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Pemberton & Associates, inc. DBA Adventureswim.com.
BLOG 1 - WHY SHOULD STUDENTS WEAR SWIM CAPS?

BLOG 1 - WHY SHOULD STUDENTS WEAR SWIM CAPS?

Posted by Adventure Swim on 22nd Nov 2016

Why should students wear Swim Caps?

Swim Caps

Many swim schools and public pools require swim caps. There are various reasons some instructors feel that wearing one is preferable.To some, the question isn’t why should students wear swim caps but rather, why not?

Cons:

  • Not comfortable: too tight on the head, itchy, getting in the eyes.
  • Not cool, looking funny.(This doesn’t make much sense – Michael Phelps wears one and he is very cool!) Adventure Swim Dolphin caps are designed with a wide band and come in multiple sizes to ensure comfort and a good fit.

Pros:

Keep the hair off the face. This is the biggest reason that we have for wearing swim caps – To avoid getting into the habit of stopping the swim to wipe hair out of their face.  While wearing a cap goggle straps won’t get stuck or pull hair, there's less hair in the water/filters, and hair is protected from the sun. Professionals have their own set of reasons for wearing swim caps.

Chlorine and salt water

Swim Caps

The chlorine and various chemicals used in pool up keep can be very damaging to your hair - especially if you are frequent swimmer. Since there is no way of knowing the number of harmful chemicals in sea water, even open water or seawater swimmers’ hair can sustain damage. Therefore, swimming without a swimming cap in any type of open water is risk. Swim caps help to avoid those risks.

Reduce resistance and increase speed

Everybody knows that swim caps make you fast, right? This is one of the major reasons behind the huge popularity of silicone swimming caps. Hair on your head creates drag during swimming. This drag slows you down. Caps made of silicone are used by almost all professional swimmers. The very smooth and round surface of these caps reduce the resistance and drag while swimming and improves the performance of swimmer.

Swim Caps

So how do you handle the issue of whether students should or should not wear swim caps in your class?

When we send out information at registration, we always suggest to the parents to have a swim cap for their child – particularly children with bangs, or longer hair. We let them know that they can bring any type of cap. For our purposes, the more comfortable the better- as long as it keeps the hair out of their face. We keep swim caps available for sale on deck because it never fails – a child will show up without a swim cap- but have hair flowing freely down into their eyes. They spend most of the class with their eyes closed or constantly wiping their face every time their face gets the slightest bit wet.

The reason this is not optimal is because the child will get into the habit of wiping their face the moment they get water in their face or come up from going underwater. We want children to be able to come up from underwater and start swimming immediately towards the side.The more they must wipe hair out of their face, the harder it is going to be to learn that.

We have designed a swim cap made of Lycra, with a dolphin embroidered on the side (for fashion!). They come in several sizes and colors and we keep them on the pool deck in a handy spot.They are not designed to keep hair dry, but to just keep hair out of the way. Having these caps, along with swim diapers, on site and available to your families is extremely convenient for parents and it ends up working out well for the instructors because everyone has their caps!

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