When teaching swimming lessons, there are some basic guidelines that experienced instructors should follow. Whether intentional or natural, the basics of swimming lessons must be imparted during the learning process. The main thing is to make the children comfortable with the water and to be firm but not fierce when teaching.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Teaching the Basics
Step 1. Don't forget to put safety first
Before teaching how to swim, ensure the safety of the participants. Never turn your back on a beginner. Be aware of the hazards that can occur while swimming, such as drowning, broken equipment, or slipping. Make sure you understand the latest in CPR and first aid. Consider attending regular first aid seminars. Prioritize general safety over educational skills.
- Consider requesting the supervision of a pool keeper while teaching. This way, you can focus more on teaching one student at a time because someone else is overseeing the entire pool.
- All steps in this guide must be followed along with proper teaching and safety protocols, which are usually learned through a certification program.
Step 2. Show you care
children often need extra encouragement and welcome when entering a foreign environment or learning something new. Greet all students warmly. Get to know them individually, including their names, preferred approach and teaching methods, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. It can take time to develop an intuition about each student's needs, but a warm and friendly attitude can accelerate bonding with students.
Parent participation is often effective in assisting this process. With your parents' help, you can spot your child's difficulties in advance, and your child will quickly trust you if you seem familiar with your parents
Step 3. Get ready with a comprehensive lesson plan
Children are often quick and easy to learn in a structured environment that can provide continuous feedback based on their performance. Develop a lesson plan for each swimming session, keeping in mind what the class might focus on based on student performance. Consider consulting an experienced teacher when creating lesson plans, especially if you are having trouble teaching a particular child and their needs.
Your lesson plan should be flexible, adaptable, and contain age-appropriate lessons and exercises
Step 4. Create a positive environment
Each class should include challenging and attainable goals, praise, and positive feedback. More than that, classes should be fun! It's okay to loosen up the lesson plans once in a while if students are interested and having fun. In fact, often children learn while playing.
Method 2 of 3: Teaching Young Children
Step 1. Teach age-appropriate knowledge of students
The average age of students in the class determines your lesson plans and goals. Young children will not like certain challenges that older children like. For example, children under one year should be introduced enough to play in the water, rather than being forced to learn to swim. Often teachers feel bored teaching basic skills and immediately teach more interesting things. Be patient and aware of your student's needs.
You can imitate a more experienced teacher to see how to respond to a child's various reactions. Contact the gym, pool, or gym community to try this option
Step 2. Encourage the child's development of coordination
Children don't become competitive swimmers until they are 6-7 years old, but building technique in a classroom setting can start much earlier. Children aged 4-6 years can be taught coordination and stabilization exercises in the water. This exercise will help students get used to the basics of movement in water.
- Safety in water should also be a priority subject for students at this age. Teach children not to run in the water, be careful on slippery surfaces, and follow protocols when entering and leaving the pool.
- Be patient. Children at this age have not yet learned how to swim. They are still learning how to interact with water. A child's level of interest and proficiency will change from day to day.
Step 3. Teach children how to float
Floating in water is a fundamental skill for all swimmers. Floating lessons can be started with the help of pool walls. Ask the child to lie on his back in the water with both heels anchored to the edge of the pool. Then, ask the child to straighten his legs so that his body is flat on the surface of the water and spreads the weight along the body. When the child's legs are straight and his body is floating in the water, ask the child to breathe normally and stay afloat for as long as possible.
It's best not to help the child float by hand. If your child is already adept at floating with the help of the pool wall, proceed directly to unaided floats
Step 4. Teach him to float on his stomach
This floating shape can help students get used to putting their head and stomach into the water. As before, the child was asked to tie his feet on the edge of the pool and straighten his legs. However, this time the child is in a prone position. Keep the child's pelvis and shoulders above the surface of the water, then ask the child to take a deep breath and dip his/her face into the water. Pupils may use their hands while floating, but only to help lift their head and inhale.
Floating exercises, both supine and prone, can be turned into a game or drill section. Challenge the students to a race and determine who can float the longest
Step 5. Teach pushing walls
Students who know how to push a wall to float will understand how to use momentum to move through water. While the feet are still anchored at the edge of the pool, ask the student to take a breath and push against the wall. This push will launch the child's body in the water. Ask the child to relax and feel his head, legs and arms in the water as he slides until he loses momentum and stops. Thus, students will get used to drowning in water and return to the surface by floating. You don't have to teach swimming all the time, but pushing against a wall is a good exercise for learning continuous movement in the water.
