In my previous blog, ‘How to Use Positive Feedback in Swimming Lessons,” we discussed the importance of using general positive feedback in swimming lessons. Praising your students, whether it be for an actual improvement in performance or for the student’s effort is paramount when it comes to teaching children. Nonetheless, while swimming instructors must be positive and encouraging, we can’t expect our young students to improve without letting the learner know what he or she must do differently in order to improve.

The use of Specific, Corrective Feedback has been the subject of research in motor learning and in teaching. Theoretically, specific information should be more valuable to the learner. Specific feedback has the potential to contribute to student learning a great deal more than general feedback. Specific feedback also serves a major role in maintaining student attention to the task and in developing accountability for task. (Rink, 1993).

What’s important to understand about Specific, Corrective Feedback is that when learners are in the beginning stages (See Cognitive Stage of Learning in my 1/8/17 blog), they cannot use detailed information, which makes it absolutely critical for swimming instructors to give feedback that tends to the “general idea” of the skill. At Swim Lessons University, we have buzzwords and cues for every skill on every lesson plan. We train SLU instructors to give their specific, corrective feedback based on those cues because they have been tested, tried and proven over the past 30+ years. In other words, these cues are not only practical and easy to understand, but they will help the young student learn and master the new skill.

With that said, Specific, Corrective Feedback can also come with a cost if it is overused. Research by The Positive Coaching Alliance shows the magic formula is 5:1! Five positives for every correction.   One technique I like to use is the “Sandwich Technique” when giving corrections: Complement, correct, complement. For example, “Maggie, you have such beautiful strokes. Now if you can just keep your head nice and still, your backstroke is going to look even more fabulous!” While this may be a 2:1 ratio, you just make sure to praise your student on a few more things that your student is doing well before giving another correction. Hope you found this blog helpful!

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).

Do your students ever get bored, or even lazy while you’re having them practice their freestyle kick in swim lessons? Here’s a fun little game you can incorporate called “Cat and Mouse” that has proven to be both MOTIVATIONAL and FUN! 

For more detailed instructions on “How to Teach the Freestyle and Backstroke,” check out our “SWIM STROKES 201/202/203” video 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.

The Swim Lessons University Instructor certification is an internationally recognized alternative to the Red Cross WSI. And when you utilize SLU, you can even SPECIALIZE to teach in specific courses or you can certify to teach then all! Best of all, when you choose Swim Lessons University you can do all your training at your own facility or in the comfort of your own home, at your pace, and at a fraction of the cost!

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).

So last night my wife Heather and I were winding down and watching reruns of “King of Queens” and she fell asleep on the couch.  I decided to head to bed and let her sleep.  Well a few hours later, our five-year old Nolan goes downstairs and decides to curl up on the couch with her in the middle of the night.  He then proceeds to wake her up and asks:  “Can we go upstairs and sleep in your bed?

Heather says: “Okay, but just for little bit.  Then you need to go back to sleep in your bed like a big boy.  You go ahead up and warm the bed up for us and I’ll be up in 5 minutes.”

Nolan responds: “I have no idea what you’re saying to me!” LOL!

This leads me to our choice of words and lingo when teaching young children to swim.  Too often we try to impress the parents and use advanced terminology.  While it may sound good to the parents, more often than not our young students don’t understand what we are trying to convey to them.  In my 5-Year old Nolan’s words:, “I have no idea what you’re saying to me!”   If they don’t understand what we are telling them, learning will be hindered.  On the contrary, if a Swim Instructor uses the K.I.S.S.  technique (Keep it Simple Stupid), children will learn to swim faster.

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).

How do you schedule your swim lesson sessions?

• Once per week for eight to 12 weeks.
• Once or twice per week charging monthly dues.
• Twice per week for three to six weeks.
• Three or four days per week for two weeks.

First off, if you offer quality swim lessons, your customers will adapt to whatever you offer.  However, with that said, especially in this economy, it is certainly worth taking a closer look at how you will achieve the most profitable return.

From a skill acquisition standpoint, I prefer seeing my students twice per week over a long period of time.  Ideally, I would like most children in the pool twice per week for a solid six months a year.  The problem is that as a business owner, even if you are considered a swim lessons guru, the majority of parents aren’t necessarily going to do exactly what you suggest.  Why?  The excuses are endless, i.e., inconvenience, activity overload, homework, sibling activity conflicts, work conflicts, financially impossible, etc.

As a business owner, I try to adapt to the needs of my customers.  After all, if you can’t get them in your pool your customer will make one of two choices:

1. They will keep their child out of the pool all together.
2. They will leave you for your best competitor who will adapt to their needs.

