It’s very important to begin orientating your child to the water as early as 6 months. Babies are born with a Swimming reflex that begins to dissipate at 6 months.This reflex is a natural reaction to submersion and the baby will instinctively hold their breath as well kick their feet.

Babies can’t actually swim, however, you can condition behaviors that will help orientate them to the water and increase their chances of surviving an accidental submersion. I will show you how to prepare a child of any age for swimming lessons and how to practice.

The first behavior your child must master is to never enter the water or jump of a wall unless they have been cued to enter. Always, count to three before entering the water. Always, work from the stairs or wall and have your child turn back to where the started . You want to condition your child to return to the wall or stairs after they swim to you.

Step 1 – Preparation for Underwater swimming

Begin with small amounts using small amounts of water and progress to cups and buckets of water. Pour the water after counting to 3, the water should run over the crown of the head and over the child’s mouth. With older children that have some fear of water you should begin pours on the back of the head and over ears before the face. You can teach older children growling and humming to keep water out of the nose and mouth.

Step 2 – Orientation to the buoyancy of the water.

Hold your child under their arms and let them float in your hands with their shoulders in the water. Keep your child in the prone position with their legs behind, don’t let them crawl or stand up while practicing swimming.

Step 3 – Back float

Back floating is an essential swimming safety skills, however, most children are reluctant to stay on their backs. Start with the students head resting on your shoulder and begin to sing with the student or count. The child should be sitting up with their head on your shoulder when you begin the back float. Slowly dip back with your child and when the sit up don’t hold them down, sit them up and do it again the same way.

Step 4 – Underwater swimming

Underwater preparation cueing transition to submersion. After you count to three you gently submerge the child completely underwater then return to the surface. Cuing can be done with lifting and you can also blow in the child face before submersion.

Cue techniques: Lifts and blowing in the face. You should ever force a child underwater younger children will never fight, however, as they get older and develop anxiety they will. With children reluctant to go under then you must get them to growl or hum into the water before you help them under the water.

Always condition safe behavior!

Don’t allow your student to enter the water or jump of a wall unless they have been cued to enter. Count to 3 before entering the water and every time you leave the stairs or wall. Make sure to turn the child right back to where they started every time!

Hold your child in a way that allows them to feel the buoyancy of the water. Small children under the arms and older children by the hand and glide arms.

Never too much water pouring when you are practicing. Teach exhaling underwater with humming or growling and look up to the sky to catch a cloud.

Back floating use the cheek to cheek and make sure to support the students head with your shoulder. Don’t fight when they attempt to sit up. Just redirect and try it again.

 Use the lifting method and counting to prepare a child to swim underwater. Make sure to hold the child under their arms lifted high and slowly and consistently go underwater on three. Never force a child underwater. Most importantly have fun. Do you feel like you can practice swimming with your kids now?

Step 1 Begin with small amounts using small amounts of water and progress to cups and buckets of water. Pour the water after counting to 3

Step 2 Hold your child under their arms and let them float in your hands with their shoulders in the water. Keep your child in the prone position with their legs behind.

Step 3 Back float – Start with the students head resting on your shoulder and begin to sing with the student or count.

Step 4 Underwater swimming – Cue techniques

Fear of Water Elimination –

Step 1 Preparation for underwater swimming: 1, 2, 3 Pour water on the face

Growl in the water

Quick breaths

Bobs

Step 2 Orientation to the buoyancy of the water

Use the steps to lift your legs behind you

Take one hand off the steps then switch

Use a noodle to become comfortable with you legs off the bottom

Step 3 Underwater swimming

Glide to the stairs face in the water

Glide to the stairs while exhaling underwater

Step 4

Find an instructor you trust to assist you to transition into swimming. You will need to work in shallow water at all times

Begin to use arm strokes and kicking while maintaining a prone position. Finally you will be working toward exhaling underwater and looking up to take a pop up breath

Learning to Swim is FUN!

Each student will present with unique challenges and abilities. We want to customize all of skill exercises and interactions to fit your child’s personality. We will find many creative ways to make getting water on the face and going underwater fun.

Identify, what your student needs to feel comfortable, i.e toys, splashing, pouring water, high fives, etc. Encourage your student to use their imagination. Children learn well through play and by imitating the adults in their lives. Use redirection to help a child that seems to become scared all of a sudden.