- It's a good idea to do this exercise in a shallow part of the pool so that lay swimmers can stand up when they lose momentum.
- Water noodles and a swimming board are good tools for this exercise so experienced swimmers can experiment with their arms and legs to keep them moving in the water.
Step 6. Encourage the development of discipline
Often, the goal of teaching children to swim is to instill discipline, self-awareness, confidence, and curiosity rather than simply learning swimming techniques. Be empathetic to your students and understand that the exercises children face are unfamiliar and new to them. Make sure their first experience of swimming remains friendly, safe, and responsible so that the child's interest in learning continues for a long time.
- A safe environment can be built through the generosity of teachers. Insert corrections with praise, reward students for trying new things, and keep in mind each student's fears or weaknesses.
- At the same time, teach students to take responsibility for their behavior, discipline and efforts. Make sure the lesson plans are followed, even if the plans are adjusted.
Method 3 of 3: Teaching Older Children
Step 1. Introduce more complex expectations
Older children, ranging in age from 6-10 years, are more agile and coordinated than younger children. These kids can get in and out of the pool on their own and learn basic swimming styles, such as the backstroke or breaststroke. Even though at this age the child is not yet ready to become a professional swimmer, the coach can increase expectations for behavior, acceptance of technical instructions, and student stamina. The lessons given can be more focused, longer, detailed, and introduce more expectations.
Step 2. Teach basic swimming styles
There are several basic styles for swimming in water, namely the backstroke, butterfly stroke, and breaststroke. Each of these styles requires coordination of movement throughout the body, which means learning the style of swimming can take a lot of time. Often times, coaches will break each stroke down into sections and teach them one at a time. After that, all the parts are combined into one complete swimming style. Trainers can use this method to introduce basic swimming movements to children.
The coach can break down the swimming stroke into several cues (sections) to simplify complex swimming strokes. Children can remember some of these cues (in the form of postures or movements of certain body parts) easily and combine them into a complete swimming style
Step 3. Start with the backstroke
The backstroke is an easy swimming stroke that can be taught through certain techniques. Start by having the student float on his back and swim in the water with only one hand: 25 swings with the left hand, then 25 swings with the right. If this movement has been mastered, the arms can be swung alternately. If students are able to swim by swinging their arms alternately in a steady rhythm, they can teach foot beats. When students have mastered how to alternately swing their arms, flap their legs, and stay afloat on their back, backstroke can be done by combining these techniques.
Step 4. Introduce measurable challenges
If the student is able to move in the water with the backstroke, provide a challenge or drill that requires the student to apply the technique mastered. This challenge can take the form of swimming back and forth or around the edge of a certain number of pools, or swimming races between students. Random challenges, such as swimming to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool, will develop reaction and decision-making skills.
Try asking students to reduce the time for completing challenges or drills. Record their time to encourage student development
Step 5. Use the skill progression method
This method is similar to teaching swimming style by dividing the movement into several cues. The skill development method is carried out by teaching several small tasks or movements to students, which, when mastered, are then combined and extended into larger tasks or movements. The skill development method builds on simple fundamental skills, then progresses to more complex skills and determines mastery of the technique. The use of this method in swimming lessons can be processed into games that develop simple skills, then proceed to more technical lessons based on the skills that have been mastered.
Skill development can be used openly (using charts or graphs that monitor skills acquired) or used in private
Step 6. Reduce the structure
Over time, students become more mature and more experienced so that their structural needs can be reduced, because students are able to make their own decisions and rely on their own intuition. The structure of the students may be relaxed a bit to allow their freedom to develop. Try adding challenges for students, or risk failure; Often students' competencies and skills develop rapidly when they are outside their comfort zone.
At the same time, stay humble, gentle, and take responsibility for the student's confidence. Never make them harbor failures, shame, or self-doubt
Step 7. Inform parents of their child's progress
As your child's skills develop, your students need more support to further develop their skills. Talk to parents about your progress, weaknesses, improvements, and activity opportunities outside of your classroom. Parents may not have the expertise or time with their child so may miss the child's development if not informed.
Keep reminding parents about swimming safety. Many parents assume that if their child has taken swimming lessons, the child will be able to swim on their own. This is not true, all children must be supervised when swimming
Step 8. Be professional
Arrive early, stick to a schedule, take care of your equipment and arrange it neatly, and stay away from discussing personal matters. The higher the expectations you meet for yourself, the higher the expectations you can expect from students.
