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Johanna tests the Schlori swimming cushions and Emil demonstrates the most important position for swimming beginners with water wings: »the starfish«
Photo: Verena Töpper / DER SPIEGEL
Booked up.
And not only the afternoon courses in the nearest swimming pool in the next few weeks, but all courses in all Hamburg swimming pools until mid-December.
The Hamburg swimming pool operator Baederland currently lists 56 fully booked seahorse courses.
It doesn't look any better on the website of the German Life Saving Society (DLRG).
Swimming courses for children are currently in short supply throughout Germany.
"We already had long waiting lists before the corona pandemic, then the swimming pools were closed," complained Manuel Friedrich, President of the DLRG Bayern in the SPIEGEL video interview.
So what to do?
Clearly: teach the child to swim in the summer – or at least lay the foundations for it.
So off to the pool!
My daughter Lara is almost four years old, my girlfriend's little daughter is exactly one year older.
We have a common goal, but even before we get into the water, the discussion begins: doesn't Lara have any water wings?
Yes she has.
But she hates them.
Too tight, too uncomfortable, "totally stupid," as she puts it.
I watch enviously as my friend's almost five-year-old girl splashes happily with her water wings while I have to hold my daughter in the water all the time.
I look around the pool: there are children with life belts and life jackets, with pool rings and arm bands in all shapes and colors.
Only my daughter has no equipment.
I feel bad and do an internet search at home.
Amazon alone has more than a thousand results ready for the search term »Swimming aid for children«.
Which one should I take?
When I was in the office reporting that I was overwhelmed, a colleague drew my attention to an article she had just read in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”.
It talks about shark fins made of foam, with which more and more children in England, the USA and Australia are said to be learning to swim.
There they are "a few arm's lengths ahead" of us Germans.
Now I want to know more about it and arrange a swimming aid test with Katja Kabisch, head of training at the DLRG-Landesverband Hamburg eV.
The testers
Ella, 4, Emil, 4, and Johanna, 7. All three have at least one parent who works voluntarily as a swimming instructor for the DLRG and is allowed to take swimming badges.
Although Ella is only four years old and seahorse courses are usually only intended for children from the age of five, she can already swim and dive perfectly.
Emil and Johanna are very confident in the water, but are still practicing swimming.
The three of them tested these swimming aids
Beco Sealife life jacket Easy Fit
Swimtrainer »Classic« orange with swimming board
Beco swimming belt 5 pads
Flipper SwimSafe armbands
Shark Fin SwimFin
Schlori swimming pillow
This is how we tested
We meet on a Wednesday afternoon at the Rahlstedt family pool in Hamburg.
The DLRG offers a seahorse course there.
Ella, Emil and Johanna share the course pool with the children from the regular swimming course.
There are several swimming instructors and training assistants from the DLRG who monitor the test in the water and at the edge of the pool.
The children can decide for themselves which swimming aids they want to test.
Beco Sealife life jacket Easy Fit
According to the manufacturer, this life jacket is particularly suitable for learning to swim, "since the natural movement sequences are not impeded".
This seems plausible at first: Unlike armbands, with which children can hardly move their arms, they can move them freely with them - at least in theory.
Because in the water you can see: Emil's vest immediately slides up and gets stuck under his chin.
Lashing everything down doesn't help, the vest keeps slipping up.
It floats like a cork in the water and doesn't even get into the swimming position.
So he quickly loses interest.
And DLRG training manager Katja Kabisch is not very enthusiastic either: "The vest falsifies the feeling of water".
Kabisch lists the basic skills children need to learn before they can swim: breathing out in the water, floating and drifting, gliding and diving, and jumping into the water.
"It's hard to breathe out into the water with the vest on," she says.
"And diving isn't even possible with it."
In their opinion, the vest is therefore completely unsuitable for learning to swim.
According to the manufacturer intended for:
Two to six years, 15 to 30 kilograms
Swimtrainer Classic with swimming board
I have often seen babies paddling around in the Swimtrainer swimming rings.