I have a problem with both of those alternatives… don’t you? So here is my solution:

I have been running our local swim school, The Swim Lessons Company in South Carolina since 1994.  Over time, I have learned and experienced through trial and error what the parents in this area are willing to do.  We have offered each of the different scenarios I have mentioned above, and they have all had their success and failures.

I personally prefer more success that than failure.  I prefer to learn from my failures.  What I have learned and concluded was that my offerings had to change with the season.  During most of the academic year, parents aren’t willing to take lessons more than once per week.  During the spring as summer is approaching, parents start acquiring some anxiety so to speak.  Why?  Summer is coming and their child can’t swim or doesn’t swim well enough.  When summer arrives, they are ready to be at the pool every day.  So I simply learned to go along with their interests and offer what the majority of parents seem to want.  For my business model, what they want turns out to be most effective when offered in a “sessions” format because it works nicely with our online registration program.

Here’s what our typical year looks like:

Winter – Six to eight weeks, 1x per week

March – Four weeks, 2x per week

April – Four weeks, 2x per week

May – Four weeks, 2x per week

Summer – Two-week sessions, 3-4x per week.

Indian Summer (early fall) – Six weeks, 1x per week.

Fall – Eight weeks, 1x per week.

After much trial and error, this appears to be the best system for swim lessons in Columbia, South Carolina.  If we were in Florida or a different geographical area with different demographics, we may find something completely different works best.

For my own children (three boys now 1.5, 3.5, & 8.5 years old), I have them in the pool twice per week for six to eight months because this is what I personally believe is the best approach.  I stick with this routine until they graduate from lessons as my eight year old Jeb did just before his sixth birthday.  At that point, I want my children doing at least three months of swim team a year to further strengthen and refine their swimming skills.  If they want to do more than that, that’s their choice.  But like buckling their seat belts when they are in the car, doing less isn’t their choice.  Jeb will be nine this summer and he has been on my little novice swim team since he was six years old.  After doing our twice per week swim lesson program since he was a toddler, he could competently swim all four competitive strokes as well as sidestroke, elementary backstroke, and tread water.  So since he turned six, he has done swim team twice per week for three months a year.  I am satisfied with that because he is a strong swimmer.  I have no problem with him playing soccer and basketball in the fall, winter, and spring.  I think this is perfectly fine.  But if you’re eight years old and you can’t swim–it is my opinion that child should be spending more time in the pool and a little less on the fields until he/she can swim well for safety reasons.

I wish I could force that philosophy on my patrons, but I can’t.  It could put me out of business.   Instead, I offer what works and I offer what works in their schedules, in our part of the country.  Good business isn’t about us, it’s about our customers.  Hope this helps you!  My very best to you and your program!

Swim Instructors and coaches from every sport are always looking for that new piece of equipment that will help their students or athletes perform better. We all want to think of our programs as state-of-the-art, with the most up-to-date teaching methods, curriculum, etc., which includes our swim lesson tools. Personally, whether I’m coaching or teaching, I look for ways to put a little variety in the lesson just to keep things interesting. Let’s admit it, swimming is not the most exciting sport to practice, although just being in the water with a positive, encouraging instructor can make all the difference in the world.

With that said, swim lessons tools do play a vital role in our approach. We are “missing the boat” if we don’t take the time to consider how different swim toys, flotation devices, and other swim gear could help our program. But at the same time, it’s easy to go overboard. If you find yourself using so many different tools and pieces of equipment that you’re not working on the fundamental skill enough, you’ve gone too far. Get back to the basics.

So what do we use in our Swim Lessons University swim lessons? Well, it really depends on the course. For example, in our Parent & Me class we have a baby doll (to demonstrate holds, etc.), noodles (so the two year olds can start practicing kicking independently), colorful floating blocks, fish or other aquatic creatures, a watering bucket, bubbles (for redirection), SwimWays Rad Rings, and possibly a flotation device for the two year olds for their kicking exercises. I like using these especially because they help promote a horizontal position, which encourages a narrow kick that is propulsive and behind the body vs. a bicycle kick under the body causing a lot of drag.

Speaking of flotation devices, I have used the SwimWays flotation device for years and I’m sure we will continue to use it, but I’m also very excited to try the new OpaCove Sea Squirts. This is a new product that is very cute, with a variety of designs like sharks, clownfish, pink dolphins, killa whales, and blue dolphins. Like the SwimWays Power Swimr, their “Swim Assist” version has removable buoyancy pads so your students have a natural progression in the learn to swim process while affording the beginner with the ability to practice swimming independently sooner. OpaCove also carries a coast guard approved Life Jacket which I like for teaching larger groups of children or for open swim practice, not only for the reasons I mentioned above, but now for safety and liability as well. It is a little more expensive than the SwimWays device, but because it is made of neoprene, it should be as it’s much more durable and should last much longer.

