A great inspiration and frantic leg movements, webbed feet. Mathis, 8, dives to look for the rings thrown by his lifeguard. The child raises the object, short of breath. Mission accomplished. “The rings are two meters deep,” says Mathis proudly. This is his third private lesson at the Montmorency swimming pool in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, near Caen.
Since May 19, the aquatic center has been busy providing lessons to children who have greatly missed them. “I have never been to the swimming pool with the school,” says Mathis. He should have. But the epidemic has turned this learning upside down. And the delay is felt. Philippine, the lifeguard, confirms this: “The needs are much greater in terms of learning to swim and discovering the aquatic environment”.
However, each summer, there are about 50 accidental drownings in children under 13 years old. The importance of “providing the means” to train children in “safe swimming”, as Audrey Denis, director of the Montmorency swimming pool, emphasizes. “We teach children to be independent in the water, to jump and come back to the edge. “
The establishment has not done in half measures. From July 5, it launched its lesson plan (paying, according to the parents’ family quotient): 200 places for individual sessions, 300 for group lessons, supplemented by 155 places offered by the Marsoins swimming club, which runs locally the free national operation “I learn to swim”.
Know how to swim before the holidays
The enthusiasm was immediate, testifying to a certain awareness of the danger on the part of the families. “In two hours, we have sold almost all the places for the individual sessions,” said Audrey Denis. All niches combined, nearly two-thirds of the places offered to 6-12 year olds found a taker.
Little Mathis understood the issue well: “I’m going on vacation to Brittany with my mom. And I’m going canoeing, so it’s important to know how to swim ”. Dive, put your head under water, kick your arms and legs efficiently… The lifeguards at the Hérouville swimming pool will continue to learn the basics. This training will not prevent parents from exercising constant vigilance from the shore.
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