Water games are not only great entertainment for children and adults while swimming, but also an effective means of hardening and physical development. They help to acquire and strengthen good posture. And for those who cannot swim, such games will help them overcome their natural fear of water and develop determination. Before playing on the water, you need to warm up your muscles well by doing a set of gymnastic exercises on the shore. This includes rotation of the arms and hands, squatting on the toes, bending forward, turning the body to the side, exercises that imitate the movements of a swimmer.

"Battleship"

Beginners getting into the water are probably most afraid of getting splashed in the face. And in a fun game, fear is easier to overcome. The players are divided into two teams and line up in two rows waist-deep in the water opposite each other. At the signal, the participants begin “shooting” their opponents with their palms on the water, directing sheaves of spray at them and trying to force them to retreat. The one who turns his back to the opponent is eliminated from the game. It is not allowed to touch each other's hands. The line in which the players are more persistent and maintain an orderly line to the end wins.

"Float" and "jellyfish"

These exercises are especially useful for beginners. They help non-swimmers focus on achieving their goals and overcome their fear of water. Having entered the water pop belt, the player takes a deep breath and squats to the bottom. Then, wrapping his arms around his knees, he presses his chin to his chest. If the breath was really deep, then the body, like a float, rises to the surface. The “Jellyfish” exercise is performed while standing chest-deep in water. Taking a deep breath and leaning forward, you need to lie freely on the water. The deeper the breath, the easier it is to do the exercise. The winner is the one who stays afloat the longest.

"Swings" and "rocking chairs"

Players stand in pairs facing each other in waist-deep water and join hands. First, one takes a deep breath and sinks under the water, leaning back. The second one pulls it towards himself, then inhales deeply and also sinks into the water, while the first one rises to the surface at this time.

In the game "Rocking chairs", players stand with their backs to each other, take each other's hands and alternately leaning forward, lowering their faces into the water and exhaling, they lift each other on their backs. Moreover, the player who is on the surface is not allowed to bend his legs and lift them up.

"Steam engine"

Players stand in one line up to their chests in water. Calculated on the first or second. On command, all the first numbers squat, immersing themselves in the water with their heads and exhale. Then they return to their original position, and the second numbers do the same. Thus, they alternately squat and rise, imitating the operation of a steam engine. By command: “The smallest one!” or “Full speed ahead!” he can work at a faster or slower pace. You can first rehearse the game on the shore.

"Constrictions"

The game must be played in waist-deep water. Two teams of 5 or 6 people are required. The captains stand in front and take each other's hands. Everyone else lines up behind each other, holding each other by the waist. Thus, each team tries to pull the opposing team three steps in its direction. The game stops when one of the teams manages to do this. If one of the players or the captain opens his hands, the team is considered defeated

Games to overcome your fear of water

Of course, play helps a child cope with unreasonable fears and master basic skills.

1. For example, tell your baby that he is a little seal and will now get acquainted with his main home - water. First, the baby seal needs to learn to dive into the water. Hold your baby's hand while doing this. The baby seal takes a deep breath through its mouth, squats and plunges into the water for a few seconds. Then he rises and exhales. You are not allowed to wipe your face! Real seals never wipe their faces. The dive can be repeated. If the baby is not afraid, he can sit under water longer. Mom or dad is nearby, insuring.

2. To consolidate your success, you can organize a water running competition. Two options for such competitions (so that you and your child have an equal chance of winning):

• An adult goes into water up to his chest, a child goes into water up to his knees, then your capabilities are approximately equal
• The baby moves to a deeper place (the water reaches the middle of the thigh or to the waist), the adult runs next to him in the shallow place: but at the same time on all fours!

3. Not only seals live in the water. You can play sea otter and baby otter. The child sits on the adult’s stomach, wraps his legs around his waist, and holds his neck tightly with his hands. An adult sea otter, holding its calf by the back, goes into the water and there squats several times and makes other simple movements. Then he lets go of his little sea otter, and he himself holds on to the adult. You can dance the sea otter dance in the water, sing a song, splash around, and have a lot of fun.

