Have you ever seen the “Whack-a-Mole” game at Chuck E. Cheese’s?   That’s where I got the  idea for “Whack-a-Mole” in the pool!  The children like when I pretend to be a “grumpy old man” (I’m really not :-)and they pretend to be the moles.    As you can see below, the kids really love it.  In fact, it is one of my most requested games from my Swim 102 and Swim Strokes 200 level students!

SAFETY NOTE:  As you can see in the video, all you have to do to make “your club” is simply slide the foam from one end of the barbell next to the other.  Even though the barbell is made of foam, I strongly recommend that you hit the water to the right or left of where the child goes underwater to be sure you don’t actually hit anyone!   This safety precaution also actually makes this swim lesson game even more fun because you can hit the water harder–making more noise and adding to the excitement . . . for the kids of course!

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).

As professional swimming instructors, we would be ignorant not to spend some time understanding, learning, and embracing the developmental characteristics of the students we teach. Why? If you look at them, you will see that there are significant teaching implications based on the generally accepted milestones experienced throughout the childhood years.

Children of the ages of 3 and 4 are experiencing what are known as the “magic years.” The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that 3 and 4 year olds love “Fantasy” and “Pretend Play,” as our young student’s imaginations are running wild. Early childhood educators also agree that by age three, children are becoming more independent, both physically and emotionally. One teaching implication is to give them time to ‘get things right’ or do it for themselves.

This research-based advice also should remind swimming instructors to never forget that patience is one of your most important teaching tools. For first-time submersion, one teaching implication would be to allow your students to decide when “they” want to go underwater, while providing lots of encouragement, praise, and support .

Here is an example of an activity where both children are benefitting from the recommendations just mentioned:
1. The 4-year old girl is being given time to get it right for herself without being pressured.
2. Both children are enjoying the activity that can be individualized for first-time submersion and breath control as “pretend play” is being utilized to make learning fun.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog!

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).

When teaching swimming lessons to preschoolers, you can be so much more successful when you make learning like play. The famous children’s television series “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” coincidentally targeted the same age group as our Swim 101 course, which is our beginners course for young children between the ages of three and five years of age.

Mr. Roger’s put it like this: “When we treat children’s play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that’s to be found in the creative spirit. It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”

Encouraging children to use their imagination engages and excites this young age group. This why it is important to use “make believe” in your classes with young learners. Here is a short video of two activities that you can use:

Could you see the effectiveness of the “pretend play?” When you can accomplish this in your Swim 101 classes, the skills naturally follow with repetition and your guidance. This is all possible because you were successful getting your students engaged in a manner that they are bursting with enthusiasm.

The trick then becomes in the transition from one activity to the next. You got to see one of those transitions. In the 2nd Edition of Swim 101 which will be published in January, 2014, you will get to see how to do it from the start of your class to the finish.

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).

In the “Swim 101” Lesson Plan, you will notice that we like to rotate three different flutter kick activities for variety and to keep the FUN in the Fundamentals. While the emphasis doesn’t change (we are still working on developing a sound freestyle kick), we add a new kick activity every two lessons. THIS ACTIVITY, “Let’s Build a Castle” is a great one that your young students are sure to love. Take a look and give it a try in your next swim lessons. The colorful building blocks can be found on the Swim Lessons University website under “Swim Instructor Accessories.”

For the entire “Swim 101” Course curriculum, check out the Swim Lessons University.  Swim 101 video highlights and samples of the entire course video can be found on the Swim Lessons University website.

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).

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” or something like that. Suggestions? I haven’t looked at Dick’s Sporting Goods yet, but might tomorrow. thank you.

– Roxanne D.

Dear Roxanne,

Swim fins can be helpful for all swimming ability levels.  Personally, I would strongly recommend the Finis Zoomers.  For others reading this blog, for a limited time (while they last), we have children’s zoomers on sale right now for just $12.99 regular $37.95!  Here are the reasons why I prefer the short blade Zoomers over other versions.

1.  Short Blade – Long blade fins do have a purpose, for instance, scuba diving.  If I have to get away from a shark, I want the longest blade possible, LOL 🙂   But seriously, long blade fins are a nice training tool for elite competitive swimmers for “sprint assisted” swimming.   Research shows that one way to improve sprint speed is to train at speeds faster than you can normally go.  The long fins allow for that.  Of course there are other ways to do that too, i.e., sprint assisted work with tubing.  But long fins can serve that purpose for a coach who has lots of swimmers in the pool.

So why do I recommend the short blade fins for swimming instructors and their swim lesson students?  Very simple.  If you study closely the movement pattern of the kick with a short blade fin, it will resemble very closely the movement pattern with no fins at all.  ON THE OTHER HAND, if you observe a kick with the long blade fin, the kick is a little different.  For competitive swimming especially, when races are won and lost by fractions of a second, you would clearly want to gain a training edge.  So when you are training with fins, you would ideally replicate that movement as closely as possible (I will touch on swim fins for beginners again at the end of the blog).

