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This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions from curious kids like you, and we find interesting people to answer them. Today, we're going somewhere cool to beat the summer heat. Can you jump? Three, two... I recently visited the Upper Valley Aquatic Center, UVAC for short, in White River Junction, Vermont. That's where we went to learn more about swimming and swimmer safety.
Kana Wyman is the swim school director there and she teaches a lot of kids and adults how to swim. On the day I visited, Kana was working with nine-year-old Camilla. How long have you been swimming for?
I've been taking lessons for maybe two years. Do you ever get scared in the water? Sometimes I get scared. I mean, I think everyone does. Camilla is right. It's normal to feel scared. Everyone gets scared sometimes. Camilla told us that in the past, she has been a little afraid of doing things like putting her head in the water.
But learning to swim can help you feel more confident, and it's also a big safety bonus. Knowing how to swim is really important. You don't need to be a master of all the swimming moves, but finding one that you can enjoy will make swimming more fun. Camilla likes the backstroke. Well, it's kind of fun because it's kind of wiggly and wobbly. Kind of like a wiggly version of the back float. Does that help also? Like maybe if you're...
If you're afraid to face in the water, backstroke you don't really have to face in the water, right? So that's kind of how we started when we do swim lesson. Well, you are really not sure if you can face in, but let's learn how to do the back throw so you don't have to face in the water, but still you can learn how to swim. So let's finish up with a backstroke and then we can end.
Camilla says learning these skills has given her a lot of confidence. What I really like about swimming, it's just like the natural feeling, you know, because I feel like when you swim, it's like a totally different place. It's almost like a slow motion and like everything's just calm. Before I asked Kana your swimming questions, I wanted to get a few tips myself, so I hopped into the pool once Camilla was done with her lesson.
So we're in the pool right now. Could you show me, if I've never learned how to swim,
What is a good way to start when you're in the water? Just getting comfortable in the water and having your body and sometimes your face in the water. Facing the water is definitely tricky to learn, but you can definitely, if you have a bathtub at home, you can definitely practice or even a little bucket and then put the water in and then you just try to learn how to do inhale, exhale in the water.
So you don't want to hold your breath in the water because you're just going to end up in throat. So you want to learn how to do a nose bubble in the water. So you close your mouth and then let air come out from your nose. It's almost like right out.
So the hum sounds, it really helps to let it out of the air. So that's a first step that you can learn. And if you're not ready to put your eyes underwater, you can just do that with your mouth and nose at first. And do you think you should keep your eyes closed or open in the water? We want it to be your eyes open because you need to be able to see what's going on in the water. You can definitely wear goggles and that definitely will help.
Chlorine is used to help keep pools clean. And those chemicals can make your eyes itchy, so wearing goggles will definitely prevent the water from irritating your eyes. Speaking of pool chemicals, they can also be kind of smelly.
My name is Alec. I'm nine years old. I live in Brooklyn, New York. And my question is, why does pool water smell so bad? You'll often hear people say that pools smell like chlorine. Chlorine is a cleaning chemical used in a lot of pools. But that's not actually what you're smelling when you get a whiff of that distinctive pool scent. You're actually smelling chloramines.
Chloramines are made when chlorine reacts with organic waste like sweat, skin oil, or, yep, we have to say it, pee.
the chlorine itself doesn't really smell. You can help prevent that smell by taking a quick shower to rinse off before you jump in the water, and of course, not peeing in the pool. But while we're on that subject, the idea that the pool water will change color if you pee in it? That's just a myth. Still, it's a good idea to hop out and find a bathroom to help keep your local pool clean for everyone. Sammy?
I am seven years old and I live in Melbourne, Australia. And my question is, why do people float in the water? Technically, you float because you're less dense than the water, but only slightly. We made a whole episode about how boats float that you might want to go back and listen to, where we explain buoyancy and water displacement and density and all that good stuff.
For this episode, I wanted a little help from Kana to understand how we can float, what we need to do with our bodies to stay comfortably bobbing up on top.
Sometimes when you're floating, your face is out of the water and maybe your shoulders are resting on the top of the water, but then your legs start to sink down and down and down and then you're sort of almost standing in the water with just your head out. How do you float so that the tips of your toes are out of the water and maybe the tops of your knees and maybe your belly button? How do you get your whole body to float?
Yeah, technically, if your ears are in the water and if your head, you know, half of your head is under the water, you can float even your legs are down. You can still float even in your vertical position.
