Water Safe Swim: Emphasizing Back Float for Swimming Safety

By Jo Ann Kirby

When the young Cagle family moved into a new home with a swimming pool in 2020, the parents wanted their two-year-old son to be safe. “My goal was just that if he ended up in the water, that he would be okay,” Megan Cagle said. Julie Schiess of Water Safe Swim in Lodi taught PJ how to swiftly turn over into a back float and paddle his way to the side of the pool. As PJ grew older, he would take refresher courses and learn the five swim strokes. Then, Miss Julie, as they call her, taught PJ’s baby brother Owen to float safely. “Now, Owen doesn’t want to get out of the pool,” Megan said. “My youngest will float on his back forever.”

May is National Water Safety Month and marks the start of swim season as community pools, water parks and lake beaches open for the summer. Vital water safety practices can help keep children and their families safe around all kinds of water.

The Correct Skills
“My goal is to change the conversation and how we feel about water,” Julie said. “We often find ourselves teaching our youngest children to jump from safety into the water. While we generally have mom’s or dad’s arms open to catch the child, we have unknowingly just trained our child to enter danger.”

Julie says the “skill” of blowing bubbles is the same idea. “We find it a great milestone when a baby puts its face in the water and blows their air out,” she said. But what the tot has inadvertently been taught is to blow their precious air out, which would be dangerous if they accidentally fell into water.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, drowning is a leading cause of death in childhood, especially for children one to four years of age. The AAP reports that drowning risks and prevention measures change as children grow, but at all ages, multiple layers of prevention are needed. These key prevention measures include four-sided fencing of all residential pools, close supervision of young children whenever they are in or near water and swim lessons once children are ready to learn to swim.
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Julie, who is a licensed EMT, says it takes just 30 seconds for a child to drown. She has been teaching swim safety since 2001 and started the Water Safe Swim program to create a comprehensive approach to water safety. She has taught her method to eight other instructors, six of whom are teaching locally, and is kicking off her 25th year by launching a website for Water Safe Swim at watersafeswim.com. The website is packed with resources and that is where parents can get enrollment information.
The lessons are divided into three skill sets.

Float, for ages six to 17 months, teaches babies how to find and maintain a back float position so that if they get into water, they can rotate and roll into a back float until help arrives.

Swim/Float is for ages 18 months and older. The child will learn to hold their breath while swimming face down, roll onto their back to rest and breathe, and transition between these positions to reach safety, such as a pool wall or steps.

Swim/Float/Breathing is the next step for ages two to five. The child will use the same swim to float to swim skill set and/or learn to pick their heads up to take a breath instead of the back float skill or a combination of both floating to rest and breathe and picking their heads up to breathe. The lessons take place at a private instructor’s residence pool, ensuring a safe and controlled environment for learning.

Ingrained Actions
While it might sound a little stressful to watch an angry six-month-old try to flip onto their back and float, the short lessons pay off and soon these babies are doing it as if it came naturally. “It’s honestly the most refreshing thing ever,” Kelsey Devlin, a Lathrop mom of two, said of watching her own baby learn to flip over into a back float. “Miss Julie really helped not only give me that confidence and my children that confidence but having her teach those lessons, she also has the moms and dads getting in the pool so we can practice these things with our kids on our own and redirect them if they need it.”

Kelsey said she and her family go to the lake and beach frequently and the lessons with Julie have taught them to ask permission before going into water, to never turn their back on the ocean and more. “They have it triggered in their brain now that if something were to happen, they need to turn over and float,” she said. “You can’t put a price on having your children safe around water.”

Water Safe Swim instruction can begin at age six months. “We recommend that children ages six months to five years do a water safety swim skill program,” she said. “Children over five can do a more traditional swim program,” she said. “The more your child swims, the more confident they will become and the stronger their swim skills will be.”

Julie affirmed that youngsters need to practice what they’ve learned, so that their muscle memory kicks in and takes over. And don’t be one and done. She recommends refresher courses at the start of each swim season. “Giving your child as many opportunities to swim as possible will provide them with the best avenue for success. Learning the traditional five swim strokes does not ensure your child is a good swimmer.” Lots of opportunities to play in a pool with family and friends, for instance, provide young swimmers the chance to put the skills they learn in swim lessons to use.

Why Teach Water Skills?
Drowning deaths are on the rise. In 2020, 339 children younger than age 15 fatally drowned, but in 2021, that figure rose by 12 percent, with 380 children fatally drowning. Last May, the Centers for Disease Control reported over 4,500 people died due to drowning each year from 2020 through 2022, 500 more per year compared to 2019. And non-fatal drownings can be devastating.

Kaitlin Casado’s daughter was just 20 months old when she managed to slip out of her Acampo home and fall into a pond on the property. “We quickly got her to a nearby firehouse and then Lodi Memorial where she was revived and they got a heartbeat,” Kaitlin said. Stella, who is now six years old, suffered anoxic brain injury, a condition during which the brain is deprived of oxygen. The beautiful, blonde girl cannot walk or talk but her mom calls her a “chill girl” who loves watching shows on her iPad.
“We are just doing everything we can to help heal her body and her brain,” Kaitlin said. She chronicles their journey on Instagram @k.j.casado, where she highlights Stella’s progress and gives a glimpse of some of her many therapies. The family also partners with Julie to stress the importance of water safety skills. “Every time we tell Stella’s story we talk about the importance of the layers of protection and the importance of water swim safety,” Kaitlin said.

Julie and her husband, Troy, have six children from ages 15 to 26. Their son Joshua inspired Julie. “He had some significant health issues that required a lot of care,” she said. He took a water therapy class in which he learned water safety swim skills and she was so moved that it sparked a passion that has grown into something of a crusade. “We have grown in so many good ways,” she said of Water Safe Swim. “I have a deep belief that sharing what we know will save a life.”

As she continues to raise awareness, another swim season is beginning. New students are signing up and others are returning for a refresher. How many children has she taught to swim over the years? “Oh gosh, that’s a hard one,” she said. “Thousands. In 25 years? Maybe four to five thousand.”