On Wednesday 04 April 2001 09:05 pm, you wrote:
> On Thursday, April 05, 2001 7:48 PM, Carol Reid wrote:
> > Talk about "Basic Errors?"......
> > I've made a really big 'un.......
> > I took two 12 year old girls for a synchronised
> > swimming lesson and demonstration.
>
> Carol! Carol! Carol! For shame! :-)
>
> > If the list owner ever finds out, he'll drum
> >
> > me offov the List....... :-)
> > ......But....there's no denying a certain
> > level of skill and control.
>
> I have to agree - but very, very begrudgingly! :-)
>
> > Its gotta be better than encouraging
> > "Bubblemaking"
>
> Teaching 8 year olds to dive - even under supervised conditions in a
> swimming pool - is, to my way of thinking, fraught with problems.
>
> The rationale is, presumably, to catch them while they're young, (not to
> mention attracting their parents to diving!), and establish an on-going
> market. (Even that is not a certainty. Consider the number of kids who
> are 'obliged' to play, say, soccer as a school activity. While they may
> well go on to become now-and-then spectators or fans, the majority are only
> too happy to never play the game again once they're old enough to make
> their own decisions.) And that's only one aspect.
Teaching kids this young to dive is a major Charlie Foxtrot. I've seen some
pretty smart ones and even then they do not have the maturity to really grasp
the concept that what they are undertaking can very quickly and very
permanantly make them dead. The agencies, of which I am a member of a couple,
should have their heads pulled forcefully out of their respective hind
quarters so they can take another look at the concept of teaching kids diving.
Marketing and life just doesn't always mix well does it.....
>
> Maintaining interest in diving when they're restricted to nothing but a
> swimming pool for maybe four years will lead to intense frustration at not
> being able to join the 'big folk'! Parents may well be pressured into
> giving way and taking them on open water dives. That in itself may or may
> not be a bad thing? (And leaving the question of long term effects on
> still-growing bodies to one side.)
I fall more into the thinking that it's not a good thing. The Parent will
spend their entire dive worrying about junior and will not enjoy the dive. It
could also have the parent concentrating on the kid and not on his or her own
dive to the point that they don't watch things such as air supply.....
>
> Even allowing for the fact that they may use equipment that's been
> specially designed to accommodate the needs of the very young and small,
> most kids lack the strength and stamina to help themselves in an emergency
> - let alone render meaningful assistance to an adult companion in
> difficulty!
And this is pretty important!
>
> Whether we like to think so or not, diving at every level does require a
> certain mental discipline. Something that's usually lacking in the very
> young. There's then the danger that once old enough to become certified
> for Open Water diver and take part in recreational dives, they'll think
> that their years of pool training counts as experience. A gung-ho attitude
> that may bring them into harm's way! To their way of thinking it'll be a
> question of simple sums! "Hey! I've done four years of diver training.
> You've only done four days. Don't try and tell me what to do!" :-)
Have you been talking to my son? :-)
>
> Many countries have limits placed on the age at which people can apply for
> a licence in order to learn to drive a car. Surely diving requires a
> similar common-sense approach as far as the young are concerned?
Apparently not.....
>
> Teach them snorkelling by all means. But in offering diving training to
> people so young is to trivialise diving and all of its inherent risks!
And that's the bottom line!
>
> Synchronised swimming is a much safer bet! :-)
>
> Strike
--
~~~~~~
Mike
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