So think about you have a string on your belly button connecting, trying to pull up your muscles and trying to pull up all your hip and your belly button. So you just sort of push your belly button up and keep pushing it up to the sky. Yeah, and then you can also use your arms and you can also use your kicking. So the kicking has two parts, kicking down but then kicking up. So that will help you to your body get coming up.
As Kana pointed out, you might not be able to float totally still. You might still need to swirl your arms or legs to keep yourself up. Spreading out your body rather than curling up into a ball can help, as can keeping your lungs as full of air as possible by taking big, slow breaths in and out rather than breathing in and out in a fast, shallow way. Some people have an easier time floating than others, so don't get discouraged if it doesn't come easily to you.
I'm a teenager. I'm two years old. My question is why do babies cry?
Floaties. Babies sometimes wear special gear, what you're calling floaties, Sadie, to help keep them safe when they don't know how to swim very well. And it's not just babies. Kids and adults wear special gear called life jackets or personal flotation devices to make sure we can stay afloat in deep water if we're boating, paddleboarding, tubing, or doing other fun water activities.
One thing that swimming experts like Kana want to make sure your adults are aware of is researching safe flotation devices for kids.
Don't use floaties or water wings as an alternative to learning how to swim because it's really important for kids of all ages, even really young kids, to know how to float so you can be safe in the water if you don't have a floatie or if it pops or breaks. Hello, my name is Grayson. I'm six years old. Why are swimming suits so stretchy?
When we think about bathing suits or bathing costumes, often they're really kind of a stretchy material. Do you know why? Swimsuit or swim cap need to be tight because if it's really baggy, then when you are in the water and then you ended up like a pumpkin and you just have lots of bubbles in the clothes. So it need to be stretching, but it still need to be tight. So that way you can still able to move your body.
Yeah, the nice stretchy tight material when you're trying to swim fast means you are not being dragged by your material. The material is not dragging you down. But of course, people swim in all kinds of things and you should swim in a swimsuit that makes you feel comfortable.
So some people swim in swimsuits that show a lot of their skin and some people swim in swimsuits that show nothing or very little of their skin. So whatever makes you feel comfortable and whatever the adults and the others in your life say, this is what our family does, that's right for you. But generally, the swimsuits are really stretchy and tight so that people who want to swim fast can swim as fast as they possibly can without their clothes slowing them down. Perfect.
Hi, my name is Payton. I'm nine years old and I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And my question is, why do you move slow in water? You know, when you try to run on land, you can run really fast. When you try to run in the water, you can't. Why not? What's happening?
Because in the water it's really high density because all the pressure we have in the water makes you slow down So that's why in the water the most fastest way to move is learn how to swim because you can swim faster
than walking or running in the pool. Right, because not only is there drag, there's all that pressure and then your body is big if you're trying to walk through it, but when you make your body more streamlined, more like an arrow or a dolphin, then you have less friction, less drag, and your body can go fast and sometimes even faster than you could run.
Well, let's get out of the pool because I know you have to clean the pools. And when there are rules at a pool, you have to follow them. And the rule right now is that the pool is closed. So we'll get out of the pool and we'll answer more questions in your office. Does that work? Sounds good. Thank you. Kana and I got out of the pool and showered off and met up in one of the offices so we could tackle more of your questions. Those questions and their answers coming right up.
This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids. I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're learning about swimming with Kana Wyman, swim school director at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, Vermont. One of the things that you were teaching in your swimming lesson was to use your hands like a spoon, not like a fork. When you scoop a big chocolate ice cream, which one you want to choose, the fork or spoon?
Spoon, right? So that's how you scoop the water. Can you scoop? Look at me, Tana. Spoon, big, yeah! So you are kind of using your hands and your arms like flippers or like an oar because that's how you move through the water. You're pushing your body through it.
Yeah, so like one of the lessons today we did for instead of like, you know, your hands like a fork, you put your fingers together and then scooping arms, scooping water so that you push water more than...
slide in the water. That's a technique that you can definitely have and you realize trying in water, oh, this is you pushing and then, oh, now you can try to make a wave and pushing through the water and then you can see all the different movement in the water. Why is swimming fun for so many people?