 

Roadblocks to Learning to Swim

When a child is fearful in the water it’s caused by anxiety of the unknown. The older a child begins swimming lessons the more likely they will have sensitivity to the water on the face and the buoyancy feeling.

Swimming is the only Sport that can Save your Life

Learning to become a strong swimmer could potentially be life saving. Swimming takes specific conditioning and well established muscle memory development through consistent practice.

Why swim all year?

Avoid the frustration of starting over with swimming each Spring. Prevent fear of water from becoming a hindrance to your child’s ability to enjoy the water. Easier to find a time that is convenient with less students enrolled in swim classes.

Your child will be conditioned for swimming and less likely to panic in water, therefore, much safer in the water when the pool season rolls back around. Your child will be able to enjoy pool parties and vacation next summer if they can already swim.

Swimming conditioning will diminish quickly without consistent practice. Open water swimming or surfing is an amazing inexpensive hobby for many and is only safe if you are a strong swimmer.

Swimming is a great social activity for you and your child outside of the school environment. Your student could be ready for swim team or water camps next year. Your student will become comfortable with a coach at an early age helping to decrease separation anxiety.

Do you think that Swimming is just a Summer activity?

We live in a fast paced world and we often cut out the things that make life better like exercise and fun. Swim lessons can be taught in 20 minutes. These 20 minutes swim lessons will be packed with fun and exercise along with learning a valuable skill.

It’s especially important to have consistent positive swimming exposure to the water if your child has any anxiety. Swimming is not like riding a bike as some may think.

Children will be safer and more comfortable in the water the younger they learn to swim. Swimming becomes more difficult to learn as you get older. Fear of water only occurs from lack of swimming exposure or a traumatic water incident. Swim lessons year round will help your child swim faster and prevent fear of water.

Recommended Tools to Enhance learning

Goggles: Essential to help with comfort learning to swim

Kickboard: Helps students understand how to maintain prone streamline position while kicking.

Fins: Great for kids with fear

Noodle: Helps to instill confidence while swimming with limited support

Water Toys: Can be used as a reward or help to focus attention.

You want to make sure your kids are orientated to the places that they’re going to be the most. Like the splash pads and shallow areas around the stairs. These areas are best for practicing swimming skills.

 

Baby Lesson

Pouring water on our babies’ face will prevent their natural swimming reflex from fading. The swim reflex causes your baby to hold their breath when water is on their face. Try pouring water on your babies face in the water to see how the reflection in action.

Babies are curious about the water and you want to use their natural curiosity to get them comfortable. Pour water right in front of their face and have them feel the stream of water.

Babies will have an increased since of mobility in the water. When your baby naturally kicks in the water be sure to move forward. They will associate the kicking with mobility.

Remember, drowning is still a leading cause of death or severe injury for children under the age of 5, diligence around any water is paramount. Also, many children are traumatized by forceful lessons or near drowning events.

Never turn your back on a child when you are in a pool or near any water. No matter how safe your child seems to be in the water don’t have a false sense of security

Your child will be as comfortable in the water as you are.

Don’t practice swimming with a student if you are scared of the water yourself.

It’s important to work with a skilled instructor that can help teach you the skills necessary to effectively work with your kids in the water. The key to instilling behaviors that can save your baby’s life and help them learn to swim faster is consistent practice as a parent outside of a lesson environment.

Focus on the fundamentals that will help your child actually swim. Not the bubble-blowing, splashing, and just playing around with water. We want your child to actually be able to move from point A to point B exhaling underwater and taking breaths while maintaining the streamline swimming position on top of the water.

Learning to Swim Primary Skills –

Breath control – Students must exhale or growl in order to breathe while swimming.

Buoyancy – Students must understand how the water hold them and how to balance in the water.

Stroke Mechanics – Students must learn how to kick properly and effectively pull the water.

 

Expectations

The average age a child can start to transition into swimming is between two and three. Under the age of two the goal is conditioning safe behavior in and around the water as well life saving skills.

Now, you have to have consistent exposure before that or be very consistent once you start in that age group. But if you do, if you’re able to do two or three focused sessions a day, you can have amazing results even with these really young kids. But the most important thing is that we’re focused on the right fundamentals.