4. If a child is afraid to put his face in the water, try to compete with him: who will make the most bubbles in the water? Go into the water with him - so that the baby stands in it up to his chest. Participants inhale through their mouths, hold their breath, lower their face into the water up to their eyes and slowly exhale until the end. The judge counts the points. You can make several attempts. The winner gets a prize.

5. Now you can try to learn how to lower your face completely into the water. To do this, your child turns into the formidable Neptune. Neptune has a whole flotilla: toy ships and boats, purchased and homemade, made from anything that floats: polystyrene foam, nut shells, paper, etc. At the beginning of the game, Neptune lowers his chin into the water and actively blows on the surface of the water so that waves are formed and the ships begin to move. Then the sea king begins to make a storm. To do this, he lowers his face into the water with his eyes open and makes an energetic, full exhalation.

6. Fence off a small space in shallow water or use a mini-pool. The adult is now a frog, and the baby is a tadpole. The frog should keep its eyes closed and try to find the tadpole by splashing and other gurgling sounds. The caught tadpole becomes a frog itself, and the game begins again.

7. We are gradually moving on to mastering the ability to float on water. Tell your child that today he will be an unsinkable float. First, teach him to take a deep breath. When the child masters this, invite him, after inhaling, to plunge into the water with his head, curl up there (pressing his head and knees to his chest) and in this position float to the surface. Make a little disturbance on the water, make waves, spray on the “float”. And he will sway on the surface of the water.

You and your child can come up with as many of these helping games yourself as you like. The main thing is positive emotions when meeting water, and then the fear will recede.

Count it

Stand as a couple opposite each other. One, crouching, plunges into the water and opens his eyes. Another shows him underwater (at a distance of 30-40 cm from the eyes) a different number of fingers. Having risen from the water, the guesser says how many fingers he saw. Then your partner guesses.

Put on the circle

Place a rubber circle in front of you and, after inhaling, dive into the water so that when you get up, put the circle on your head.

Stand as a couple with your back to each other, placing your hands under your partner’s elbows. Each one, in turn, leans forward, lifts his partner from the bottom, lowers his face into the water and exhales. A person above the water should not bend or raise his legs.

Who will jump higher

Raise your arms to the sides, palms down. On command, jump up, pushing off the bottom with your feet, while simultaneously moving your hands down into the water, thereby helping the push.

Fastest couple

Break into pairs (first and second numbers) and take a place at the start. The second numbers stand behind the first.

Fastest three

Break into threes. Two people hold a stick (about a meter long) by the ends, the third, standing behind, by the middle. At the signal, the two outermost begin to walk forward along the bottom, the third lies down on the water and works his legs in a crawl style. The first three to reach the finish line wins. The result is summed up after three attempts so that all participants can change places.

Torpedoes

Starting position at the finish line for sliding on your chest. At the signal, take a breath, hold your breath and, pushing off strongly from the bottom, slide forward, moving your legs in a crawl style. The place where the player stood on the bottom or raised his head to inhale is considered his finish.

Ball race

Line up two teams in a column, one at a time, 2-3 steps from each other. The distance between players in columns is 1 step, the position of the feet is wider than shoulders. Those standing in front (captains) have the ball in their hands. At the captain’s signal, bend over and pass the ball between your legs to the person standing behind you, who then passes the ball on. The latter, having received the ball, runs with it to the leader of the column, and the game resumes. The team whose captain is the first to stand at the head of the column wins.

Knight Tournament

Divide into two teams, in pairs, taking into account the physical fitness of the players. Each pair is a “horse” and a “rider”. The rider sits on the shoulders of his partner, and the latter presses his legs towards him with his hands. At the signal, the teams begin single combat. The task of the “rider” is to throw the enemy off the “horse” into the water. Grabs are only allowed by the hands. The discarded “rider” along with the “horse” are eliminated from the game.

