Adapted Aquatics

1
Adapted Aquatics

• Chapter 17

2
Introduction

• Benefits
• Physical and mental rehabilitation
• Fitness
• Relaxation
• Perceptual-motor intervention
• Self-concept enhancement
• Fun
• Competition
• Ease of movement

3
Aquatic Therapy

• Aquatic therapy - water exercises adapted for
  therapeutic purposes
• Common goals
• Improve circulation, muscular strength, and
  endurance
• Improve range of motion, balance, and coordination

4
Aquatic Therapy

• Taught by specialists in hydrotherapy
• Developed in 1930s - Charles Lowman father of
  hydrotherapy
• Initially for persons with physical disabilities
  - now recommended for everyone

5
Adapted Aquatics

• Service delivery system for providing appropriate
  aquatic instruction and participation for persons
  with disabilities
• Taught by certified swimming instructors with
  additional specialized training
• Provides instructional modifications for swimming
  activities

6
Instructional Models for Beginners

• Red Cross and YMCA programs
• Halliwick Water Confidence Model
• Sherrill Water Fun and Success Model

7
Halliwick Water Confidence Model

• Teaches water buoyancy and confidence through
  various kinds of body rotations, floats, glides,
  and games
• Moves on to traditional methods to learn strokes

8
10 Points in Halliwick Model

• Mental preparation
• Self-sufficiency
• Vertical rotation
• Horizontal or lateral rotation
• Combined rotation
• Application of buoyancy

• Floating positions
• Turbulence floating and gliding
• Simple propulsion
• Development of strokes

9
Sherrill Water Fun and Success Model

• Major goals of the program
• Improve self-concept
• Increase self-confidence
• Develop courage
• Secondary goals of the program
• Identification of body parts
• Improvement of proprioception
• Development of inner language concepts

10
Sherrill Water Fun and Success Model

• Participants can earn prebeginner swimming
  certificates at three levels
• Explorer - release teachers hand and perform
  basic locomotor movement patterns independently
• Advanced Explorer - put face in water and lift
  feet from bottom of pool
• Floater - relax and float for several seconds

11
Similarities in the Models

• One-to-one teaching ratio until swimmers gain
  confidence for small group instruction
• Teachers in the water simulating and supporting
  swimmers
• Learning through play and games

• Emphasis on body awareness, movement exploration,
  and breathing games
• Consideration of buoyancy principles
• Generally no use of personal flotation devices

12
Adapted Aquatics Principles

• Teachers are in the water with students
• Avoid saying put your face underwater,
  introduce gamelike situations to get the child to
  attempt the task
• Use as few words as possible in teaching
• Move the childs limbs through desired patterns
  instead of explanation-demonstration

13
Adapted Aquatics Principles

• Show acceptance of the child through frequent
  mirroring of movements
• Synchronized swimming, jumping, and diving
  introduced early
• Modify requirements in accordance with
  differences
• Encourage bilateral, unilateral, and crosslateral
  movement patterns

14
Bilateral and Crosslateral Basics

• Introduce breaststroke and elementary backstroke
  first
• Teach bilateral movements on land first
• Crosslateral strokes are difficult to master
• Teach in horizontal position
• Teach leg kick first then arm stroke

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Activities for the Explorer

• Washcloth games - compare to bathtub at home
• Sponge games
• Parachute games - similar activities to using
  parachutes on land
• Blowing games - play in or out of the water,
  leading to rhythmic breathing

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Self-Testing Activities - Explorer

• Horizontal or long jump
• Vertical jump and reach
• Cable jump
• Greet the toe
• Jump and tuck
• Straight arm support

• Aquatic sprint
• Bracketing with back lean
• Matching locomotor movements to lines and forms
• Airplane or single foot balance

17
Activities for the Advanced Explorer

• Towel games
• Learn to use body shapes such as tuck, pike,
  layout, and curved positions
• Learn various ways to enter the water
• Bracketing
• Retrieving objects from the bottom of the pool

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Self-Testing Activities - Advanced Explorer

• Frog jump
• Jack-in-the-box
• Dog walks
• Mule kick
• Seal walk
• Camel walk

• Egg sit followed by V sit
• Human ball bounce
• Coffee grinder
• Knee scale

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Activities for the Floater

• Horizontal to vertical positioning
• Floating
• Bobbing
• Front-to-back positioning and vice versa
• Simple stunts in synchronized swimming

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Floating Principles

• Buoyancy is the quality of being able to float
• Depends on displacement and weight
• Explained by Archimedes principle

21
Floating Principles

• Specific gravity is weight of a person compared
  to the weight of an equal amount of water
• After full inspiration slightly less than 1
• After exhalation slightly more than 1
• Difficulty in floating exists when specific
  gravity is above 1.02

22
Floating Principles

• Center of buoyance is the center of gravity of
  the volume of the displaced water before
  displacement
• Area where weight is concentrated when in the
  water
• Generally in the thoracic cavity
• Obesity lowers the center of buoyance

23
Coping with Problems of Buoyancy

• Below-average buoyancy
• Above-average buoyancy
• Amputations
• Spasticity and asymmetric strength
• Bobbing
• Finning and sculling

24
Below-Average Buoyancy

• Raising center of gravity raises center of
  buoyancy
• Extend arms over head
• Bend knees with heels toward buttocks
• Assume a tuck position
• Hyperventilate
• Common in men and Blacks

