Taking place from 3rd Feburary to 9th February 2025, is children’s mental health week! To celebrate, we’re sharing four powerful ways swimming can boost your mental and physical wellbeing. At Cindy’s Swim School, we love all things swimming, and we want you to feel your absolute best in and out of the water.
Four Ways Swimming Boosts Mental Health
Here’s what we’ll cover – click to jump to a section:
1. Build a Sense of Community
Swimming is more than just a sport. It’s a great way to join a community, meet new friends, and build meaningful relationships. At Cindy’s Swim School, we care deeply about our community. We celebrate our swimmers progress thoughtout the year, from cheering small wins during lessons to quarterly celebrations. Our annual gala is a highlight – an opportunity to get together and support each other, encourage friends and family, and get involved in the swimming community.
Swimming can offer a break from academic pressures, and give children an outlet for stress. We know just how important our swimming community has been to each and every one of us. We’ve seen it firsthand: kids arriving at lessons feeling grumpy from their day, but leaving with smiles on their faces after spending time with friends doing something they love.
2. Learn new skills
Learning how to swim boosts mental health in adults and children alike. It raises self esteem, gives a sense of purpose, and connects us with a whole new community of people. Children’s brains are wired to learn new things and mastering a skill like swimming gives a sense of accomplishment and stimulates their minds.
Swimming is a valuable life skill, building independence and autonomy in children. Water safety awareness and learning how to keep each other and ourselves safe is incredibly important. We want parents to have confidence in their children’s abilities and peace of mind when they’re near water. The water is much more fun when everyone is safe.
Swimming is a sport for everyone! At Cindy’s Swim School we welcome kids of all ages and all abilities. We want everyone to love swimming as much as we do and tailor our lessons to each child’s needs. Watching children grow from being nervous beginners in the water to confident swimmers who have mastered breaststroke, diving, and enjoy racing their friends is the one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.
3. Boost Endorphins and Serotonin
Swimming, just like any sport, can supercharge your endorphins and increase your serotonin. What you may not know is swimming is also good for injury prevention, improving flexibility and mobility. This means that you can spend more time doing your favourite sports, and less time recovering from injuries!
Rhythmic activities such as swimming can help with mindfulness and be a form of meditation. It’s low impact and improves your blood flow and breath control. Furthermore, swimming can be used in conjunction with other sports such as football or netball to keep kids strong and healthy, improve stamina, and boost recovery!
4. Achieve Your Goals
Feeling a sense of accomplishment is great for our mental health. At Cindy’s we recognise and celebrate the achievements of all of our swimmers at the end of every term. Our clear framework of lessons gives swimmers measurable goals, no matter where they are in their swimming journey. It’s important to us that everyone learns a lot while enjoying swimming just as much as we do. We pride ourselves in supporting them through every step of their journey.
Our annual gala gives everyone a chance to compete against each other and against themselves from the previous year. It’s the perfect opportunity to chart progress and set goals. Our teachers train for our gala throughout the year too. Kids love to watch their teachers race (although they might be slightly too competitive!).
At Cindy’s the gala is one of our favourite days. We love watching our kids achieve their swimming goals, cheer each other on to win medals and show their new skills to their family.
Swimming lessons at Cindy’s swim school are part of a journey where kids can make friends, build confidence, reduce anxiety, be part of a community and have fun!
If you have any questions about our lessons, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Or if you’ve decided you want to come and join the Cindy’s family, book a class.
