Swimming: Learn to swim programme |02 September 2020
Souvenir photograph of the young swimmers from Mahé
More local kids become water confident
As the Seychelles islands are surrounded by water, it is therefore normal that most of the population, if not all, should know how to swim, or at least be water friendly.
It is in that spirit that the National Sports Council (NSC) has intensified the Learn to Swim programme which normally takes place during the school holidays.
For this year’s August school holidays, two programmes took place simultaneously, precisely on Mahé and La Digue, gathering a large group of kids who qualified through various levels at the end of the programmes.
Regardless of the children’s ages and experience, the programme is designed to encourage all young people to get confident in the water and develop their swimming skills.
Hosted by qualified instructors, classes are designed to be ability appropriate, so everyone can feel confident in their ability to learn at the pace that works for them, rather than feeling thrown in the deep end, while also learning valuable water safety skills, as well as a variety of techniques.
On Mahé, the training took place at the Roche Caïman swimming pools, gathering 37 kids who graduated through various levels from water confidence level one to Four Star level.
As for the La Digue programme, the sessions took place in the sea, while the exams were held in the La Digue Island Lodge Hotel’s swimming pool.
There were 53 kids in total on the programme, with 30 graduating in the fish category, 12 in crab level one, seven in crab level two and two in turtle level one.
Training was carried out by coaches Olivier Nibourette and Julio Smith, with the support of volunteers Natacha Ardouin and Aisha Radwan.
The organisers would like to thank the La Digue Island Lodge Hotel and the staff for the support during the programme.
Below are the different levels and criteria:
Crab Certificate – Level One: Active participation, body and breath control, swim freestyle, float on your back for 5 seconds, glide and kick on your front with board and blow bubbles under water for 5 seconds.
Crab Certificate – Level Two: Swim 5 metres freestyle, float on your back for 5 seconds, glide and kick on your front with board, blow bubbles under water for 5 seconds and back float and recovery.
Turtle Certificate – Level One: Blow bubbles under without holding your nose for 6 seconds, front glide 3 metres, float on your back for 5 seconds, glide and kick on your front for five metres without a float and swim10 metres freestyle.
Fish Certificate – Two Star: Swim over 10 metres freestyle, do a mushroom float, float and kick on your back for 5 seconds, back and front glide and continue 5 metres swim, tread water for 15 seconds, name five safety rules and swim over 10m breaststroke.
Roland Duval