Riding a dolphin

The players sit on inflatable rubber cushions, circles or balls and, at a signal, begin to move forward, making rowing movements with their hands. The one who reaches the finish line first wins. Those who fail to stay on the “dolphin” are eliminated from the game.

Struggle

The players, grabbing the opponent by the torso and arms, try to tear him off the bottom and then plunge him headlong. The winner is the one who wins at least three out of five fights. It is forbidden to hold an opponent underwater.

A very interesting way of transportation is swimming. Some argue that all animals have the ability to float. Others believe that swimming is beyond the reach of many. This question has not yet been resolved by scientists. We will look into which animals cannot swim and which are excellent swimmers in this publication.

Do all inhabitants of the deep waters know how to swim?

It is believed that if an animal lives in water, then nature itself gives it the ability to swim. However, this is not quite true. For example, in the depths of the World Ocean there is a batfish. It, outwardly practically no different from other fish, moves along the bottom, using the pectoral fins as legs. Therefore, when asked which animals cannot swim, we can confidently answer that this is a bat.

But if someone claims that crayfish and lobsters cannot swim, they will be wrong. These arthropods can, in rare cases, swim using their tail. Although crustaceans still prefer to crawl.

Are cats, rabbits and hares good swimmers?

When asked which animals cannot swim, some answer that cats, rabbits and hares. But such an opinion is deeply mistaken. Cats, for example, can swim, and quite decently at that. True, not all representatives of this genus like to be in the water. But there are known cat breeds for which bathing and swimming are a real pleasure. These are the Turkish Vans. They say that Siamese cats will not refuse to swim.

Rabbits can hold on for a while and even move through water. But their skills last only for a short time. So you can’t call them excellent swimmers.

But can hares swim if they look so much like rabbits? Eyewitnesses claim that yes, they not only know how, but also use their abilities with pleasure. One of the members of the expedition on the Northern Archipelago describes how two curious white hares swam across a rather cold sea strait, the width of which exceeded three hundred meters. After exploring the island, they decided to return to their mainland, which they did immediately.

Many people are confused by the story about Grandfather Mazai and the hares. Like, if they are such excellent swimmers, why did the long-eared forest jumpers have to be rescued during the flood? In fact, if hares could not swim at all, they would not have reached the logs and chips floating on the water. But you need to understand that the water in the spring during ice drift is very cold, animals freeze in it and drown from hypothermia. That's why they try to escape on logs, stumps and branches.

What kind of land bird swimmers are they?

This is where it’s quite difficult to answer. Almost all birds love to wallow in a puddle. But no one tried to make them swim. There are certain types of land birds that know how and love to swim, for example, the dipper from the passerine genus. But most birds cannot swim.

But the well-known domestic chicken, which, according to popular belief, is afraid of water, stays perfectly on its surface and even moves, although not as fast as geese or ducks.

Viva for animals that can swim!

As practice proves, almost all animals, once in a certain situation, try to survive. And almost everyone knows how to swim. Even such a large land mammal as the elephant does not lag behind them.

It is naive to ask whether pigs can swim. It is enough just to look at the proposed photographs.

Swimming camels? Nonsense!

There are probably more people who can swim than those who can’t. Although when asked which animals cannot swim, many today claim that these are camels and giraffes.

Some even come up with a fictitious theory that these animals' humps are filled with water, which will definitely pull them down. Therefore, a camel, turning over on its back, will not only be unable to swim, but also to stay on the water.

But these are all inventions of ignorant people. Camels are excellent swimmers, although in natural conditions in their historical homeland they practically cannot see the river. Eyewitnesses claim that even small camels swim beautifully. And these graceful “ships of the desert” do not turn over on their backs at all. And why would they do this? After all, in their humps it is not water, but fat, and, as you know, it is lighter than water.

Virtual giraffes can swim too

The fact that this long-necked mammal loves to flounder in water has been proven in practice. But no one has yet managed to watch giraffes swim.

