Spring. Melting snow, longer sunlight, and weather so strange, variable and weird that you have no idea what type of clothing your’e going to need next. Spring is also the time you need to start thinking about training your new hires when summer starts and your pools open. If you’re like me and you have … Read moreTraining Module – Command Language
Category: Distance swimming, Group Core Skill: Coach’s Choice, Reading the board. Name: Swim Subtraction WHO This game is for swim teams that know how to read the board a little bit. Some ability to read your shorthand, your practices, or some familiarity with your program is important. Do not play this game with beginners. We … Read moreSwimming Game – Swim Subtraction
Category: Group activity, Social Core Skill: Coach’s choice Name: Valentine’s Day Practice I like to do different things for the holidays. Most of the kids that participate on our swim team are in grade school or middle school. They’re somewhere between 5 years old and 13 on the developmental swim team. For Valentine’s Day I … Read moreSwimming Game – Give a Gift, Take a Swim
Every year I get a few new assistant coaches that help me run my developmental swim practices. Once they understand the language that I use, the routines and habits for the different groups, and are comfortable with the flow and format of most practices I give them opportunities to take ownership of the groups. I … Read moreSwimming Game – Tic Tac Toe
Category: Group Activities Core Skill: Reading the board, self-guided practice Name: Trick and Treat WHO: This game is for swim team participants or people that can be in the water without someone in the water with them. You could do this with lessons but would need a person in the water at each station to … Read moreSwimming Game – Trick and Treat
It has been a crazy few months working behind the scenes. A quick update from May 2018 – November 2018. Updated the Online Swim Database. Created a complete attendance system for swim teams. Click a button, have all the records auto-update and use checkboxes to mark who was at practice. Track total practices and dates … Read moreTeach Fun and Effective Swimming; New workbook
SUN SCREEN! SUN LOTION! SUN BLOCK! This is the most essential product you can buy. I’m talking about sun tan lotion. Sun block. We use this gallon jug. You can use this too. I suggest making it mandatory for all swim instructors to wear the lotion before they start their first lesson. When they’re done … Read moreSIP 081: Sun protection for swim instructors
Looking at the American Red Cross website I was looking for level updates and structure. I found their Swimming Water Safety book, and on page 170 and 171 their information on Autism! A lot of people have been asking for guides on how to deal with autism, and i thought it would be a good … Read moreSIP 080: Brief Autism Overview
Seastarz Swim School was kind enough to let me post this here. I wanted to share this with everyone because it is an awesome idea. I have a few thoughts on how I assume this would work in both swim lessons and on swim teams. Category: Group Activity Core Skill: Coach’s Choice Name: Ping Pong Adventure This … Read moreSwimming Game – Activities on Ping Pong Balls
No. Most parents don’t care what your swim program system is. They care about three things: 1) Will their child learn how to swim? 2) Does it fit into their schedule? 3) Is it within their budget? They’re more worried about making the most out of their time and effort to bring their … Read moreSIP 079: Do you need to license a swim program to be successful?
http://traffic.libsyn.com/swimmingideas/SIP_078.mp3 Dr. Alan Goldberg, www.competitivedge.com Getting parents to work with, not against you. Blog post about day 1 handout. https://swimminglessonsideas.com/2017/09/17/handout-for-first-day-of-swim-lessons-for-parents-what-to-expect/ Day 2 handouts: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/completelessondocuments/Administration/Day+2+Handouts+(1).pdf Be proactive. How to teach your parents on your swim team. Learn how to interact with your swim lesson parents in a healthy way. Be proactive, take the first … Read moreSIP 078: Central States Clinic Part 3
Ok. The first thing is to get in the water. The second thing to do is to touch the bottom with your hand. Easy? Easy peezy? Now we’re going to swim front crawl or freestyle with side breathing from here to there. (one length). Well done. Can you touch the bottom, … Read moreSIP 075: Swim team tryout script
I get email from readers of the site all the time, and usually I respond as best I can, and sometimes turn those questions into blog posts or podcast episodes. I got this one today, and think you will benefit from it. Here it is, and Thank you Heather! Dear Jeff, A former colleague … Read moreQuestions and Answers; Reader Help
i’ll be interviewing a person about how to teach swimming lessons to autistic kids. She is an expert in adaptive physical education for special needs children and will be an excellent resource. I’m hoping to connect with Nitro tash to get her take on her new swim lesson format with her pool in Perth, Australia. … Read moreSIP 074: A quick update and a reminder about routine
Give initial feedback. Restrain anger and disappointment. Immediate debrief and followup. Frame things in the future. next time do this. Retrain. Deal with it in private.
Lots of talk about breath; on land, in the water, in small groups, and over short distances. Most effective initially with short distances, and constant discussion about it. Some level of attenuation. Lean what we do in dryland, and in our small groups to progressively move through breathing on land to maintaining the … Read moreSIP 072: Breathing for two weeks
Get ready to experience the next supplemental guide for better swim lessons! We’ve been refining the general format of our swim lessons. Ever forward, and ever working on refinement we’ve been teaching lessons using this new take on an old favorite. For a long time we’ve incorporated the “learn something, learn something, play … Read moreSIP 071: Activity, Activity, Challenge
Question from John from the UK. He asked me very generally what he could do to get started. He had bought the swimming ideas lesson plans which you can get here: https://swimminglessonsideas.com/store/ But he was uncertain in how to start teaching swimming lessons. It made me think about what the key things someone would need … Read moreSIP 070: What you need to start teaching swimming
A conversation with Dominic Latella from theswimbox.com Check out the course, Foundational Breathing Method for swimming here: https://www.theswimbox.com/online-courses/ We talk about a lot of different things regarding swimming. Dominic lets us know some details about his most recent training trip to the Bahamas, and who makes the best eggs in his family. I believe that … Read moreSIP 069: Foundational Breathing Method for swimming
