# Goggle-free swimming as autonomous water competence from the perspective of breath control on execution of a given distance

## TL;DR

The study shows that adolescents, especially boys, struggle to maintain breathing rhythm while swimming without goggles, highlighting the need for water competence training focused on breath control.

## Contribution

The paper introduces goggle-free swimming as a pedagogical tool for developing autonomous water competence through breath control.

## Key findings

- Lack of goggles reduced breath control in both boys and girls.
- Boys could cover distance but lacked effective/safe swimming competence.
- Goggle-free swimming is recommended for elementary water competence education.

## Abstract

This study aimed to examine the ability of adolescents to maintain breathing rhythm while swimming with and without goggles, in the context of pedagogical interventions for implementation of water competence skills, rather than simply teaching swimming technique (strokes). 25 females and 25 males, 12–13 years old, swam the front crawl both with goggles and without goggles. Distance covered and the ability to maintain breathing rhythm were evaluated by experts. For both girls and boys, the lack of goggles reduced the breath control. The boys in contrast to the girls, could "swim" (cover a distance) but did not have the “competence” to swim effectively/safely—with breathing rhythm—regardless of the goggle factor. Goggle-free swimming as an autonomous component of water competence is highly recommended in elementary swimming education. The following elements for pedagogical intervention in the area of water competence development are proposed: (1) the formatting of breath control on the basis of the student's preferred, simplest form of swimming (not strokes); (2) the a priori treatment of swimming goggles as an unnecessary teaching aid; (3) the gender differences in area of both adaptation in visual perception (the goggles factor) and motor control (breath control factor) should be considered.