Observations in the pool

Yesterday we went swimming with the whole family. All of the girls always love going to swimming, so we try to do this regularly.
Yesterday was particularly interesting as I was focussed on unconditional parenting as I was re-reading in the book by Alfie Kohn the night before.
I have also been reading more of Alice Miller recently again.
So I ended up viewing the parenting styles of the people around us.
It was very disturbing to see a couple with their 3yo child. The girl obviously loved the water and loved her parents. It was pretty odd to watch how the mother was particularly bullying the child, by pushing it with the head under water, when the child clearly did not want that and then laughing very loudly afterwards. It was obvious that it was only clear to me, not to the mother, who thought it was lots of fun, nor the father who was not paying any attention to the scene at all.
When the child openly tried to object the father called the girl a spoil sport and the game just continued.
Later on the couple threw a kiddy life jacket to the other side of the toddler pool and the girl was supposed to go fetch, which the little girl did tirelessly. Every time she turned her face away from her mother to go get the jacket, the mother pushed her and the little girl fell and had to get back up and go to the other side to get the jacket. The water was fairly deep for the little girl, as it was almost as high as her neck.
At some point the girl didn't go fetch very easily, she was really struggling to get up and get there, so the father went there, got the jacket and hid it behind his back and told the girl it was at the mother, so there the girl went again. The father then threw it to the mother, who threw it back again when the girl was there and on it went.
The parents obviously thought it was all fun and games, the girl did keep on smiling, but it was a totally disrespectful way the way it went.
The whole scene gave me a very uneasy feeling, the total lack of being able to see that the little girl didn't like it and was struggling to keep up a happy face.
At some point as I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed, but I wasn't, my own children also noticed.

Later, short before we left there was a girl who wasn't willing to do certain swim exercises, that the mother wanted the girl to do, she was around 7 I would say.
This resulted in the threat of the mother that if the girl wouldn't do that, she wouldn't go swimming of the next month.

Both those scenes made me wonder how things could have been different.
The game of throwing the jacket back and forth could have been played, but without pushing the little girl under water and pushing her all the time. I think the girl would have had fun if it had been that kind of way. Or maybe a totally different game.
I do think both those parents could do with some counselling as they were totally oblivious to their own child's needs.

The second scene didn't make sense to me at all. A child who obviously loves swimming can be left alone to do her thing in a fun pool. And the threat of the mother only made it seem that the girl was doomed if she did, because then she would have to keep doing all kinds of exercises in the pool and doomed if she didn't, because then she was not allowed to go swimming anymore for a month. Either way, the joy in swimming is gone.
It really does not make any sense to me, when a child has fun in the water, let it be. There is no need to push for special exercises.