At any rate, I can’t wait to try them out (my samples just arrived today) and you can be sure that I will let you know how it goes. If I like them enough, you may eventually be able to purchase them on the Swim Lessons University website.

But let’s get back to my thoughts on Swim Lessons Tools: No matter what tools you try or how many you use, remember that the most important part of teaching is not the equipment or the prop–but the teacher. Just as it isn’t as much the student’s ability that allows him to succeed, but rather the student’s enthusiasm and effort. Long before we had all these neat gadgets, children still learned how to swim. Your thorough preparation, your swim lesson plans, progressions, and most importantly your dedication and encouraging approach can never be replaced . . . ever!

Recently I led a round table discussion at the U.S. Swim School Conference in Las Vegas on Strokes Drills and Progressions. While we primarily discussed the importance of progressions and the purpose of progressions during that conversation, there is another aspect to this conversation that we didn’t get to discuss: Swim Lesson Drills. When, why, and how much of your lessons should be comprised of stroke drills?

First, allow me to state the purpose of a stroke drill: To isolate a particular aspect of the stroke that you want to focus on improving, strengthen, or even to make a correction. Secondly, and most importantly, I want to emphasize in this swim lesson blog that drills should NEVER be a substitute for practicing the entire stroke! In other words, if your swim lesson plans are geared to teach a child the freestyle side breathing (one of many examples), you want to be sure to allocate time to Freestyle with Side Breathing in every lesson and have your learn-to-swim student(s) attempt to put it all together.

As an instructor, don’t put yourself in a position where you are going to run out of time. Don’t put your student in a position where your students don’t have an opportunity to try the whole stroke and practice it. I would rather skip a drill in the sequence than skip the skill that your student is ultimately trying to learn.

Remember this: Drills will help your swimmers improve certain aspects of the stroke by isolating certain parts, but if your student doesn’t get to practice the stroke in its entirety, it significantly reduces the purpose and effectiveness of the drill. It may even confuse the swimmer or cause the parent to think that you are not teaching them the stroke they signed up to learn.

At Swim Lessons University, we make it easy on our teachers by allocating a designated amount of time in each our swim lesson plans to practice specific drills as well as the whole stroke. And at the same time, we still remind our teachers that if they have to skip something, skip a drill, not the stroke!

How to Teach Swim Lessons for Kids

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
When it comes to teaching swimming lessons, there are some basic guidelines that every experienced swim instructor follows. Whether they do it knowingly or naturally, here are some swim lesson basics that should take place in the process. How to teach kids to swim:

Steps

1. Safety first. Never turn your back on a beginner. Have a lifeguard or water watcher. Especially if you are teaching a large group, use lifejackets. If teaching a small class of preschoolers(4 or less), use a progressive flotation device).
2. Show that you care. Warmly welcome every student. Hold their hand and walk them up to the pool. Hold their hand and walk them back to the parents. Tell mom or dad how wonderful they did. This is also a good safety practice, especially if the deck is slippery.
3. Be prepared. “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” Always have a Lesson plan with both age appropriate skills and progressions.
4. Always create a positive environment. First and foremost, the backbone of your approach be positive. Every class should be dominated by smiles and laughter, lots of praise and positive feedback !
5. Use practical skill progressions. Skills should be broken down from easy to hard, or simple to complex. At Swim Lessons University, we include skill progressions that have been tested and tried right in the laminated swim lessons plans for you
6. Sandwich “corrections” with complements. Complement, correct, complement. A great technique. At the very least, complement twice as much as you correct.
7. Teach age appropriate skills. This is all about curriculum and having a good one. Far too often teachers get bored teaching a skill so they jump to something else. Big mistake. Learning is a process, not an event. Go through the progressions and be patient.
8. Child focused first. Skills second. NEVER put mastering a skill ahead of the child’s well-being and happiness. A child must love to learn first, before he/she can learn to swim. By forcing skills or progressions on a child before he/she is ready, you may turn a child off to swim lessons all together.
9. Use skill appropriate swim lesson equipment. Kickboards, for example, are wonderful tools. But for three and four year olds especially, you many want to substitute a noodle first and then graduate them to a kickboard once they mastered kicking with the noodle. Kickboards, noodles, and barbells are the primary learn to swim tools I recommend (along with some toys and props for our preschool swim lesson activities).
10. For preschoolers, use more of an activity-oriented approach. Children 5 and under (especially 3’s & 4’s) NEED a different approach than what is traditionally done for older children. The key with preschoolers is to keep the lesson engaging and redirect their attention by making learning like play.
11. Praise effort! Children aren’t always going to pick up a new skill. It’s extremely important that we praise effort as well as skill mastery. After all, when a skill comes naturally, children don’t learn lifelong habits like persistence and work ethic. On the other hand, if they have to work for it a little bit and don’t get discouraged, they do learn the invaluable characteristics of determination and perseverance.
12. Make learning like play. Have fun! If it’s fun, your students will want to come back and develop a life long love affair with the water.
13. Educate parents on the importance of learning to swim, and at the same time, stress that there is no such thing as drownproofing.
14. Act like a professional. Dress for success, arrive early, stay on schedule, keep your equipment and props neatly organized on deck (don’t allow stuff to be floating all over the pool), and avoid talking about personal issues.

