Caden Learns to Swim

This post is all about a boy I am currently teaching. His name is Caden and he is seven years old. Caden took swim lessons at a facility for almost one year and could still not swim on his back (at all) nor could he swim more than two feet on his front. His mom decided that the way he was being taught was just not right for him, so she came to me.

In our first lesson, I started with teaching him how to safety turn. This is something I have all of my students learn on how to get into the water, no matter how old they are. A safety turn is when the student puts both hands on the wall and doesn’t let go while he or she turns her body into the water. This is good to teach because when kids do this enough it turns into habit and then they are never surprised when they can’t touch the ground because they are still holding the wall. I then did a quick evaluation of his swimming skills. After that, I started with teaching him to swim on his front. I had him put a noodle under his armpits and reminded him to keep his feet on top of the water. The reason Caden can’t swim more than two feet by himself is because his feet are below him and not behind him when he swims. This just means he doesn’t move forward at all and then his face goes under because he loses momentum. I also gave Caden a kick board to use. We went back and forth from end to end just practicing kicking. He eventually got that his feet needed to stay up high! He began moving very well with the kick board, which was great because when I first gave him the kick board he was at a standstill. He wouldn’t move unless I pulled him.

In the next few lessons I started taking the noodle away from him. I continued to remind him to keep his feet on top of the water so he could propel forward. A fun game I play with kids when I want them to swim on their own and they aren’t fond of the idea is Tag. I tell them that I bet they can’t tag me and start to “run away.” The kids get very excited about the idea of tagging the teacher, so they push off the wall at full force and race after me. This is exactly what I did with Caden and for the first time he swam ten feet all by himself. By the fourth lesson Caden was able to swim fifteen feet, while trying to tag me.

I also worked on Caden’s back with him. Caden sinks automatically when he is on his back because he resorts to the position of “sitting in a chair” in order to keep his head out of the water. I taught him belly up and head back. A great tip with teaching back swimming is first teaching floating. I tell the kids to look like a starfish with legs and arms out along with a Santa belly. When the kids focus on making their stomachs big it forces them to arch their back, which helps them float. Also, a great tip for helping kids look up when on their back is asking them what color your eyes are. I stood just far enough back that Caden had to put his head into the water up to his hairline in order to see my eye color. I also started with holding his shoulders, and as he got stronger I moved to his arms, and then finally his hands. When you hold a child’s hands while he or she is floating, that means he or she is just about ready to do it all on his or her own. You can play a little by letting go and then grabbing their hands again to see if they can do it all by themselves. Caden was able to back float by himself after six lessons for five full seconds. That was a huge improvement for him!

All children will have different needs when it comes to teaching swimming. That is why it is so important to modify lessons and not teach them exactly the same to every child. Caden’s right eye is smaller than his left eye. He also can’t see very much at all through his right eye, which means he counts deeply on his left eye to see. He also hates when water gets in his right eye, because it irritates it. I teach most of my students to squeeze their eyes really tight when they get wet, blink hard, and then open them. This means that if they were to ever fall in, and they were too frazzled to wipe their eyes, they would know how to open them. A lot of my students are able to do this, however because Caden has difficulties with his right eye, he was not. Instead I taught him how to wipe his eyes using only one hand. Most beginner swimmers try to use both hands when water gets in them, but they are not strong enough to use only their legs which means they end up sinking and rewetting their eyes. When you teach a child to use only one hand (and it doesn’t matter which hand that is) then they are able to use the other to continue swimming. This can be a hard concept for younger students, so I always tell the parents to practice it in the bathtub or shower. Whenever he or she needs to wipe his or her face, he or she can only do it with one hand. Over time and a lot of practice, Caden got the hang of wiping his eyes with one hand and swimming with the other.

Caden has come a long way! He can do so much, even after so few lessons. When you teach a child how to swim it involves modification, patience, and fun! 

Alvin the Little Fish

I have taught children of all different ages and abilities to swim. My favorite lesson was with a student named Alvin. I taught Alvin for three years and in those three years he won most improved out of all of my lessons. Alvin has high functioning Autism. He can speak, walk, and move like a normal person, but the things he says are very random and not complete sentences. He is fully capable of understanding what you say to him, but he struggles with expressing his own emotions in return. Doctors had told his mom he would never be able to understand how to swim. They told her that even though he can understand when people talk to him, it would still be too hard to swim.