But scientists made a digital copy of the animal and tried to imitate the process - they succeeded! This means, purely theoretically, these beauties will be able to swim.

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A popular myth is that some mammals - including camels and pigs - cannot swim. Reviewer I found out that this is not so: only one species of mammals barely stays afloat.Guess which one.

My girlfriend's grandparents (who are named Audrey and Hamish) are very inquisitive. They are both very interested in biology, and one day they decided to test Audrey's favorite theory.

“I always believed that all mammals can, firstly, produce milk and, secondly, swim,” she says. “Not at the same time, of course.”

And then one day they and their daughters gathered around the pond in the garden, taking with them their pet guinea pigs.

"We had a fishing net in case something went wrong. We put the pig in the water and he swam like a dog - if you can say that about a guinea pig - from one side of the pond to the other."

“This is our only experiment so far,” says Hamish.

He believes that since most mammals walk on all fours, they must float instinctively and be able to swim like a dog. But is he right?

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

Some mammals are undoubtedly natural swimmers. Whales, fur seals and otters have evolved to have the ability to move through water without difficulty.

Many land mammals are also skilled swimmers - dogs, of course, but other domestic animals are not far behind, including sheep and cows.

Even cats are good swimmers, although most of them are not very fond of this process.

At the same time, other species have a reputation for being poor swimmers - camels, for example. Yes, they are called ships of the desert, but why do they need the ability to swim if they rarely see water?

It was even assumed that the elephant's trunk originally served as a breathing tube during swimming

From conversations with veterinarians specializing in camels and with breeders of these animals, it turned out that humpbacked four-legged animals, oddly enough, willingly enter the water that comes their way.

This is especially true of the Kharai camels, known as the swimming camels of Gujarat.

If we talk about pigs, we immediately recall a poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in which the devil watches a pig floating along the river, maliciously expecting that it is about to cut its throat with its sharp hooves.

But this is very unfair to pigs, as the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism will be happy to tell you.

On the island of Big Major Key, a colony of seafaring pigs settled there, which became a real attraction of the archipelago, proudly calling itself the “Official Residence of the Swimming Pigs.”

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption Illustration copyright iStock Image caption Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

Previously, scientists assumed that elephants, the largest land animals alive today, could not swim.

If this were true, biogeographers would have to seek complex explanations for the presence of elephant fossils on islands off the coasts of California and China, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea.

In fact, elephants are excellent swimmers, capable of swimming up to 50 km at a time. Scientists even suggest that the elephant's trunk originally served as a breathing tube during swimming.

Even an armadillo, despite having a bulky shell, can float on the water by swallowing air and thereby inflating its stomach and intestines, which helps it compensate for its weight.

Well, that's a good start. But there are 5,416 known species of mammals in the world. To prove that they all know how to swim, you will have to throw a lot of creatures into the pond, which will not be happy about it at all.

“I should note that similar experiments have already been carried out,” says Frank Fish, a swimming expert at West Chester University (Pennsylvania, USA).

No one has been able to assess the swimming abilities of absolutely all mammals, but there were times when the animal was simply thrown into the water to do this.

As part of their scientific work, published in 1973, Anne Dagg and Doug Windsor placed 27 species of land animals, from shrews to skunks, in a three-meter-long tank of water and saw if they could stay afloat.

Fortunately, everyone knew how to swim, even the bat, which moved “with the help of heavy blows with its wings, reminiscent of the movements of a person swimming butterfly.”

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

Unfortunately, it was often not enough for scientists to determine whether an animal could swim or not.

Dagg and Windsor's work mentions research conducted in the late 50s and 60s. a series of "inhumane experiments in which animals of various species were forced to swim until they exhausted themselves or died."

Today, fortunately, such experiments are hardly possible. “Ethics are changing, and what was acceptable then is not acceptable now,” confirms Fish.

Even a bat swims, moving with the help of heavy blows of its wings

Be that as it may, these experiments can serve as confirmation of Audrey’s theory, especially considering that even animals that are not adapted to life in water, such as bats, can move on water.

