Winter Swimming –It’s Benefits For Football, Netball and Hockey Playing Kids

Autumn and winter are when kids tend to flock to the outdoor courts and fields across Brisbane for the usual cool weather sports. Football in all its codes – soccer, rugby league, rugby union – netball and hockey are the mainstay of so many families, but read on to find out why it’s important in the cooler months to keep kids swimming as well.

Jolts and jars vs swift and smooth

Court and field sports are high impact, especially on children’s growing bodies, while winter swimming is low impact. Running, jumping, side steps, tackling and stopping quickly are all high impact activities. They cause lots of jolts and jars to young, developing bodies.

In contrast, swimming is low impact, there’s much less stress placed on the body. There’s no direct force on kids’ growing bodies as they swim smoothly through the water. This means there is less stress to joints and muscles as kids glide through the water.

Less chance of injury

We all know there is some risk of injury to our kids when they play football, netball or hockey. It comes with the territory, it’s the nature of the games and hopefully it’s only ever minor. From arms and shoulders that can be landed on the wrong way in football, to ankles and knees that can be sprained and strained in netball – both contact and non-contact sports have their problems.

Yet swimming has none of these risks of injury. Continuing winter swimming can help your child maintain their physical exercise and fitness, without the risk of injury. The weightlessness of floating in the water and gliding across the pool can even help if your child does happen to get injured. Winter swimming can also help in injury recovery, giving gentle movement across joints and muscles throughout the whole body.

Skill transfer between sports

Winter swimming also has skills kids can transfer from the pool to the courts and fields. Swimming builds upper body strength through stretching arms that then help propel the kids through the water. This upper body strength then helps kids’ with passing balls, maneuvering hockey sticks and making tackles.

 So you can see, winter swimming has great benefits to the junior sports people in your family. If you happen to have taken a break from swimming, you can recommence at any time – simply give us a call.