Ruth Tweedie, Sports Manager for Activity Sheffield, sets out why swimming can help entertain the children, whilst teaching them the importance of water safety.

Learning to swim can be an essential life skill for your child to learn, and Sheffield is well served for excellent swimming facilities, including the Olympic standard pool at Ponds Forge, as well as 12 other pools in the city open to the public.

If you are thinking of taking the family away for a short break, perhaps to a leisure park or abroad, being able to swim will be of great advantage to your children and increase the range of activities they are able to take part in. As one the most popular participation sports in Britain, with nearly 12 million people taking part on regular basis, swimming has many health, safety and social advantages.

Swimming is an excellent way in which people of all ages and fitness-levels can have fun, with the added benefit of being one of the few forms of exercise that improves all-round fitness. As well as exercising all the major muscle groups, swimming helps to keep you heart and lungs healthy, and your joints flexible. The humid conditions at most swimming pools can also help young people with respiratory problems, such as asthma, breathe more easily while swimming.

As a form of exercise, swimming is generally kinder to your body than land-based activities, as the water supports your weight and reduces stress on the joints. This means that it is a good choice for people who want to exercise, but may suffer from muscular pains and arthritis, or have weight problems.

At this time of year, it is important to make children aware of the dangers posed by frozen lakes, ponds and rivers. While it may be very tempting to try your luck and skate across the ice, this presents a very real danger. Over the past 10 years, 20 people have drowned after falling through ice into water while many others have had to be rescued and revived. Drowning is also one of the most common causes of accidental death amongst young people in the UK. 427 people drowned in 2002 (RoSPA), many due to having little, or no, swimming skills.

We want to encourage more people to make use of facilities in the city, and in backing the city’s physical activity campaign, The People’s Movement, we hope that people will take part in the many events planned for the city in 2006.

For more information on swimming in Sheffield, please call the Sheffield City Council Swimming Office on 0114 2788294