Alvin was seven years old when he first came to me. He swam vertically and would instantly sink when I let go of him. I had to come up with different ways of saying things to him to help him comprehend the ideas of swimming. It was easier to teach Alvin to swim on his front than his back because he already naturally swam on his front. I would just say “feet up” or “kick the top of the water” and he would understand what I meant. He would also repeat every phrase I said over and over to himself. Something that I noticed with Alvin was that when he was in the shallow end he would walk instead of swim. To help him to learn to swim on his own, I would take him to the deep end where he could not touch. This was definitely a challenge for him, but it is how he learned to swim! After a year of lessons, Alvin was able to swim 25 yards on his own. That is one full length of the pool. Two years later, he was able to swim 200 yards on his front without stopping. It took Alvin a long time to swim those 200 yards, but he could do it, and that was what was most important.

When Alvin first learned to swim on his back, he was petrified. He would scream “NO” at me and lift his head up. He would also position his body like he was sitting in a chair. One day when I told him to swim on his back, I said, “Alvin, look up at the sky and pretend that you are sleeping.” He repeated that phrase over and over again and relaxed for the first time on his back. He was no longer sitting in a chair, his back was straight. I was able to hold his shoulders and tread backwards while he looked up and kicked his feet. He eventually started moving his hands on his own. Instead of doing elementary backstroke, his hands moved in a sculling motion, which was okay because he was propelling himself. I was then able to let go of him and he could swim on his back across the pool by himself.

After I taught Alvin to swim on his front and back confidently, I began to teach him to tread. I took a noodle and put it between his legs like a horse. I told him to stay still and keep his head up while still kicking his feet. I eventually took the noodle away from him and he was able to tread all by himself! We started with treading for only five seconds and we made our way up to two minutes. The only problem was that I had to count down or he would stop. That means that if I wanted him to tread for a minute I would have to count down from sixty. Sometimes he would count with me, but most of the time he would just listen. If I paused too long or stopped at any time, he would stop treading so I had to make sure that I stayed consistent when counting.

I also taught Alvin how to jump in on his own. This was a challenge because he was scared. I first started in the shallow end where he could touch. I took both of his hands in mine and would count to three and then say “jump!” He would just step in and it was more of me pulling him in then him jumping in. He didn’t really understand jumping into a pool. I had practice jumping in place on the pool deck for him to understand it. I would say “jump” to him and show him how to jump. I then held his hands and helped him jump up and down. After he got jumping in place, I took him back to the shallow end and he got it! He held my hands and jumped in. Alvin was soon able to jump into the shallow end without me holding his hands. I continued to move him farther and farther down to where he eventually couldn’t touch. After one year of consistent lessons, Alvin was finally able to jump into the deep end and swim back to the wall without any help.

Once Alvin was able to swim, jump, and tread confidently he was ready to take the “deep end test.” This was the test to determine whether or not a child under eighteen years old could swim in the deep end by his or herself. The test was to start in the shallow end, swim across the pool to the deep end, stop before the wall and tread for one minute, then climb out and jump in.  I told Alvin he could do it and swam next to him while he tried the deep end test for the first time. I had to remind him to not let his feet touch the ground, because that would mean he didn’t pass. After a few attempts, Alvin passed the deep end test consistently! Alvin was officially an independent swimmer and I was proud of him. 

Bye Bye Fear

Teaching an adult who is scared of water may be rather difficult. Some adults that can’t swim had some sort of traumatic experience at some point in their life to make them scared of the water. For others there was not a traumatic experience but rather it is a fear of the unknown.  They had never tried to swim nor had they ever had a want to swim. Now, many adults will decide they want to learn for many reasons. One being, their children know how to swim and they want to be able to confidently take them to water parks and such. Another reason might be that they are tired of watching everyone around them have fun in the water and they can’t enjoy it themselves. I have personally heard many different types of reasons and fears, but no matter what it is I still do my best to help them learn to swim confidently.

I have taught quite a few adult private lessons. One of my favorites was a woman named Kerri. Kerri had an accident when she was a young girl where she was pushed into the deep end of a pool. She didn’t know how to swim and ended up sinking straight to the bottom. Kerri was terrified as she never took in a breath of air before her head went under. Luckily for her, there was a parent nearby that saw and quickly went under to retrieve her. She would not step foot in another pool after that, whether she could touch or not. With Kerri, I had to be very patient. I could not push her too much or she would lose faith in herself and give up. We started on the stairs. I let her sit on the top stair and I just talked to her about things that didn’t relate to swimming. She had two children, Kevin and Lacy, so we talked about them. I told her that as she got comfortable to continue moving down the stairs. As we talked, I watched her scoot her body down step by step. We were in the shallow end or three feet deep. The water was just above my waste and about the same height on Kerri. It took Kerri a full twenty minutes to get into the water and where she was standing. That was a lot of progress. She had not been in a pool since she was a little girl. We took the last ten minutes to work on paddling her hands in the water while standing.