25
Above-Average Buoyancy

• Difficulty in moving from a horizontal to a
  vertical position
• Alternate-arm strokes are difficult because body
  wants to roll and feet and legs may be out of
  water preventing a kick
• Common in individuals who are obese

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Amputations

• Affects location of center of gravity and center
  of buoyance
• Displaces CG and CB to opposite side and causes
  rolling
• Suggested strokes to learn depend on amputation

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Spasticity and Asymmetric Strength

• Tendency to spin or rotate in horizontal water
  position
• Stabilize by turning head in opposite direction
  of body rotation
• Teach backstrokes first
• Master symmetric strokes first

28
Bobbing

• Like a vertical jump on land except using arms
  for power
• Improves rhythmic breathing
• Increase vital breathing capacity
• Heightens proprioceptive awareness
• Serves as a warm-up activity
• Many variations

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Finning and Skulling

• Focus on using arms and hands for changing
  positions in the water
• Finning - series of short pushes with palms of
  the hands against the water
• Skulling - figure-eight motions of the hands
  close to the surface of the water

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Synchronized Swimming Stunts

• Benefits of learning stunts
• Improves proprioception
• Enhances body awareness
• Provide practice in movement imitation
• Prerequisites for learning stunts
• Ease in water
• Sculling ability while floating
• Keen sense of where body is in space

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Synchronized Swimming Stunts

• Stunts taught progressively
• Tuck easier than pike or layout positions
• Various stunts to teach students
• Stunts that begin in a back layout position
• Stunts that begin in a front layout position
• Methods for rolling in the water from back to
  front or vice versa

32
Stroke Technique for Swimmers with Disabilities

• Optimal stroke techniques may need to be adjusted
  for swimmers with disabilities
• Reducing resistance
• Increasing propulsion

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Reducing Resistance

• Resistance or drag refers to water forces that
  cause the swimmer to slow down
• Reduce cross-sectional area by using streamlined
  body shapes
• Becomes more important at faster speeds

34
Reducing Form Drag

• Achieve longest shape possible
• Taper the body - smaller at hands and feet
• Create as rounded a body shape as possible
• Minimize cross-sectional area
• Overall size of body
• Adjustment of stroke technique
• Horizontal and lateral alignment
• Shoulder/hip roll

35
Reducing Wave Drag

• Caused by turbulence at the water surface
• Contributors
• Poor stroke technique
• Other swimmers
• Depth of water
• Weather conditions

36
Reducing Friction Drag

• Refers to the force needed for water to slip past
  the body
• More friction at surface of water than underwater
• Wearing a swimming cap and tight-fitting swimming
  suit as well as shaving parts of the body reduce
  friction drag

37
Increasing Propulsion

• Forces created by the swimmer that make the body
  move forward in the water
• Generation of propulsion affected by
• Hand/foot shapes
• Angle of attack
• Direction of movement

38
Increasing Propulsion

• Hand/foot shapes
• Hands - slightly curved with fingers together
• Feet - depends on stroke
• Angle of attack
• Angle of hand in comparison to the direction of
  movement - ideal is 40

39
Increasing Propulsion

• Direction of movement
• Refers to the arm and leg positions used for
  various strokes
• Exert pressure against the water opposite the
  desired direction of movement
• Pulling under the center of gravity
• Symmetry

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Teaching Stroke Technique to Swimmers with
Disabilities

• Start with assessment
• Use results to develop instruction objectives
• Determine appropriate equipment to use
• Modify stroke techniques if necessary
• Focus always on the individual

41
Aquatic Sports and Leisure Activities

• Motives for participation
• Fun
• Skill development
• Fitness and health
• Competition, excitement, and challenge
• Socialization

42
Skill Development

• Enables participation in various aquatic
  activities
• Various programs available
• Aquatic physical therapy emphasis different than
  swimming techniques
• Muscle relaxation in warm water
• Less stress on joints

43
Competitive Swimming

• Inclusive environments
• Access to knowledgeable coaches
• Good facilities
• Frequent nearby competitions
• Support and friendship from teammates
• Various competitive swimming programs

44
Competitive Swimming

• Disability-specific programs
• Access to knowledgeable coaches
• Good facilities
• Teammates that share disability culture
• Various competitive swimming programs for
  specific disabilities or groupings of disabilities

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Other Aquatic Activities

• Synchronized swimming
• Diving
• Water polo
• Scuba diving
• Sailing
• Rowing
• Canoeing/kayaking

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Safety

• Certifications
• Emergency action plan
• Safety inspections
• First aid supplies
• Adequate supervision
• Safety skills
• Safety rules

• Prerequisite skills
• Precautions related to disability-related health
  concerns
• Personal flotation devices
• Personal safety and liability

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Disability Accommodations

• ADA requirements
• Commonsense, reasonable accommodations for
  persons with disabilities that enable
  participation and promote full and equal
  enjoyment of activities
• Facility accommodations
• Programming accommodations

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Facility Accommodations

• Minimize or eliminate safety risks
• Emergency action plan and evacuation plans
• Nonskid, uncluttered deck
• Avoid sharp or rough surfaces
• Pool depth clearly marked
• Easy to use access (i.e., lifts, ramps, steps)
• Water temperature
• Locker rooms to accommodate various disabilities

49
Programming Accommodations

• Reasonable accommodations to programs
• Considerations for contraindications for swimming
• Minimizing risks and informed decisions
• Adaptations to curriculum
• Adaptations for instruction