Page Title

ADVANCEMENT - LEARNING TO SWIM

PERSONNEL: Cubmaster

EQUIPMENT: Safe swim card with awards attached

ARRANGEMENT: Cubmaster in front of the audience

CUBMASTER: This month our theme has been water fun. This is an important topic for us to cover so that we can impress upon our boys and their families the importance of water safety while being able to enjoy the water too. As beginning swimmers, we must pick a safe area to begin our lessons. One of the first things we must learn to do is to put our faces in the water and blow bubbles. Next we learn to hold our breath with our faces in the water. All of these things help us to get used to the water so we will feel comfortable in it. Tonight we have some beginning Cub Scouts who are just getting used to the Cub Scout program. (Call forward the boys who are to receive their Bobcat badges. Present the badges.)

The next thing we learn in swimming is to relax and learn to float. This is helpful not only in learning to swim but also in learning to protect ourselves from drowning. As we learn to float we always have proper supervision so that we are taught the right way to accomplish our tasks. Several Cub Scouts have advanced to the point of being able to float on their own in the Cub Scout Program. (Call forward boys and present Wolf badges)

You can not get very far in the water if the only things you know how to do are to float and to blow bubbles in the water. It is important that we learn the proper way to kick so we can be propelled through the water. We learn to kick by holding on to the side of the pool. It is also important to have a life guard on duty to help give a safe place to practice our kicks. Tonight we have several boys who have mastered the kick that will propel them through the Cub Scout program. (Call forward he boys who are to receive their Bear badge. Present the badge.)

With knowing how to kick there still remains the arm strokes to learn. By standing in the water we can bend at the waist and practice our breathing with our arm strokes. With the added upper body strength provided by our arms we will be able to speed through the water. It is not an east feat to accomplish the arm strokes in coordination with