Swimming is so different than any other sports. You can do lots of things that you maybe can't do on land. You know, being in the water is for all the ages I can think about. We have swim lessons at UVAC from six months years old to
90 plus and that is something that I don't see a lot of sports to offer. Well and also you can still be in the water with all different kinds of bodies and you may have a body that uses a wheelchair and you can still be in the water and there are ways to swim or float or enjoy the water as you said kind of no matter how old you are and also no matter what your abilities are there are great ways to be able to let
the way the water makes you float be something that you enjoy in whatever kind of body you have. There are so many people that they might not be able to walk on the land, but then when they get in the water and they started to float, they use their arms and, you know, there's no judgment in a pool. And I'm a lady like that. And I really wanted to extend that.
to our swim program as well that to offer a swim lesson for everybody. When and how did you learn how to swim? I grown up in Japan, so most of the school has a swimming pool. As a class, we have to take a swim lesson twice a week. And so everybody actually get learn how to swim during the school time.
That's not true in every country. Do you know statistics about how many people know how to swim in the U.S. or in other countries? In America, 50% of adults have never taken a swim lesson. And I was really shocked because how I've grown up, it's like all the kids who go to elementary school, at least in my area, everybody needed to take a swim lesson. So it's
It's a big difference. The United States doesn't have a swimming requirement in physical education or PE classes. But that doesn't mean you can't take a lesson or learn how to swim. Several years ago, in 2019, Kana took part in something called the world's largest swimming lesson. She taught over 100 swimmers in one day. That's a lot of lessons.
The number of both kids and adults who wanted to learn how to swim in that worldwide free event shows that swimming is not something everyone learns when they're young. For some families, it's just not something the parents or grandparents ever did, so maybe it's not something they've taught you. Or maybe in your culture, swimming isn't as popular, so you haven't learned.
We asked Kana about how to get started if you and your adults find swimming a little intimidating. I totally recommend trying to take a swim lesson. It's never too late. Last session, we had an adult swim lesson who was 82 years old. She was never able to swim, and she was really nervous, but she wanted to try swimming.
I know when you get adult, sometimes it's difficult to try new things where you have already so much fear. Sign up as a ARI if you have a child. You know, kids are already learning quickly how to swim. Remember Camilla, who was taking a swim lesson back at the start of the episode? She told us her favorite stroke is the backstroke. And Kana's favorite move is the breaststroke.
When I was a kid, I loved learning the side stroke because my teacher used to tell me to imagine I was picking apples from high up in a tree and then placing them in a basket. Lots of kids remember how they have been taught in a swim lesson. And for long term, I have students that swim
seven years probably I have been known them but they are still saying like I still draw the rainbow in the sky and you know when they do backstroke or you know those things that they are they're gonna remember forever and I hope that they share with their friends or you know sometimes they share oh I told my parents about this and so yeah it's it's really great.
Hello, my name is Chloe. I'm 10 years old and I'm from Ireland. And my question is, what happens when you have a blocked ear, for example, when you get out of the swimming pool? Swimmer's ear is no fun. It's an infection in the outer ear canal that's caused by having water stay in your ear even after you've gotten out of the water.
That creates a home for bacteria to form. So how do you prevent swimmer's ear? Well, once you get out of the water, be sure to dry your ears well. You can tilt your head side to side and let the water come out, and then gently dry your ears with the edge of your towel. Hydrogen peroxide solution drops can be used to help prevent water from getting trapped in your ear canal too, but you want to ask an adult for help with that.
For some people, it's a really unsettling feeling and a pretty bad memory of days at summer camp. The reason why our producer Kiana Haskin always avoided swimming activities at her local camps, in fact. But that doesn't mean you should avoid them. Hannah Wyman had one other thing she wanted you to know about swimming, and it's all about patience and perseverance.
Swimming is not something that you can learn so quickly. It definitely needs to be patient. But, you know, learning how to write ABC or, you know, same as like math, swimming have to be keep continue. So my goal is here to offer to take a swim lesson for everybody who would like to. So we are waiting for you.
If you're interested in swimming, see if there are any organizations near you that teach lessons. Many places will offer free lessons sometimes to make sure everyone has a chance to learn how to swim. That's it for this episode. Thanks to Kana Wyman and the Upper Valley Aquatic Center for helping us learn some swimming tips. If you have a question about anything, you can send it to us. Have an adult record you asking. It's easy to do on a smartphone using an app like Voice Memos or Voice Recorder.
Be sure to include your first name, where you live, and how old you are. Then your adult can email the file to questions at boatwykids.org. The Boat Why team includes Melody Beaudet, Kiana Haskin, and me, Jane Lindholm. We are produced at Vermont Public and distributed by PRX. Our theme music is by Luke Reynolds. We'll be back in two weeks with an all-new episode. Until then, stay curious. From PRX.