You should continue to get your kids in the water. Lots of kids do year round swimming. Are in the water once a week, twice a week, year round all the way until they are on the swim team. Four or five years old they can start to transition to the swim team.

Safety Skills

The fundamentals of water safety, staying on the wall, or staying on the shallow areas until you actually give them a cue. One, two, three, off the wall, back on the wall. Always returning to the same area. Super very important even when you get to the side of the pool that your kids are sitting down before they even get into the pool. So you have them sit down and one, two, three, off the side into a step area. And then off the steps one, two, three and then always going right back to the same spot.

Very important that you focus on the water safety conditioning. That kids have an understanding of their safe area.

Two Roadblock to Learning how to Swim

Roadblock 1 – Water sensitivity

Roadblock 2 – Buoyancy / Weightless feeling in the water.

We need to focus on those two elements for your kids to be comfortable in the water and to expedite the learning to swim process. You start it in a bathtub or in a pool on the side, you want to make sure that they are grounded, that they have their feet underneath them when you first do water sensitivity practice.

First, is a water sensitivity. Make sure that they are able to be completely comfortable with water on their face. Pour water on the child’s ears, the back of the head, and then on the face. Pour water on yourself to encourage tolerance. You need to be able to pour a steady stream of water on the child’s face before attempting to go underwater.

If the student has a very negative reaction to the water on the face wipe the water of the face with pressure. This is a magic trick to relieve the sensation that is causing the negative response.

Now we need to teach your child to exhale underwater allowing them to take breaths easily. The best way to keep water out of the nose and mouth is to make a humming or growling sound underwater. Many students struggle with keeping water out of their nose because they don’t exhale out of their nose. Teach humming to the fishes and look up out of the water to catch a cloud.

Next we need to acclimate your child to the buoyancy of the water. The goal is for your child to allow their legs to float behind them in a streamlined position. They need to be able to keep their bodies relaxed.

Start your child swimming while holding them underneath their arms. Keep your child’s head just above the water line and keep their legs behind them. Prevent your child from getting into a standing position.

Look for tension in the neck and encourage your child not to tense up their neck. Teach them about how turtles scrunch their neck and to not be a Turtle, stretch your neck like a Giraffe. The more they can relax the better their body will float.

Swimming Skill Conditioning

We can now start a conditioning process to prepare your child to swim underwater. You condition a behavior through many repetitions. The more you repeat the skill the better it will be an instinctive response.

Verbal Cue – Teach verbal cuing by counting to 3 every time you enter the water, pour water on the face, or begin to swim. Allow your child to float in your hand on the surface of the water without lifting them up.

Non Verbal Cue – You will lift your student out of the water before submersion as a unconscious que that they are going underwater. Also, make sure that you’re always getting them to return back to stairs, or to be able to practice in very shallow area and teach them a routine.

Safe Behavior Conditioning – Count to 3 before entering the water and then leaving the shallow area or stairs for a swim. 

Always return back to the safe spot that you started from either the shallow area or from sitting on the wall. You want to be really aware of how you’re working with your kids when you’re around the water. Think about it from the perspective of safety at all times. Never turn your back on your child when you are swimming.

Underwater Swimming

Make sure when you’re holding your student under their arms floating in your hands. You will feel that their bodies buoyancy in your hands. Babies heads will be too heavy to keep their heads up, so you have to hold them at more of an angle to keep their face above the water.

After your child is comfortable with water on their face then you can put them under water. You hold them under their arms, count to 3, lift them up out of the water, then allow their body weight to take them underwater you don’t need to push. Additionally you can blow air into their face before submersion to make sure they hold their breath.

You will see the child ready to go underwater as you continue to practice this lifting method prior to submersion. Once you begin the lifting always finish the process of going underwater. If the student looks scared then roll them to submerge just a cheek. You should do 3 water pours on the face prior to going underwater.

Now they can go underwater and can hold their breath you want to teach them how to take breaths as quickly as possible. Just holding your breath underwater doesn’t allow you to swim safely. We have to begin to teach your child to exhale underwater then to look up to breathe.

Underwater Swimming and Pop Up Breathing –

If your child is swimming underwater you can transition into teaching them to exhale and take breaths. This is where a lot of kids get hung up and just hold their breath instinctively. You must exhale underwater to take a breath.

