, I get to meet many new friends and have fun with everyone.”

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong (residing in Binh Thanh district), knowing how to swim is a very necessary skill for children today. “Summer swimming classes are a very useful and meaningful extracurricular activity, helping children to exercise, have good health and most importantly, knowing how to swim is a way to help children keep themselves safe, and can prevent some water-related accidents,” Ms. Lan Huong said.

Mr. Chung Tan Phong, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center, shared that every summer, the demand for swimming lessons is very high, especially for children. The center operates at full capacity from 6am to 8pm every day, with basic and advanced swimming classes. Each lesson usually lasts an hour, with a coach guiding 6-7 students; helping students overcome their fear of water, gain confidence in going into the water, learn to swim and learn safety skills for themselves.

Knowing how to swim is not enough...

Not only focusing on children, the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center also launched swimming teaching programs for adults. Recently, free basic swimming classes have been deployed, starting in phase 1 - for officials, civil servants, and employees of the culture and sports sector, then for the entire city. This is also part of the general plan of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to encourage people to exercise and improve their health.

Children learn to swim at the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center. Photo: DUNG PHUONG

“Over the years, most of us have focused on eliminating swimming blindness for children, but adults have not received adequate attention. While adults (i.e. parents) who know how to swim will have direction and accompany their children in the swimming learning process. Parents are the ones who can set the most effective example and advice for children,” Mr. Chung Tan Phong shared. With the big problem that the State always aims for, which is preventing drowning for the whole population, many experts have pointed out that learning to swim and knowing how to swim is one of the important solutions to solve the problem. However, knowing how to swim is necessary, but not enough!

Mr. Chung Tan Phong added that people are now more interested in learning to swim, but the concept of drowning prevention is still vague. Meanwhile, knowing how to swim does not mean absolute safety, because weather conditions, depth, vortex... of water in reality are very different from conditions in a swimming pool.

According to this expert, many people are learning to swim as a trend, attending a short course of about 1-2 months, thinking they know how to swim and then not maintaining the practice afterwards. Unlike many sports, if we do not practice regularly and give up after a period of time, when we come back we may forget the swimming skills.

“After short swimming courses to help you learn how to swim and get used to the water environment, we should maintain a practice habit or at least once a week is enough. When you have regular contact with water, it will bring many benefits in terms of skills, more confidence, lightness, comfort in the water and better swimming,” Mr. Chung Tan Phong shared.

Swimming happily and healthily with experts

Saying goodbye to her peak competitive career, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien is becoming a source of inspiration in swimming classes, inspiring everyone to swim. In the coming time, Anh Vien will participate in teaching advanced swimming classes on weekdays at the Ho Chi Minh City Aquatic Sports Center, helping students correct their techniques, improve their physical strength and practice more difficult swimming styles. In addition, the advanced swimming classes also have the participation of many former Ho Chi Minh City and national swimmers: Nguyen Kieu Oanh, Le Thi Nga, Nguyen Phuoc Loc...

NGUYEN ANH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/hoc-boi-hoc-ky-nang-song-post798598.html