How to Properly Enter a Pool

How to Properly Enter a Pool

Entering the pool is an often overlooked, yet highly important part of swimming. Without successfully getting in the pool, you can’t enjoy your time in the water. Properly entering the pool, is of greater concern with young children, who can injure themselves or those around them when not paying attention to their surroundings. The following are three correct ways to enter a pool!

Poolside Steps

If you’re not comfortable in the pool or a first-time swimmer, take advantage of the railing and steps that most pools have to help swimmers go in and out of the pool. This is the easiest way to enter the water without an accident.

Sitting Swivel Entry

The sitting swivel is a great way to enter the water from the pool deck. To begin, the swimmer will need to get into a sitting position with their legs hanging into the water. Again, it’s important that the swimmer ensures they can stand in the water once in.

Jumping Entry

As long as all rules are followed, a jumping entry is fine for the confident swimmer. Prior to jumping in the pool, it’s important that swimmers know the depth of the pool relative to their height. Jumping into water that is too shallow can result in injury, so swimmers should mostly only attempt such an entry in the deep end.

Although this may seem overly simplistic, without proper instruction, many new swimmers (especially younger children) can enter the water in a manner that creates an opportunity for injury. Also, teaching proper water entry provides instructors another opportunity to reinforce other important rules, such as no running on the pool decks. These opportunities help to swimmers that are not only competent in the pool but around bodies of water as well.