Why is this skill inherent in so many mammals, even those who have no need to swim?

According to Fish, this is a side effect of their anatomical structure.

“Mammals have fairly large lungs, which gives them good buoyancy,” he explains. “Hair is also important, but the larger the animal, the less it means to it.”

"All of these factors allow mammals to float," says Fish. "And if you can float, you can swim."

Does this mean that absolutely all mammals can swim?

One work on the delightfully exotic subject, Swimming Capabilities of the Golden Hamster, dated 1963, states: “It is widely known that most wild mammals can swim.”

Most, but not all. From the scientific literature it follows that scientists agree that there are two groups of non-swimming mammals: giraffes and great apes.

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

Judging by their appearance, giraffes clearly do not look like natural swimmers. With such an unusual body structure, it seems quite plausible that this animal is unlikely to be able to stay afloat.

No one has yet taken the gamble of creating a water tank the size of a giraffe, but thanks to the curiosity of some paleontologists, this may not be necessary.

Interested in numerous references in the scientific literature that giraffes cannot swim, scientific author and paleontologist Darren Naish decided to test this hypothesis.

Mammals can float, and if you can float, you can swim.

“I am very skeptical of such claims, especially since other animals previously thought to be unable to swim, including giant tortoises, pigs, rhinoceroses and camels, are actually good or even very good swimmers,” he wrote in on his Tetrapod Zoology blog.

To design an ethically acceptable experiment that did not require water, Naish contacted Donald Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada.

Henderson specializes in creating computer models of animals, both extinct and extant.

“I originally created these models to study animal locomotion and determine their body mass, but then I realized that they could also help estimate swimming ability,” he explains.

By a happy coincidence, Henderson already had a ready-made model of a giraffe, so the scientists decided to finally determine whether a giraffe could float on water.

"We found that a giraffe would be able to stay afloat with its head close to the surface, but there would be constant water entering its nostrils," Henderson says.

He explains that due to its long limbs, this animal will move very clumsily through the water.

“A giraffe will still be able to swim, but it will be very difficult for him, and I understand why giraffes are reluctant to try,” he concludes.

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

The swimming abilities of primates were tested in much less humane ways. Ethologist Robert Yerkes tells a story that happened at the beginning of the 20th century.

William Hornaday, founder of the Bronx Zoo, took a pet orangutan to a stream to bathe.

“Having positioned him above the water, I let him go, although he resisted. Did he swim? Hardly. In the blink of an eye, he turned upside down, and his head went down, as if there was lead in it instead of a brain,” he writes.

Unfortunately, this cruel experiment is no exception. Yerkes himself describes throwing young chimpanzees into water to see if they would sink or swim.

The giraffe will still be able to swim, but it will be very difficult for him

“Everyone, without exception, was actively floundering in the water and quickly sank,” he notes.

This is why zoos often use water ditches to prevent primates from escaping.

Hornaday also wrote that "instead of vigorously swinging his arms and legs, as other animals do, he (the orangutan) simply spread them apart, and they stuck out from his body like sticks, which he moved slowly and sluggishly."

Obviously, there is something that prevents great apes from coordinating their movements when swimming.

“Many people think that chimpanzees can’t swim because they can’t float,” says Renato Bender, a researcher at the Institute of Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). “But it’s not about that, it’s about swimming technique.”

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

In his opinion, most mammals swim instinctively, since they essentially perform the same movements as on land (as my friend's grandfather suggested).

“When swimming, tetrapods are actually using an already established motor pattern,” says Fish. That is why four-legged animals swim like dogs.

George Wilson of the Australian National University in Canberra notes that kangaroos may dive into the water to escape predators.

According to his observations, when a large red kangaroo with no swimming experience enters the water, even it swims like a dog, despite the fact that it moves by jumping on land.

The dolphin actually runs underwater, albeit without legs

He concludes that this may be a "return to the past" of their evolutionary history.