Catch cloud, and sing with the fish.

Starting off the wall, one, two, three, off the wall, have them exhale, sing (humming or growling sound)

We are not encouraging bubble blowing this will allow water to get in your mouth and nose. Sing (humming or growling sound) to the fish then catch a cloud for a breath.

Begin to teach the swimming with pop up breaths –

Teach your child holding them underneath their arms and saying catch a cloud lifting their heads up out of the water looking up. While you’re holding them with one hand, because they’re buoyant, they’re going to float easily for you to hold them with one hand. Give them high fives and switching hand holds.

After the breathe show them growling and tell them growl / hum to the fish. You want to continue this process and keep them in a streamline position legs floating behind them. Tell your child not to stand up.

Your brain freezes when you’re in a panic and your body is just reacts. You must be conscious about looking up to take a breath, and exhaling. This is why you want to show them and tell them what to do. Also, give them encouragement saying, the water will hold you up and you are doing great. Make sure to prevent and to tell your child not to stand up.

 

Back float

It’s important to teach your children to roll from front to their back for floating. Demonstrate turning your head while looking at your student and have them mirror you. Explain this is the same way you can turn on your back. You want to make everything fun and allow your child to use their imagination to visualize what you want them to try.

Do you want to be a pancake or a pizza? Are you Flat like a pancake?

Start with moving them from side to side in the water then rolling them to their back. To help them maintain a float ask them to put their head on your shoulder. You need to maintain contact with their head as you lower them into a floating position. If they sit up don’t hold them down this will only cause more resistance. It’s better to let them sit up then do ear dips and get right back to practicing floating.

Arm Strokes to Generate Momentum –

You can develop arm stroke muscle memory through helping your child’s arms to track through the water correctly. The most critical aspect of the arms strokes is when you push water creating forward momentum this is called the catch. It’s common for kids to pull their arms through the water without actually catching the water.

You want to teach your student to push the water with their bicep and forearm. Play the game bubble bath to develop an effective stroke catch. To play reach your arms back and push the water forward with force creating bubbles.

When your child has a good feel for the water and creating bubbles transition to pulling the water backwards creating forward momentum. Row your boat song helps to establish a great association for your child.

The second critical aspect of the stroke is the recovery of the arms over the water. In order for you arms to track over the water your shoulders must rotate.

Ask your child to cross their arms and hold onto the shoulders. They need to rotate their core while keeping the head stationary. Then help their arms track through the air and allow the shoulders to rotate. Next, have your child put their hands on the wall of the pool, pull through the water, turn shoulders, point their elbow up, and allow the arm to track under the elbow dragging the surface of the water. Help your child practice the fundamentals of the strokes by holding by their knees holding them in place.

Kicking is Overrated –

Tell your child not to kick, instead allow their legs to float straight. Kicks that are not small fast flutter kicks are counterproductive. Don’t allow your student to pedal or stand up while swimming. You can teach the flutter kick using a kick board held to the stomach while the student floats on their back.

Freestyle and Backstroke –

Transition into working on the freestyle as soon as the student can take pop up breaths and swim on their own without holding their breath. Many children will learn to swim with holding their breath they can’t learn the freestyle before they master exhaling underwater and taking quick pop up breaths.

Make sure the student streamline glide is near perfect.

Students must learn to press their ear onto the arm in order to breathe on the side. I call it a breathe button to give these students and association to push their head down. Most people lift their head of the water when breathing on the side causing them to lose the streamline position.

Make sure the student can balance on their breathing side with their head on the arm. It’s helpful to isolate the breathing on the side motion and teach rolling into the water and back onto the breathing side (breathe button) without arm strokes.

The easiest way I have found to teach freestyle is to have the student focus on pressing the breath button on their arm and I will move their arms in the correct stroke mechanics. The correct arm strokes will come with development of muscle memory, therefore, working their arms helps with this development.

Don’t allow your student to develop bad arm stroke muscle memory. Make sure elbows are pointed upward and fingers are dragging the surface of the water. It helps to have the students practice the correct arms stroke standing and hands on the side of the pool.

It’s also helpful to hold their hands and help them do a modified catch up drill. I find that adults do well practicing catch up with a kickboard and kids respond better to the more manually assistance.

