Bavaria swims: Children attract everyone's attention with their freestyle crawl in kindergarten!

Bavaria swims: Children attract everyone's attention with their freestyle crawl in kindergarten!

On July 17, 2025, the opening event of the “Bayern Swims” campaign was celebrated at Wurzel Purzel Kindergarten. The President of the State Parliament and patron Ilse Aigner warmly welcomed the children and emphasized the importance of swimming training for all children in Bavaria. “Every child should be able to swim,” says Aigner. To illustrate this, preschool children demonstrated their swimming skills in front of numerous television cameras and press representatives.

The joint activities with Checker Julian, the well-known KiKA presenter, who was active in the water with the children, were particularly enjoyable. The edge of the pool was enlivened by Loti, the water rescue service's cheerful mascot, who put everyone in a good mood and cheered the children on.

Learn to crawl with Loti

The focus of the event was on the front crawl swimming technique, which was presented as the first method for learning to swim. This was done using the new method “Learn to scratch with Loti”. Thomas Huber, the state chairman of Wasserwacht Bayern, emphasized during the event how important early swimming training is for the safety of children in Bavaria. He also pointed out the worrying number of 27 drownings in the current bathing season, many of which took place in lakes.

The “Bayern Swims” campaign has been committed to improving children's swimming skills for seven years now and is supported by a new work aid for swimming instructors. These materials are a valuable resource to optimize teaching methods in swimming schools and enable children to swim safely.

International perspectives on learning to swim

It is also interesting to compare swimming training in different countries. While in many countries such as Australia, England and the USA children first learn front crawl and backstroke, in Germany training often begins with breaststroke. This procedure was integrated into soldier training in the 19th century and is still very popular today, even if it involves some difficulties, such as complicated movements and a demanding leg kick.

In Mexico, on the other hand, intuitive methods such as dog paddling are the top priority, helping children to develop their first body awareness in the water. Swimming instructors there emphasize backstroke to promote relaxation and proper breathing before introducing students to the art of breaststroke - an exciting departure from usual German methods that might spark a discussion about the optimal swimming training methods.

The campaign and the committed work of the water rescue service not only offer a concept worth protecting, but also an educational and encouraging platform for future swimmers in Bavaria. With good ideas and a good dose of enthusiasm, we can all work together to ensure that learning to swim for children is not only a must, but also a great pleasure.

For more information about the campaign and the methods of learning to swim, you can read the articles from Augsburger Allgemeine, Bavaria water rescue service and Pedagogy specialist portal visit.