The next few lessons were very similar to the first. She took her time getting in, and then we would end with either paddling or bending at the knee to get more of her body wet. Once she was a little more comfortable, I was able to get her to walk around the shallow end. She would walk back and forth from five feet to three feet. She was improving so much and I could see that her fear was getting a little crack in it. I told her it was time to start getting her face wet. We would do mouth bubbles and I let her plug her nose to get her eyes wet. It took more lessons to learn to blow bubbles from her nose, but she did get it!

I always start with learning how to swim on your front when teaching someone who has a fear of water. People tend to be more comfortable on their front because they feel like they have more control since they can see where they are going. However, we did still work on back floating. I gave her a float belt (a think piece of foam that wraps around a person’s waste) and two noodles that she held under her armpits. I had her practice on the wall first before having her try in the open shallow end. She placed her hands on the wall and slowly let her legs lift behind her. Again, this is a big step for her to lift her feet from the ground for the first time when she was so scared. I let her lift and then put her feet back down until she looked comfortable. After a few times of practicing this, we tried it off of the wall. I held her hands instead of her holding the wall and we tried it a few times. She was already much more confident in herself, and even though she would never admit it and would say things like I can’t  or it’s too hard I remained positive and told her she could.

Once Kerri was able to successfully pick her feet off of pool ground and place them back down, we worked on kicking. She first sat on the wall and kicked her feet. She worked on keeping her legs straight. New swimmers tend to kick their legs like they are riding a bike and then don’t move anywhere. They don’t move because their legs are too bent and they aren’t pushing enough water. When she got the hang of kicking with straight legs and only a slight bend at the knee, she practiced in the water on the wall. We then moved to me holding her hands while she lifted her feet and kicked. I would walk her around the shallow end as she kicked her feet. I would also help her move her hands in a paddling motion. We did this for a few full lessons before I started taking away parts of her floatation devices. I first took away one noodle, next came the other noodle, and eventually the float belt. We also continued to work on floating and kicking on her back as much as she hated it, because it was something that she needed to know. Soon enough, Kerri was able to swim across the shallow end without me even touching her. I waited until she was completely comfortable swimming in shallow water before introducing her to water where she couldn’t touch. I gave her back the float belt before having her swim across the whole pool and I made sure to stay in front of her. After a few times swimming across, I took away the float belt again and I had her swim as far as she could go without grabbing the wall.

She made it a little further each time until eventually she could make it all the way across without my help. For Kerri, it took about a year of consistent lessons for her to get that comfortable. She would also come in on her own time to practice. Kerri was very determined to overcome her fear and she did! She is one of my success stories.

Fun Relays!

I was a competitive swimmer for seven years and began coaching my senior year of high school. Altogether, I coached for five years. I have coached high school boys, middle school boys and girls, and elementary boys and girls. I think that coaching is rewarding in the fact that you can really see how much the kids have progressed after putting in so much hard work and dedication. I do believe that having a little fun in the process is completely okay!

When I coached a team called, Mini Marlins, it was a group of kids from the ages five to fourteen. We had a meet about every five weeks and they looked forward to them! Something that I tried to do at least a few times a year was have a fun meet. I would coordinate it with the other coaches and teams to make sure it was extra fun for the kids. We would also make it all relays so that the teams could work together and the ages could be all mixed up.

Some of the events of the meet would be:

·         Noodle relay

·         Freestyle relay with flippers

·         Freestyle relay with pull buoys

·         Backstroke relay with balancing a squirt toy on their head

·         Ascending or descending relay for instance: first swimmer 25 yards, second swimmer 50 yards, third swimmer 75 yards, last swimmer 100 yards

·         Tarzan relay (Freestyle with head out of the water)

·         Corkscrew relay (Backstroke/ freestyle combined to make a stroke)

·         Kicking relay (uses kickboard)

·         All backstroke/ breaststroke/ butterfly relays

·         Ballet leg relay

·         Dog relay

These are just some of the many relays that the kids would be able to participate in. I think that in order to have a strong team, the kids have to be able to have a little bit of fun together. It is amazing how the older kids would help the younger ones in these relays. They would all cheer for one another, because some of these relays are hard or easy for all the age groups. It is more of an even playing field for the swimmers.

For the noodle relay, the swimmers had to swim holding the noddle. Some swimmers would choose to stick it in between their legs; others would hold it with their arms. Regardless of how they held it, it didn’t matter, as long as they held it somehow.

 A freestyle relay with flippers is just as it sounds. The swimmers were able to use flippers when they swam. Likewise, in the pull buoy relay the swimmers had to have the pull buoy between their legs.