In fact, they come in three sizes and colors: red for babies, orange for two to six year olds, and yellow for four to eight year olds.
The manufacturer promises »an optimal swimming position in the water«.
The swimming rings are open at the back, have inflatable padding and shoulder straps on the inside.
This is to prevent the children from slipping through the tires or tipping forward.
The tire was invented by Fred Warmuth, a sports teacher from Augsburg.
His daughter and her family turned it into the international brand »Freds Swim Academy«.
The special feature: They offer online swimming courses that match the tires, with which parents can teach their children to swim step by step.
The three test children initially had little desire for the swimming ring.
Ella and Emil then agree to the test.
The adults have to read the instructions for use several times to find out how to put on the ring.
Putting it on is not as intuitive as with the life jacket.
Ella then happily paddles around in the water, but the straps slip quickly.
And DLRG swimming instructor Katja Kabisch is skeptical anyway: If the children in the strapped-on swimming ring should tip over and land upside down in the water, they would not be able to get up on their own.
The short video with which the manufacturer advertises the online swimming courses does not convince them either.
The wide leg kick shown there is now an outdated technique, she says.
After all, she thinks the little swimming board is great.
According to the manufacturer suitable for:
Four to six years, 15 to 30 kilograms
Beco swimming belt 5 pads
The swimming belt consists of five individual foam blocks that are threaded like a chain and form a puzzle.
The children like it, all three want to try it, but the buoyancy of the belt is far too strong for all of them - they can't even get into a swimming position.
Katja Kabisch quickly removes three of the five foam pieces.
With the remaining two, swimming works fine.
The manufacturer himself did not plan to remove individual parts.
The later rethreading of the removed foam parts is then also difficult - we finally manage it with the handle of a fly swatter, which we use as an oversized needle.
Kabisch finds it positive that the foam parts can be worn on the back as well as on the stomach.
But as with the life jacket, the belt also slips easily and breathing out in the water or even diving cannot be practiced with it.
According to the manufacturer, suitable for:
Two to six years, 15 to 30 kilograms
Flipper SwimSafe armbands
Unlike conventional armbands, which are only inflated with air, the Flipper SwimSafe armbands have a PE foam core with an air chamber around it.
This is inflated on the arm as usual.
Emil declares the arm bands to be his favourite.
Of all the swimming aids in the test, he wears them the longest and thus also manages the »starfish«, which, according to Katja Kabisch, is the most important exercise for swimming beginners: the children float on their backs with outstretched arms and legs.
"That's the first thing children should learn," says Kabisch.
"In this position, children can hold themselves to the surface of the water even if they can't swim yet."
My daughter Lara, who has consistently refused all armbands up to now, is also quite happy with the flipper armbands.
Nevertheless, Kabisch advises against the purchase: "They convey a false sense of security."
Ella demonstrates what she means: When she jumps from the edge of the pool into the water, the swimming tires slip down from her upper arm to her wrist when they hit the water - suddenly she no longer has any buoyancy aid.
Because the four-year-old is already a practiced swimmer, she can laugh about it.
Other children, including my daughter, would probably panic quickly in this situation.
According to the manufacturer, suitable for:
children with an arm circumference of at least 13.5 centimeters, one to six years
Shark Fin SwimFin
The dorsal fin is a real eye-catcher and Ella, Emil and Johanna's favorite right after unpacking.
Sure, who wouldn't want to dress up as a shark?
The approximately 27 centimeter large fin made of EVA foam is strapped to the back with two adjustable straps with Velcro fasteners, so when you swim it looks like a shark is swimming towards you.
The manufacturer promises complete freedom of movement and “a comfortable swimming position”.
In fact, the children lie deep in the water with their fins and can easily dip their heads under - a great advantage over the arm bands, life jacket and life belt.
However, Emil is quickly disappointed – the buoyancy of the dorsal fin is not strong enough for him.
