Early teens and high-school students are spending less time participating in physical exercise, and indications suggest that this age group is engaging or playing sport for less than an hour a week. When it comes to the pool, a significant decline in participation is recorded in children of the primary to high school transition age group (12 to 13 years). So why do our kids stop swimming? With the additional academic pressures and challenges associated with the transition to high school and settling into Year 8, it is often an easier choice for students to drop their extra-curricular activities like swimming at this time. Some might believe that swimming is now ‘uncool’, while a lowered self-confidence and body image attributable to the physical and emotional changes the child is dealing with may be the reason some are discouraged from attending swimming. Others might now lack the motivation to compete or train, an activity they once enjoyed. With this age group being seen to now be engaged more than ever in...