Even the creatures most adapted to an aquatic environment swim in much the same way. "The dolphin actually runs underwater, albeit without legs," says Fish.

But primates are also quadrupeds, so why doesn’t this logic work in their case?

In 2013, Bender and his wife Nicole, a physician researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland, questioned the conventional wisdom that primates cannot swim.

They filmed a video of a chimpanzee named Cooper and an orangutan named Suriya swimming across the pools without any problems. This was the first video evidence that great apes are still capable of swimming.

Illustration copyright iStock Image caption

The primates that were filmed did not know how to swim from birth, they had to learn it.

Bender, who had previously worked as a swimming coach, noticed one important feature of their technique: they swam breaststroke rather than doggy style.

In his opinion, such differences in swimming techniques did not arise by chance, but appeared in the process of evolution.

The ancestors of these primates adapted to life in the trees, no longer needing to enter the water, and their nervous and motor systems and anatomical structure underwent changes that allowed them to move more dexterously in the trees.

As a result, the ancient ancestor of primates lost not only the desire, but also the ability to swim like a dog.

An ancient primate ancestor lost not only the desire, but also the ability to swim like a dog.

In the rare cases when primates do learn to swim, the increased mobility of their limbs associated with life in the trees makes it a more natural movement for them to push off the water with their legs, characteristic of breaststroke.

Nevertheless, Audrey's hypothesis is not far from the truth. It turns out that swimming has played a surprising role in the lives of animals, and perhaps this skill is much more important than we previously thought.

It is impossible not to mention a mammal for which swimming went far beyond the scope of biology - another non-swimming great primate, humans.

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There is a common belief that children can swim from birth - perhaps for some it is associated with the famous Nirvana album cover.

However, in reality this is not the case. Babies do hold their breath when submerged in water, but this should not be confused with swimming.

Breath-holding is part of the mammalian dive reflex, a set of physiological changes associated with immersion that is common to all mammals (and most pronounced in marine species).

Just like Cooper and Surya, our fellow primates, humans have to learn to swim.

But, being smarter primates, we have learned to do it quite well.

The world's best divers and Olympic swimmers set records unthinkable for any other land mammal.

People learn to swim for work and leisure, as well as for certain cultural reasons.

Our strong love of water, compared to other primates, was one of the traits on which the so-called aquatic theory arose.

Like our fellow primates, humans have to learn to swim

It states that many of the defining characteristics of humans (lack of hair, bipedalism, large brains, etc.) were formed during that period of our evolutionary history when we led a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Despite the fact that the aquatic theory lacks scientific evidence, it has quite a lot of supporters.

Bender believes its popularity has hampered serious research into primates' relationship with water and the influence that the water element may have had on our behavior and evolution.

"I would like people to understand that we need to separate the 'role of water in human evolution' from the aquatic theory and then start studying it using scientific methods," he says.

"There is a lot of evidence that chimpanzees and orangutans are willing to play with water for hours. Water is of great interest and attracts smart animals, and we are smart animals," says Bender.

Following simple rules will help your happy summer holiday season not end in tragedy.

N The arrival of warm days every year becomes not only a cause of joy for vacationers, but also a cause for concern. The higher the thermometer rises, the more people want to plunge into the cool waters of ponds, rivers or lakes. And since some people completely ignore safety rules, the result is often tragic. As Vyacheslav Vanenok, a leading specialist of the Vitebsk regional organization RGOO OSVOD, said, in 2014, 124 people drowned in the Dvina region, including five children. The main part died in rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, quarries, pits. Moreover, more than 60% of the victims of the water disaster, noted Vyacheslav Iosifovich, were intoxicated. And this trend, by the way, continues from year to year. No matter how much rescuers and doctors sound the alarm, many of our citizens still consider strong drinks to be a mandatory attribute of collective recreation.

But when they say that drinking helps you relax and stimulates casual communication, people wishful thinking, for some reason completely forgetting about the negative impact of alcohol on the body.

