Dear Swim Profesor: I hope you can help w/more advice. I”m still a beginner swimmer. My teacher told me I need to work on my kicking, and I’d like to get some fins. Saw some lightweight flippers at Todd & Moore, and then just regular swim fins (I guess). I think I need “short fins” [...]

One great new theme that my young swim lesson students  have really enjoyed is an “Invisible Buddy Day.”  While adults may find it a little bizarre, young children love hanging out with “invisible buddies!”  I can’t tell you how much fun this can make a strokes class for a four or five year old.  In [...]

If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to be more creative and make your swim lessons more fun, without taking too much away from practice time.  Nothing is more satisfying for a swim instructor, or for a swim lessons parent as far as that goes, than to see the children truly enjoying [...]

As we prepared to get nearly 100 second graders in the water yesterday, many of whom have NEVER been in the water before (believe it or not), I did something I wanted to share with you that you may enjoy. In fact, you may want to try it next time you have a large swim [...]

As the late and legendary TV host Fred Roger’s from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood wrote, “When you help a child enjoy music, you’re also helping a child develop learning skills, like listening, coordination, imagination, and memory.” Swimming lessons too, are a great place to help a child enjoy music.  I have always incorporated songs and music [...]

When should you “play games” in swimming lessons?   When I coached USA Swim Age Group Swimming full time, I always reserved about 20 minutes every Friday for Water Polo unless we had a swim meet. For swim lessons, however, I think it’s a little different, especially if your lessons are 30 minutes or less. With [...]

Just finished final preparations for my second talk at the Swim Lessons University Super Conference in Indianapolis and Las Vegas.   Take a sneak preview of what will be addressed and swim lesson ideas in the talk titled: Tricks to Making Swim Lessons More Fun! A Funny Preschool Story Characteristics of Preschoolers A SURPRISE VIDEO Your evaluation of the Surprise [...]

When developing Swim Lessons Plans for Preschoolers, you want to start your class on the right foot.  Two of my favorite television shows for preschoolers are PBS’s “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” and BBC Kids “Rosie & Jim.” One thing you will notice with these two shows as well as many other successful shows for young children [...]

Just finished final preparations for my first talk in at the Swim Lessons University Super Conference in Indianapolis and Las Vegas.   Take a sneak preview of what will be addressed and swim lesson ideas in the talk titled:  Infant-Toddler Swimming:  Practical Benchmarks and Progressions Brand new benchmarks for Infants & Toddlers 3 Types of Infant-Toddler Swimming Lessons How your [...]