Would you like a fun, breath holding activity for your beginners with a Halloween theme? Give this one a try!

Halloween is just around the corner, so I wanted to share an activity I created called the “Haunted Island.”   I use it mainly during “In-line/prone kick” skill since it’s a simple skill that doesn’t require a lot of feedback.  In other words, when I get to the part of the lesson where we are working on the freestyle/front crawl (I combined a Swim 102 student with a Swim Strokes 201 student), I can get back to giving the children more specific, corrective feedback to ensure the class is both INSTRUCTIONAL and FUN!

I think that you will find that when you teach perpetual swim lessons (weekly lessons vs. sessions), theme-based activities and games are extremely valuable to keep the monotony out of the lessons.  Of course, it is equally important that you don’t lose sight of the skills that your students need to learn in the curriculum.

At any rate, here is an activity/game for the in-line kick that we call “The Haunted Island!”  I hope you and your students have as much fun with it as we did!

While this a seasonal activity, it is perfectly adequate to utilize in the In-line Kick part of the Swim Lessons University Lesson Plan.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com  We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

When you can provide a positive, playful environment in your swimming lessons that also produces lots of quality repetition for your preschoolers, you are guaranteed to have success.   This is all possible because your students are fully engaged and having fun.  Here is an example of one of the kick activities for young children that will be featured in the 2nd Edition (coming in 2014) of Swim 101 Certification Course video and swim lesson plan:

A FEW IMPORTANT COMMENTS:

This particular video was shot in 1999.  While children enjoy it just as much today, we will be making a few tweaks for the 2nd Edition Swim 101 Course Video:

1.  We now use the “thicker, super sized noodle” which is especially helpful when you have young 3-year olds just learning their balance or larger children in which the small noodle isn’t buoyant enough to give them the appropriate amount of support.

2. The instructor comments, “nice and straight legs.” That is an exaggeration. We really don’t want the legs perfectly straight AND it would be very difficult, let alone ineffective to kick with “straight legs.” But since young students generally bend the knees excessively, feedback cues such as “straighten the legs out” can be effective even though you don’t mean “literally straight.”

3.  When manipulating the legs, Swim Lessons University now recommends a technique we call the “Sack of Sugar.”   Watch this video to see how to do it:

4.  We now use the smaller nets as you just saw in the video demonstrating the “sack of sugar.”   If you would like to purchase the smaller nets, email jreiser@swimprofessor

Hope you enjoyed this post!

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com  We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

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 learning to swim.  When you can cause your swim lesson students to smile and laugh, they will look forward to each lesson and want to come back for more!

One idea I recently came up with was to have a “Tongue Twister of the Day.”  The children absolutely love it!  Give it a try!  Here are eight good ones:

Swim Lesson #1:  “Rubber baby buggy-bumpers”

Swim Lesson #2:  “Red leather, yellow leather”

Swim Lesson #3:  “She shall sell seashells”

Swim Lesson #4:  “Eight apes ate eight apples”

Swim Lesson #5:  “Cool clean canned clams”

Swim Lesson #6:  “A stiff stack of thick steaks”

Swim Lesson #7:  “Around the rugged rocks, the ragged rascal ran.”

Swim Lesson #8:  “Toyboat, toyboat, toyboat”

Share this swim lessons activity with your swimming instructors, and let the fun begin!  Enjoy!

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 young children, say under the age of six, there is no question that you should make learning like play.  You can call them games–I call them Swim Lessons Activities.  In my new Swim 101 DVD and in my older video, Home Swim School, I packed the video and lessons with activities that make learning more fun for preschoolers.

Here is a short list of examples:

• Kicking – “Let’s Go Grocery Shopping”

• Breath Control – “Hide Frog Hide”

• In-Line / Prone Kick – “Super Heroes”

• Back Kick – “Sing Yourself to Sleep”

• Paddle Stroke – “Pretend You’re a Puppy”

• Swim with Face in the Water – “Swim Like a Fish”

In fact, you can watch some video examples on my YouTube station on both Swim 101 and Home Swim School.  For this age group, you can’t go wrong with using swim lesson themes and swim lesson activities to make learning fun.

For children age 6 and over, I really focus more on skills when I teach.  I keep learning fun and positive, but I don’t necessarily incorporate swim lesson games into my swim lesson plan.   I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, and if you have some good ones, I’d love to hear them and I will be happy to give you credit for them if I decide to post (totally up to you)!  But in general, I think that when we have 30 minutes to teach a child age 6 or over,  “swimming” at this age is fun in itself.

On the other hand, preschoolers and young children under the age of six years old need activities to redirect them and make something that may seem a little scary more like play.  So in our swim lesson plans that we do with this age group—the children are learning and practicing skills without even realizing how hard they are working . . .   That’s what swim lesson games are all about!