I've heard about this my entire life, infant swimming, and I've never witnessed it before in person, only on video. I find it fascinating.
From the producers of the video:
ISR's Self-Rescue™ lessons for a 6-12 month old focus on teaching the child to roll onto their back to float, rest and breathe, and to be able to maintain this life-saving position until help arrives.
Infant Swim Recovery is a survival technique that teaches infants and toddlers how to recover from an accidental fall into a body of water. The series of lessons begin a process of instilling skills to help the child regain buoyancy from a submerged state and remain in a balanced, floating position on their back. In that position, they can be heard crying or yelling, while gaining precious seconds for someone to come help them. The intention is to reduce the number of infant and child drowning deaths.
Unlike the popular parent/toddler classes, which encourage a “face IN the water” concept through blowing bubbles, etc., infant swim recovery emphasizes the ability to instinctively tilt the head BACK, getting it OUT of the water to take those precious breaths… the same mentality and reasoning behind infant life jackets… bringing the infant's head back and out of the water, and maintaining a very comfortable back floating position.