Johanna, on the other hand, is completely enthusiastic about the fin.
She swims back and forth in it and doesn't even want to take it off, even though the belt rubs her under the arms.
In fact, the strap is rather stiff and the fabric is much rougher than the fabric of the Schlori swimming cushions, which are also worn on the back.
Nevertheless, Johanna, who in the meantime has favored the swimming cushions, wants the shark fin again in the end.
According to the manufacturer, suitable for:
children from two years, 15 to 30 kilograms
Schlori swimming pillow
A fabric swimming aid without a valve?
At first glance, this seems irritating.
But it works: When wet, the two cotton cushions can be inflated like conventional armbands - you simply blow into the wet fabric.
This takes some getting used to at first and is actually more strenuous than inflating conventional armbands.
"Schlori" stands for "Learn to swim without risk".
The inventor Marga Jenner came up with the name, she was a swimming teacher in Berlin in the 1930s.
The swimming cushions are now sold by their descendants in the second and third generation.
The Schlori swimming cushions are attached to the back with a fabric strap.
For children who first need to get used to the water, they are tied at chest height, for learning to swim at navel height.
The effect is then similar to that of the shark fin: the children are held up in an optimal swimming position.
Johanna is spontaneously even more enthusiastic about the swimming cushions than about the flippers because they are more comfortable to wear.
Some DLRG swimming instructors use the Schlori swimming cushions in their lessons, including Manuel Friedrich, President of the DLRG Bayern.
The advantage: the better the little swimmers get, the more air can be released from the cushions - all you have to do is press the cushions together briefly.
According to the manufacturer, suitable for:
children from two years of age to get used to water and to learn to swim from four years of age, from 11 to 60 kilograms
Conclusion
Johanna doesn't have to think long - her favorite is the shark fin.
Ella also likes them best.
Emil likes the life belt and arm bands best.
And swimming instructor Katja Kabisch?
Of the six swimming aids tested, the shark fin and the Schlori swimming pillow convinced her the best. Third place in her ranking goes to the swimming belt – but she actually finds all six superfluous.
According to the DLRG, there are three steps to learning to swim
area1.
Unfold the water acclimatization
In this phase it is important that the children feel comfortable in the water - in the shower, in the bathtub, in the lake or in the indoor pool.
Trust in the child's caregiver plays a major role here.
When splashing around and playing together, buoyancy aids such as swimming rings or water wings are not necessary - and not recommended either, because they falsify the new movements and the feeling of the water.
Swimming aids such as the swimming belt, the shark fin, but also swimming boards or pool noodles overwhelm children in this phase.
area2.
Expand the development of basic skills
In this phase the children learn to exhale into the water, jump, float and drift ("the starfish"), slide and dive.
This is the basis for later learning to swim.
In this phase, too, the caregivers are in demand, who, for example, playfully practice with the children, first just submerging their mouth, then their nose and finally their whole face.
In this phase, too, no buoyancy aids or swimming aids are necessary.
area3.
Learning to unfold the sequence of movements
In this phase, swimming aids such as the shark fin, the Schlori swimming cushion, swimming boards or pood noodles can be used.
Flotation devices such as armbands or life jackets are not appropriate.
“Buoyancy aids or swimming aids are not necessary to learn to swim,” she says.
»Parents think that nothing can happen to their children, but that is not true.
Children can also drown with armbands or life jackets.
It is far better to teach them the 'starfish' as soon as possible, so that in an emergency they will know how to stay afloat."
Only when the children feel comfortable in the water and have already mastered the basic skills such as hovering, drifting and gliding does it make sense to use swimming aids such as the shark fin or the Schlori swimming cushion to practice the movement of swimming.
But a pool noodle or a swimming board is enough to help.
"You don't have to spend a lot of money to teach a child to swim," says Kabisch.
Swimming boards are available from as little as twelve euros, pool noodles from as little as three euros.
I will take one of these with me the next time I go to the outdoor pool with my friend and her daughter.
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