Correct streamlined kicking is best practiced on back. Don’t allow thee knees or legs to break the surface to develop a true flutter kick. It’s helpful to practice flutter kick on a kickboard once the student has a good feel for it on their back.

Once the student masters the streamlined flutter kick on their back then teaching backstroke arms is advisable.

It helps to teach back streamline glides and wall turns along with teaching backstroke.

Students will need to learn to growl or blow air out if their nose since a proper streamlined backstroke will certainly cause backward underwater submersion.

Skill Fundamental Tips –

Focus on the underwater swimming prep, proper hand holds, and cueing. Hand under arms with child floating in your hands

Underwater submersion preparation with water pours on three. Start with a sponge and move to cups and buckets of water. Make it fun and pour on yourself.

Cue for underwater swimming is 1, 2, 3 then lift out of the water and under. Children under three will respond well to the lift cue, older kids you should watch their face to make sure they are not panicking before underwater swimming. You can do partial underwater submersion (to their nose) for older children and tell them to growl or hum.

Under the age of three just lift and go all the way under when they are doing well with long water pours on face. Ear Dips, Growling or humming in the water and water pours over face on 3 count.

Glides: Maintain a streamline position arms and legs straight.

We want the student to understand the buoyancy, therefore, taking on hand off the student and giving a five or helping them stroke is very helpful.

Streamline kicking: kicks don’t break the surface and knees are not bent keeping legs straight. This can be practiced on the back.

Back float (Head on instructor shoulder cheek to cheek)

Roll from front to back (Start in glide position and roll into cheek to cheek back float)

Wall Conditioning (Off the wall on 3 count / Humpty Dumpty Rhyme)

Goals

Develop favorable breathing techniques, body / stroke mechanics, safety skills

Fear of Water: All skills will take longer to master and it’s important to move slow.

Breathing: Exhale underwater through mouth and nose (Growl or Humm) Catch a breathe quickly looking up

Pop up breathes: (Underwater exhale and then look up for quick breathe then back into water)

Body Mechanics: Streamline Glides (Arms extended hand together and legs floating in the prone position)

⦁ Kicking with feet in the Glide position

⦁ Effectively pull or catch the water for max power

⦁ How to properly recover your strokes over the water

Safety Skills: Floating on Back (Head on instructor shoulder cheek to cheek)

⦁ Controlled breathes for best buoyancy

⦁ Roll from front to back

⦁ Fall from wall and return right back to wall (Humpty Dumpty)

 

Teach Yourself to Swim –

Congratulations on taking this step to learning how to swim or to teach the fundamentals of learning to swim. The older you get, the more difficult it is to learn to swim. Babies & toddlers have an advantage to learning to swim; their bodies are typically more buoyant, legs are more relaxed in natural swimming position, and they tend to have less anxiety with water on the face.

It’s important to be able to desensitize yourself to the water on your face so that you can be able to eventually be able to go underwater without any type of concern or anxiety. If you can’t let your air out underwater, then you’ll never be able to swim really any of the strokes efficiently, certainly not the freestyle. Submersion underwater and exhaling is the most important skill that we have to focus on in order for you to learn to swim.

The second most important skill to master is buoyancy, how the water actually holds you. Buoyancy is the weightless feeling you experience when you swim. If you don’t have an understanding of this sensation of weightlessness, then it’s understandable that it would cause you anxiety in the water.

You must become comfortable with the sensation of how the water holds you. Don’t overreact or overcompensate to weightlessness feeling in the water. Slow movements in the water will help you feel more control when swimming.

Make sure you have some basic tools handy to desensitize yourself to the water. The tools you want to have ready are a bucket for pouring, thick pool noodle, kick board, and goggles.

It’s important to have a pair of goggles to help you feel more comfortable with your eyes in the water. If you have your eyes open underwater, then you’re going to have less anxiety when you are swimming.

The way you wear goggles, is you put your thumbs underneath the straps, put the seals under your eyebrows, the seals need to go under your eyebrows. It’s important that you pull the seals onto your eyes, under your eyebrows. Make sure you keep your eyes open underwater while wearing goggles, otherwise they will leak.

Bucket or cups for pouring water will help you overcome the negative reaction to water over your face. You will start with pouring water on your ears and the back of your head and then move on to over your face. If the sensation is difficult for you to bear the use your hands to press or wipe your face. The pressure on the face trick is super helpful to rid yourself of the negative response to water on the face.