    Follow these Swim Lessons Basics tips for swimming instructors and earn the respect of everyone you encounter, while you teach a skill that could save a child’s life.

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 is that each show starts the same way.  This is also a great swim lessons idea!

In case you’re not familiar with the late and legendary Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood television series, each time he began a show he would walk into his television living room at the start of the visit singing, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The song is gentle and caring, and features comforting lines like “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood” and ends with “Won’t you please? Won’t you please? Please won’t you be my neighbor?”

For your swim lesson plans , the next idea you can take from these show is to PRETEND!  Preschoolers love to use their imagination and pretend.

At Swim Lessons University, we start each of our Swim 101 classes with a swim lessons activity story called “Your Motorboat’s Stuck in the Mud.”  In this activity, you (the teacher) start the activity off by saying, “Once upon a time, i.e., Johnny was taking a boat ride, when all of the sudden, the boat got stuck in the mud!   Then you really get your students engaged by saying, “now say what I say:”  “That’s okay (that’s okay), I know how to get the boat out of the mud ( I know how to get the boat out of the mud). ”  All you have to do is kick like this (All you have to do is kick like this)!”    And the teacher demonstrates a stationary kick holding the bench or the step.

I look forward to sharing more swim lessons ideas for teaching preschoolers in my next blog.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University Online Swim Instructor Certification  and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com

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).

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Would you like to learn an easy way to construct great swim lesson plans for your beginner swimmers? It’s as easy as 1-2-3! Read on!

Steps

1. Determine what skills are most age-appropriate to teach your beginner swimmers on a daily basis. The age of your students does dictate what skills are appropriate, but in general, you will spend time each class on kicking, breath control, breath holding, in-line kick (prone kick), back kick, and some type of swim (depends on age and skill readiness).
2. Determine an age-appropriate total class length time. For preschoolers, 20 – 30 minutes is standard. One important consideration on whether you go 20, 25, or 30-minutes is the number of children in the class. A 20-minute class may be enough for a private lesson for a 3 or 4 year old–but is NOT enough time if you have two or more children in the class. In that case, go with a 25-30 minute lesson for beginner preschool age swimmers.
3. Determine how much time you will allocate to each skill so that you can spend some time on each of the skills you would like your student to learn. Of course there may be classes where you don’t get through everything and that’s okay. But be careful not to “overstay your welcome” on any given skill AND realize that there is both skill and confidence transfer. In other words, when a child becomes more proficient at one skill that helps his/her confidence to improve the other skills and vice versa. One more tip, always try to spend time on the “swimming skill” which is usually allocated for the end of the class. As a rule of thumb–if you’re going to skip something, skip a drill instead of the main skill.
4. Determine a set of progressions for each skill. For example, the end product for the “in-line kick/prone kick” would be that the child can kick with their face in the water, arms extended for 10 feet or so without any buoyancy props. However, the progression you predetermine may be in three stages: Stage 1: Use a barbell, arms extended, blowing bubbles. Stage 2: Use a barbell, arms extended, face in the water. Stage 3: Eliminate the barbell, arms extended, face in the water.
5. Determine what cues or buzzwords you will use for each skill. For example, when teaching breath control, your buzzwords may be “breathe in your mouth, blow out your mouth and your nose.”
6. Determine what equipment, toys, or props that you will need for your class. For example you may want to have kickboards, noodles, barbells, etc. available for your class.
7. Determine a general level of proficiency that you will require the student to have mastered before advancing your student to a new stroke, skill set, etc.

Video

Watch some highlights of author, Jim Reiser, using his lesson plans for teaching beginners to swim.

Sources and Citations

• Original Source: www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com
• For specific lesson plans for all ages and skill levels, visit Swim Lessons University today!

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write Swim Lesson Plans for Beginner Swimmers. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.