Best Swimming Pool Activities for Kids & Adults

The best part about having a safe swimming pool is the fun swimming activities you can have in it with your friends and family. Swimming pools are the perfect place to beat the heat by relaxing, exercising, and playing fun games, either on your own or while entertaining. By creating a swimming pool that helps prevent accidental drownings, you have a watery oasis that gives you plenty of room for pool activities and the peace of mind that your family is protected when it’s not in use.  

What Makes The Best Swimming Activities?

There is no end to the fun you can have in a pool and no end to the way people define fun for themselves. No blog could cover every conceivable game or activity, and we’re not here to try. Instead, we took a look at what some of the best pool activities have in common so we could give you some ideas to keep your next event hopping from when you first open your swimming pool safety cover to when you re-secure it for the night, whether it’s an event for one or dozens.

• Inclusive – Swimming activities are more fun when they’re able to be shared with the people around you. That means understanding who you’re swimming with, their skill level in the pool, and how they can participate best in the fun.
• Exertion – Some activities get your heart pounding while others are meant to let your cares drain away. Think about not just what kind of activity you want in your pool, but how that activity will be received by other swimmers. A lot of noise and splashing may not be what someone wanting to relax is looking for, or it could be the perfect way to drain away the frustration of their normal school or work week.
• Flexible – Good swimming activities offer plenty of opportunities to adjust the fun to fit the participants. They can be adjusted to challenge even the best swimmers or scaled down for children just getting comfortable in the water–adjusted for the largest summer pool parties or kept small and friendly with just a few family members to play. 
• Safety Focused – Make sure your fun and games stay fun and safe. Not all pool play is appropriate for all ages. Thousands of people are lost to accidental drownings every year, and many more are forced to seek emergency medical care after pool-related injuries and accidents. Make sure your pool doesn’t become the sight of tragedy by keeping all your pool guests safe in and around the water.
• Adjustable For Breaks – While you want guests to have fun, you need to make sure the activities allow for people to leave the pool for bathroom trips, rest, and refreshment. This helps keep swimmers fresh and avoids the fatigue that can sneak up on inexperienced swimmers whose excitement may outpace their experienced judgment.

Fun Swimming Activity Ideas For Your Pool

We have a few fun, safe suggestions to enhance your next swimming pool experience. If you plan to include them, remember that each one can be adjusted to fit more or fewer participants, modified for different skill levels, and should be used to promote safer swimming pool enjoyment. 

• Whirlpool – We’ll start the list with a fun activity for swimmers, waders, young, and old. It’s a great way to have a fun, organized group activity, and it makes good low-impact exercise for those who use the pool to regain or maintain strength and mobility. It is also a great way to demonstrate the physics of water and currents to swimmers who may not understand its potential power.
  
  Participants stand in the pool around the edge or around the shallow end if you have a mixed group of swimmers and non-swimmers. Everyone starts moving clockwise around the boundary. As the group moves in unison, a current will start to form. On command, everyone reverses course, instead trying to walk against the current. It will be difficult to fight against the current, but as they do, the current will slow, stop, and finally reverse.
• Duck Pushing – Another fun swimming activity for the entire group adds a bit of whimsy with the inclusion of rubber ducks. These popular pool and bath toys are widely available in both traditional designs and cheeky modern versions, with different accessories and outfits molded or painted onto their bodies. All participants get in the water on the starting side of the pool with their ducks, split into groups as necessary for larger parties. When told to go, the race is on as they try to get their ducks to the finish line without using their hands. Blow on them, splash them, or use any other means necessary–except your hands to push or carry them.
  
  This is another pool activity that works well for all ages, even if they are only able to wade. It’s perfect for introducing young swimmers to the water so they can become comfortable in the pool or encouraging exercise that improves health. For more advanced swimmers, the deep end can be employed as well, and “interference” can be allowed–splashing, distraction, and creating opposing currents–as long as they don’t directly touch other swimmers or their ducks. 
• Play Ball – Inflatable games are fun in the pool, and some of the most popular are great activities that can be played with swimmers of all skill levels. Basketball, volleyball, soccer, and water polo are all well-known swimming activities that let participants enjoy healthy competition, exercise, and companionship.

Whether you need to get some exercise or vie for family bragging rights, competitive play in the pool is a fun pastime. Plenty of pool accessory companies offer inflatables to help you get the game going, but even without them, you can still play ball. Almost any inflatable ball will float readily in the pool, and boundaries, goal lines, and markers can be agreed on to create your own version of many popular sports in your own backyard swimming pool.

• Let The Races Begin – You don’t need equipment or even other participants to enjoy some of the most traditional swimming activities. As long as there has been swimming, there have been swimmers pushing themselves against others and against themselves to have some fun and improve their skills in the water. Races, diving recovery, and water obstacle courses have been pool activities for generations, and that’s not stopping anytime soon.
  
  From improving your endurance by swimming more laps, reaching a personal best time from one end of the pool to another, or proving you can dive and retrieve a set of weights faster than anyone else, impromptu swimming exhibitions are fun for everyone. Newer swimmers can compete at floating, treading water, or just swimming a little farther each time they get in the pool to improve their technique. 

Make Sure Your Pool Stays Safe

Whatever swimming activities you decide on, make sure you’re keeping your pool protected. Don’t open your swimming pool safety net or cover until you’re ready to keep the action supervised. Likewise, while removable mesh pool fencing is easy to take down for large pool parties, it should be reinstalled as soon as you’re done in the pool, especially when kids are around who may be after one last fun splash–whether an adult is around to supervise or not. Finally, make sure that a water watcher is assigned anytime pool activities are on the agenda. They should always be present and keeping an eye out for swimmers in distress or to cool off the action if the fun gets a little too rowdy or dangerous.

Have Fun In A Safer Pool

We’re ready to help you create a safer pool to entertain your friends and family. Pool safety barriers save lives, and your local All-Safe Pool installer is ready to customize a protection plan for your pool. They’ll take measurements, talk to you about your goals, and create a quote tailored to help you see just how cost-effective safety can be. Make sure your pool is protected and that you have the peace of mind that comes with preventing unsupervised access to your pool area. Contact All-Safe Pool for a free estimate today.