Use an over-sized noodle before trying to use a kick board to practice the streamlined swimming position. You grasp the noodle under your arms giving you a strong sense of buoyancy and control. Kickboard are less stable and when you feel off balance you will tend to let go.

You are ready to start the process of getting yourself comfortable, desensitized, and starting to enjoy the water.

Start with lots of pouring water on your head with your cups and buckets. You can work on these skills in the bathtub, shower, or very shallow water like the steps of a swimming pool.

Once, you’re completely comfortable with water on your face then you must learn to exhale while you’re pouring water on your head. You need to keep your mouth closed and blow air out of your nose. This will keep water out of your mouth and nose. You are learning a reverse breathing pattern from what you are used to normally. Breathe in through your mouth, out through your nose forcefully to avoid water in the nose.

The best way to make sure you keep water out of your nose and mouth is making a loud humming sound. I talk about growling in a lot of my classes, growling is a loud humming sound. The reason I do that is because it allows you to be able to force air out of your nose and keep your mouth closed. You will also hear it while you’re under water helping you to remember that you’re indeed exhaling underwater.

Your instinctive response will be to hold your breathe making it impossible to take a fresh breath. 

If you can get really good at growling or humming, every time you go under water, it will make taking a breath easy.

Practice in shallow water like a stairs or splash pad area. Find an area that you’re really comfortable and feel grounded. Start with your feet underneath you, hands on the side of the pool then put your face in the water humming, or growling. Try to get your mouth and your nose in the water. Don’t hesitate putting your face in the water, otherwise you might suck water into your nose. Repeat this a few times consecutively without stopping and try to get into a rhythm.

When you let your air out, then your lungs will actually grab the breath when you come up. Exhaling underwater will allow you to take full breaths. You will feel more control and comfortable when you swim without holding your breath. You can’t really get comfortable swimming unless you’re able to exhale underwater.

Lower your shoulders into the water with your hand on the side of the pool. Each time you put your face in the water try to put your whole face in the water and cover your entire face up to your ears.

So let’s extend on this and stretch your legs behind you in a streamline position either on the step or in shallow water. Use any shallow water area where you can get on your stomach and stretch your legs behind you. Now try the breathing skills in this streamlined position.

You will now be ready for our next step in this process of learning to swim, we are going to work on our glide. If you can master gliding on top of the water, it’s going to make you feel much more comfortable because you’re going to be more efficient when you’re swimming.

Back away from the shallow area that you are practicing. You should always have a target that you will be swimming towards. You will stretch your arms in front of you and put one hand on top of the other. You will look into the water and find the bottom. When you look down you will feel your lower body begin to lift or become buoyant. Allow your legs to float behind you.

The last step when you are gliding is to recover by looking up, keep your eyes and head up, your legs will be underneath and you can then stand up. Now transition into exhaling underwater while gliding. You should practice this until you are comfortable.

Grab your noodles underneath our arms in shallow water. Remember we’re always going to work in shallow water. The stairs are your friend. Many adults will feel like they can’t get their head out of the water to breathe. You can practice pop up breaths using the noodle. Your head controls your position in the water, look up for a breath and down to exhale.

You need to be able to take quick breaths, and then exhale. So the noodles are a great way to practice your body position while you’re actually floating and you’re feeling the natural buoyancy.

Now we can move on to pop-up breaths with arm strokes. Pop-up breaths are taking a breath by looking up and then going right back underwater after taking a breath. If you hold your breath, you won’t be able to take a pop-up breath, so breath and then exhale underwater.

Your arms strokes will focus most of your energy underwater pushing against the water creating forward momentum.

Practice the catch of the stroke by sitting upright and pushing water in front of your body.

You should feel the water push against your forearms and biceps. You want to have the same resistance when you are swimming. If you don’t feel resistance you are pulling your arms through the water instead of pushing against.

Your arms strokes should recover over the water after you have pulled the water behind you. You must allow your shoulders to rotate with your head stationary looking down. Your shoulders will create the power for the strokes. You create more power the faster you rotate your shoulders. The shoulder rotation will allow your arms to recover over the water.

