Our Version of ISR (Infant Swimming Rescue)

We want to first say that this blog post is in no way meant to disparage ISR. ISR is a method that does save lives, but there are essential things you must know about ISR and the effects ISR has on children as they get older.

Over the years, we've had clients reach out and ask us why we don't teach ISR (Infant Swimming Rescue) and if we offered something equivalent to ISR. These are great questions to ask because it allows us the opportunity to inform our clients about our alternative to IRS, which is ISS (Infant Survival Swimming).

What is ISR?

ISR is a method designed to teach an infant what to do if they accidentally fell into a pool. This method educates the infant on the skill of rolling onto their backs to float, then rest, and then to breathe. They learn to maintain this position until help arrives.

The issue with this method is that the child is taught to keep their face out of the water, and when it comes time for swim lessons when they are a little older, they are now fearful. At this point, we now have to retrain the swimmer to not be afraid to put their face into the water. This can be a challenging experience for both the swimmer and instructor and can lead to costly and unproductive additional swim lessons.

We provide an alternative to ISR, which is called Infant Survival Swimming (ISS). We take the core method of ISR and expand on it. We teach that if an infant were to fall into a pool to not panic, float on their back, breathe, and then turn over from their back onto their front, swim/crawl to the wall, and hang onto the wall until help arrives. We also make sure the swimmer kicks behind them and not below them. The last thing we want is a swimmer getting into the habit of kicking below them and pushing themselves down in the water. Not only does this method teach water safety, it teaches swimming skills.

We hear time and time again the success stories with ISS and encourage all of our clients to enroll their infants. We start ISS lessons at six months of age.

Let us know if ISS is suitable for your little swimmer. Book today for lesson slots fill up fast!