2.  Negative Buoyancy – The zoomers (at least the Original Zoomers did) are constructed with a rubber that give the fins negative buoyancy.  In other words, they sink.   Why is this an advantage?  From a training standpoint, your legs will experience the strengthening benefits that are a result of the fins making your legs work harder.  Floating fins, on the other hand, won’t work your legs quite as hard.

Let’s get back to swim fins for swim lessons, beginners, and novice swimmers.   When I am teaching a non-swimmer or beginner to swim, you don’t want the teaching tool to give more assistance than necessary.  It goes back to my lesson plan philosophy with flotation devices, holds, supports, and progressions.  The best artificial support is the one that gives the student just enough support to be successful.  If you give the learner too much support, they become dependent on it.  Then when you ask the learner to perform the skill on their own, it’s like asking them to climb a mountain instead of a small hill.  If you take baby steps, the learner will not only experience physical success  faster, but he will experience a psychological success as well,  and more importantly–his confidence will grow.

I believe this directly applies with swim fins for beginners.  If you give your beginner swimmer this big flipper that provides extraordinary propulsion, that’s all well and good until you remove the fin and ask them to swim without it.  Suddenly, their feet feel like rocks instead of flippers,  often resulting in a discouraged student who was on the verge of success, only to learn it was the flipper, not him!   The Zoomers, on the other hand, make the transition much easier because while they do provide additional propulsion, the kick with the Zoomers feels very similar to  the kick without the Zoomers–because it is!

So there you have it!  I hope my recommendation helps you and many others!

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 was 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).

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 fact, our Swim Lessons University Swimming Instructors are loving it too!

According to Dr. Bergan, who interviewed with Parenting Magazine, these pals can actually be healthy for kids. “Playing with a make-believe sidekick can help children develop the social skills such as getting along with other children, sharing, cooperation, and taking turns.”

I like to have my young students teach their invisible friend the stroke cues, tell them to praise their “invisible buddy” for a good job, and even tell their invisible buddy how to perform the skill better–but reminding my students to make sure they are telling their invisible buddies what they did well too so they don’t feel bad.

According to Dr. Bergen, “Invisible pals can also provide moral support, just as a real friend would.”

Give it a try in your Swim Strokes 201 class (ages 3-5) class.  Your young learn-to-swim students will love it!

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!

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 lessons group as it had every child engaged:

After dividing up the 100 swim lessons students into three time slots, with about 33 swimmers per half hour, we gathered the first group on deck. With five instructors in the water, I had created five single file lines with an average of 6-7 children per line. I was about to have the instructors do a freestyle kick demonstration in the prone kick position (also known as the in-line kick). This is the second of two tests we do (first test: kick with a noodle or kick board with the face out of the water). This test determines what group we are going to place the students. One other note, 95% of the children are African American, and I’d estimate up to 50% of them have never been in a swimming pool.

So I say to the kids: “Someday when you grow up (like when your 21 or 22 or 23 years old) and my swim teachers are old and gray and retired, I would love to have some of you in here teaching swim lessons for me! So today we’re going to do a little role playing and pretend you are the teacher for a minute and see how well you do. Let’s imagine the swim instructors are your students taking swim lessons from you. I’m going to tell you softly what to say, repeat after me: Arms straight (arms straight), fast kick (fast kick), face in the water (face in the water), ready-go (ready-go)!”

It was such a neat thing to hear those 2^nd graders pretend they were the swim teacher and to see the teachers do what they said. I even think it reminded the teachers how effective choral responding is and how important start signals are in their own teaching. There was no question what those kids playing the role of swim teachers wanted their teachers to do!

So there you have it:  a quick little swim school idea that that was fun for the kids and good for the swim lesson instructors too!

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 into my Parent & Me and Swim 101 classes, which you can get a free sneak preview of on my Parent & Me YouTube Video.   Singing songs the children know can also help alleviate anxiety and redirect a young, potentially fearful child’s focus to something other than what he/she is worrying about.

Here a few of the songs we like and use in our Parent & Me and Swim 101 classes:

• “If You’re Happy & You Know It”

• “Rain, Rain Go Away”

• “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”

• “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”

• “The Wheels on the Bus” (our version “The Babies in the Pool”)

As I noted, when we sing “The Wheels on the Bus,” we substitute the words “The Babies in the Pool.”  When I sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to my Swim 101 students and I feel I need to encourage them to kick more, I sometimes substitute the actual words of the song with “Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick your feet,  splashing in the swimming pool” so they are getting specific feedback/instructions while singing the melody of the song.

One way or the other, when you teach baby swim lessons, swim lesson for toddlers or preschoolers, you want to make swim lesson songs a part of your daily swim lesson plan.