Already when drinking 15-30 milliliters of alcohol, a person’s mental performance drops by 12-14%. The accuracy and focus of actions decrease, coordination deteriorates, depth of vision and color perception change. The time of auditory and visual reactions increases by approximately 15-20%, explained Irina Shchelkunova, head of the narcological department of the regional clinical center for psychiatry and narcology. - Alcohol intoxication reduces the ability to correctly assess the situation and one’s capabilities. As a result, people succumb to momentary emotions and commit actions that they would not normally do.

Such “heroes” are often drawn to dubious feats. By ceasing to soberly assess what is happening, they lose their sense of fear. And in the end, they easily decide to dive from a bridge or swim across a lake to show off in front of the company. “Just think, all that’s needed is to swim to the shore and back. I can do it, I can swim!” - argues a man with a clouded alcoholic mind. And in the finale - death and tears of relatives. After all, as paradoxical as it may sound, it is often those who can swim who drown. They are the ones who are not afraid of rivers with strong currents, who undertake to swim across lakes and ignore life jackets. Anyone whose ability to float on water is almost the same as that of an ax will think ten times before diving into the depths.

Alcohol is also dangerous because it dulls pain reactions, added Irina Nikolaevna. - A sober person quickly realizes that he has touched a stone or snag underwater and is injured. A drunk person can bleed and not even notice it.

I think no one will argue with the fact that drunken parents watch their own children less carefully. But the main reason for the death of minors is that they are left without adult supervision.

Of course, it’s not just kids or drinkers who drown. Each of us can be a victim of the water element. Most often, Vyacheslav Vanyonok emphasized, this happens where there are no equipped beaches.

Last year, in the areas of responsibility of rescue stations, of which we have 10, and rescue posts (25), there were no cases of drowning,” commented Vyacheslav Iosifovich.

However, you cannot station lifeguards at every body of water in the Vitebsk region, especially since there are more lakes in our region than in any other region of Belarus.

To avoid troubles, OSVOD still advises choosing specially equipped places for relaxation. They have obvious advantages: the bottom has been examined and cleaned, the quality of the water has been checked, and there are people keeping order. Nevertheless, many people prefer the so-called wild beaches year after year. And most often not because they do not want to listen to reasonable recommendations. Simply equipped places for swimming are clearly not enough. For example, within the boundaries of Vitebsk there are only two such beaches in Mazurino. It is unlikely that the allotted area will accommodate everyone who wants to take a dip on a hot day. True, if you have transport, you can also go to Tulovo, Sokolniki or Dolzha, but there are also enough people there on sunny days.

Therefore, it is unlikely that vacationers will disappear from the shores of other reservoirs in the near future. What should they do to avoid tragedy? Firstly, before swimming, adults must examine and, if possible, clean the bottom, advises Vyacheslav Vanenok. Secondly, you should not swim, including on boats, while intoxicated: there is a risk of incorrectly assessing the distance to the shore, making a mistake with the direction, capsizing due to impaired coordination of movements, and alcohol can also provoke a heart attack when immersed in cool water. attack. Parents should closely monitor children in or near water. If the child is small, then it is better to be no further from him than at arm's length. Everyone who uses watercraft (boats, catamarans) must have life jackets: no matter what happens, they will help not to drown. OSVOD warns: you should not dive in unfamiliar places. It is better not to swim in rivers with strong currents, which can carry you far from the shore. And if you are suddenly caught up in a stream of water, there is no need to fight it, otherwise you will quickly get tired. In such a situation, you should calmly swim with the flow, approaching the shore at a slight angle. It is prohibited to swim close to passing boats and boats. Rescuers also do not advise using inflatable mattresses and inner tubes on reservoirs. It is no secret that such things are preferred by people who cannot swim. But at the same time, vacationers forget that such a craft can be carried far from the shore by the wind or current, overwhelmed by a wave, air can escape from the mattress and it will lose buoyancy.

There is certainly no need to be afraid of water. But you need to behave correctly with her. And then each of us will have a happy holiday.

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