Skills Taught
The following is a list of skills I teach for which I wanted to provide additional explanation. This is not all inclusive. This is a helpful reference guide for you to help your child/ren learn the proper names of the skills they are learning in class so when I ask them to demonstrate those skills later they are able to know what I’m asking them to do because they remember what the name of the skill is. Many times I will give students/parents homework of repeating the skill names they learned in class between classes to help them remember. It saves class time.
There are FOUR STROKES:
Butterfly,
Backstroke,
Breaststroke and
Freestyle.
These are the terms used in the Olympics and so we will refer to them using these names in class.
If your child is a gymnast please explain that FREESTYLE in swimming does NOT mean to do whatever they want. This is a technical term for a specific swimming technique. I get a lot of push back from students who tell me that when I tell them to swim FREESTYLE I am telling them they can swim any way they want because that is what it means in gymnastics. I then have to remind them that they are in a swimming pool and swimming class, not a gymnasium and gymnastics class. So they need to follow the swimming terminology while in swimming class just like they would follow gymnastics terminology in gymnastics class. This happens so often that I am compelled to add it here. Thank you in advance for your help on this! :)
Many, many, many parents tell me that their child can do a Front Float aka Jellyfish Float aka Dead Man Float.
The common name for this float is the Dead Man Float, but due to parents requesting a more “PC” term, I use Jellyfish Float in class instead. As a kid the term “Dead Man Float” did not bother or upset me. In fact it explained more accurately to me what I was supposed to do than the term “Jellyfish”.
Almost all of my new students can NOT do a CORRECT Jellyfish Float. Hence a main reason why they struggle to swim. Executing this skill correctly is a critical building block to all the swimming skills that follow.
Even if a parent THINKS their child can do a front float, we will practice until they can properly execute a Jellyfish/Dead Man float.
JELLYFISH FLOAT
Gliding is floating face down while moving forward. Your arms are in an arrow position and your legs are straight behind you. Neither your arms nor legs move after the initial push off.
I do a LOT of gliding practice with my students for many, many reasons.
Students are super excited to swim. So much so that they forget everything and just jump and start swimming. Proper gliding helps them slow down and focus on what they are doing.
I never have a good swim if I don’t have a good starting glide. Having a great start with a strong glide sets students up for a potentially great swim. Without a good glide the swim following it usually is not good.
Students automatically kick their feet when their feet leave the ground. Gliding helps them regain control over their feet and legs. Once they can tell their feet and legs not to kick on every glide, then we can move on to the next step.
GLIDING
This used to be called the “front crawl”. Please do not use this term.
I teach the “BOAT” style. It is the easiest and most efficient form of Freestyle. This style will move your child across the pool with the least amount of energy. They can do well moving across the pool in the style at the rudimentary beginnings of learning the skill. As they improve they will notice that they can swim faster with less effort and less exhaustion. I sometimes swim using the “arrow” technique. This is a pretty nuanced version of the “boat” style. It’s only someone who is one a swim team would start practicing.
The local swimming schools teach the “windmill” or “straight arm” technique. I do NOT teach this technique. Why? Lots of reasons. The top reason is because it requires a lot of muscle mass. Children do not have that. It requires perfect technique or else it is difficult to breathe and is counterproductive. Only 5% of Olympic swimmers use this technique. Your child will only work hard, exhaust themselves and struggle to swim across the pool using this technique.
If your child comes to me swimming “windmill” style I will teach them the correct way to swim freestyle.
FREESTYLE
A very important skill that can be used to save ones life which I teach all my students.
To PROPERLY Bob, requires a student to blow nose bubbles every time they go under water. It’s a rhythmic bounce off the bottom of the pool, where they take a large breath in through their mouth every time they break the surface of the water. They can bob holding on to the wall or without a wall using proper arm technique.
I also teach Safety Bobbing which can help save a life and actually helped save my life when I was 7-years-old.
BOBBING
This is another skill that parents tell me their child can do. I get excited and ask the student to show me. It is very, very rare that a student shows me actual treading water. What the student shows me is usually 5 seconds of thrashing about in the water with their head above water. That is NOT treading water. That is “not drowning”.
There are a few official variations of this stroke. Most swimming schools teach the very difficult version that lifeguards use or don’t really teach them anything and just tell them to do whatever to keep their heads above water for the timed period. I only use the difficult version when I’m actually saving someone from drowning. Otherwise I use a much easier version, which is the purpose of treading water, to be able to keep your head above water for the longest period of time using the least amount of energy.
I wish every student would get to the level with me that they are able to learn to tread water. It is such an important skill. It is very hard to learn and takes a lot of time, but it is is a life saving skill and makes swimming with family and friend so much more fun and less tiring.