You should finish your power phase of your stroke with your arm straight and your shoulders turned. Allow your elbow to bend as your arms recovers over the water and then relax. Your arm will travel over the water with very little effort.

You take a pop up breath lifting you head up out of the water. Take a quick breath then go back underwater and find the streamlined position again looking straight down.

I don’t recommend kicking, but your kicks will happen naturally. Focus on keeping your legs straight. Make sure that your head’s down and allow your shoulders to roll as you pull through your strokes. Keep your muscles as relaxed as possible. If you feel robotic that’s your clue that your muscles are tense.

Freestyle Swimming –

Next step in the process will be to start learning the freestyle with breathing on the side. Try to be aware of tension in your muscles, especially your neck. Stretch your arms, shoulders, core, and neck before swimming practice.

The most important aspect of the Freestyle you must maintain throughout your stroke is your streamlined position. Keep your head down follow the line on the bottom of the pool, and allow your shoulders to rotate as you swim. Your legs should be floating on top of the water behind you.

Glide after each stroke and try to find a rhythm. Remember slow strokes and focus on pushing the water.

To breathe on the side you must first be able to glide on your side while maintaining your balance. You can use a kickboard or noodles to balance yourself on your side until you get the hang of it.

To begin swimming start in the glide position on your side then start your arm strokes. You will breath every 2nd stroke. You should breathe on the same side each cycle.

When your hand hits the water that is a 1 count, exhale, then second arm stroke 2 count, then turn your head, and press your ear to your arm. Continue these cycles while swimming until you are finding a rhythm. Don’t worry about technique yet.

To fine tune your technique you must remember that your muscles must stay relaxed. Make sure your neck, arms, etc are as relaxed as possible before you begin swimming.

Press your ear to your arm and turn your head upwards to breathe. You must exhale underwater, otherwise you will not be able to breathe when you turn your head.

You’re strokes should be pulling close to your body and you should feel resistance. Remember you generate more momentum turning your shoulders, not from your arms. Your arm angle should catch the water and the shoulders should generate the power.

Finish your stroke with your arm straight, shoulders turned. Then your elbow points to the sky as your forearm will rotate under your elbow through the recovery phase conserving energy.

When you swim efficiently like we have discussed you are not panic if you find yourself swimming further then you planned. Panic is the feeling that you get when you just can’t think anymore, that you’re so worried about trying to stay on top of the water, that you can’t even think.

The best way to avoid panic is to focus on your breathing, remember, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth.

Treading Water –

Controlled breathing is the key to treading water not by using your arms or legs super fast. You can use your arms slowly, stretch out your arms and slow push the water back and forth sculling the water. Your legs should slowly move outward like an egg beater, keep your legs open when you are treading.

You want to move as little as possible. So almost like you’re floating. You’re gonna lean your head back. Focus on your breathing. In and out. If you hold your breath, you’re gonna bob. You have to let your air out, take another breath in, you can’t hold your breath. It’s very important when you’re treading water not to hold your breath.

You got to slow down, do not panic. Panic is what will cause you to suck in water and to have bad things happen when you’re in the water in a bad situation. You don’t want to flap, that’s gonna put you up and down because you’re pushing against the water up and down. You don’t want to kick like a flutter kick, you want to do very little kicking. You have to stretch your legs out, you want to be as wide as you can on the surface of the water.

When you are trying to learn how to float the first thing you want to do is focus on your breathing. 

Floating is like treading water and very dependent upon your breath control. The better you can control your breathing, the easier it is to float.

Don’t hold your breathe when you are on your back floating. Always take breaths in and out and using the reverse breathing pattern, breathing into your mouth, out through your nose. That will prevent water from going in your nose and it will keep water out of your mouth. Master the breathing pattern before you practice floating.

When you begin learning to float make sure that you use a noodle or kick board to maintain your balance. The best way into the back floating position is using a kick-board, holding it to your chest. To recover from the float don’t try to sit up, instead turn your head toward the water then stand up. You can feel very stuck because once you get to your back you’re going to want to sit up to get off of your back position. You can’t go from your back to your front easily by sitting up, you must turn over.

You have to turn your head towards the water and that will turn your body. Before you do any back float practice make sure that you are thinking that through.

You are off to a great start make sure to join us at our SLC USA Penguin Online Swimming School.