In the backstroke relay with squirt toys, I would have the swimmers balance a squirt toy on their forehead and swim backstroke. TIP: This is also a great technique for teaching rolling in backstroke! If the toy falls off, the swimmer has to place it back on his or her head before continuing to swim.

I would either do one or the other with an ascending or descending relay. Ascending the yards would go up as each swimmer swam and the opposite would happen for descending. This relay is a great opportunity to mix age groups. I would have my youngest swim the smallest amount of yards and my oldest swim the most amount of yards.

Tarzan and corkscrew are swimmer favorites. Normally, all the swimmers want to be in these two relays because they are so fun. Tarzan is just freestyle, but with your head out of the water. Corkscrew is one freestyle stroke and one backstroke stroke continuously alternating. Warning: corkscrew will make the swimmers dizzy! I would only have them swim 25 yards to 50 yards max with corkscrew. Anything more than that and it’s hard for the swimmers to even remotely stay in a straight line.

A kickboard relay is a relay using a kickboard. I would sometimes mix up the strokes and each swimmer would have to do a different type of kick. The first swimmer might do butterfly kick, the second backstroke kick, the third breaststroke kick, and the last freestyle kick. For backstroke, the swimmer would just kick on his or her back. This is a great way to mix it up! I have also had all the swimmers kick freestyle. Sometimes, I will have both types of relays depending on my swimmers. If I have an abundant amount of swimmers that like kicking I will add both types of relays in.

The all backstroke/ breaststroke/ butterfly relay is when each swimmer swims the same stroke in the relay. In regular competitions there are all freestyle relays. There aren’t any all breaststroke, backstroke, or butterfly relays, so I will try and mix it up by adding those strokes in as their own relay. Swimmers enjoy these relays and make great teams. All the swimmers who swim breaststroke as their main stroke get to swim together in a relay and they get excited about it. This also happens with breaststroke and butterfly.

Ballet leg relay is where the swimmers swim backstroke but with one leg out of the water. The leg that is out must be straight up in the air and pointed! This is both hard and fun for the kids to do.

Lastly, the dog relay is a lot of fun for the younger swimmers especially. They just swim doggy paddle for this relay. I will also have younger swimmers bark like a dog because they think it is hilarious. Occasionally, one of the kids will make a random cat noise which is always very funny. The swimmers get very excited to act like a dog in the water!

Swimming is a hard sport but it can be a fun sport! Sometimes letting the kids have fun is a wonderful way to build a strong team!

This is the noodle relay!

Equipment in Parent and Child Classes

My last post was about the songs I sing in a Parent and Child class. This post will be all about some of the equipment I use and how I use it. I have mentioned before that squirt toys are great for children to get comfortable in the water. They are also great for this class. I will have the parents or child throw the toy and then the child scoops after it. The children will squeeze the toys or sometimes even swim with them in hand. I also play the Treasure Hunt game with this class too. They each get one toy at a time and return it to the toy bucket.

Another piece of equipment that is great for parent and child are balls. Balls can be used in many different ways. The children can lie on their backs in their parent’s arms, and then the parent will put the ball at their feet. The children then will kick the ball. This is a great way to get small children to kick their feet. I have seen even small infants will kick their feet in order to hit the ball. If the child struggles to understand the concept of kicking, the parent can hold each of their child’s feet and move them up and down in a kicking motion. This will help the child learn what kicking is.

Along with kicking balls, the children can swim to them. They can switch from their back to their front and use the same piece of equipment. The balls can be used the same way as the squirt toys. The children can scoop their arms to the ball that is theirs, grab it with two hands, and then throw it. If the child is of infant age, sometimes letting him or her hold the ball on his or her front and concentrating on just kicking is also a good strategy. A lot of times smaller children can only focus their attention on one part of their body at a time. That means that they will either be kicking their feet or scooping their arms. As a parent, you can always still encourage both, because one day it will click and they will be kicking and scooping at the same time!

From google

Swimming and Singing

One of my favorite swim classes to teach is Parent and Child. This class consists of infants to three years old. A great strategy for this class is singing many songs. I open the class with at least four short songs and end with the same amount (even if that means repeating songs). Some good songs to sing with them are Grand Old Duke of York, Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, If You Are Happy and You Know it, Motor Boat Motor Boat, and any other children’s song. Songs are great to help the children relax in the water, especially if they are uneasy about being in a big pool.

When I sing these songs, the parents will move their children along to the words. In Grand Old Duke of York, the children are constantly being bounced up and down. Little ones that don’t like the water at first tend to enjoy being bounced around in the water. It helps them to settle down.

I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to help the children learn the concept of floating as well as getting their faces wet a little. The children lie on their backs in their parent’s arms and put their arms and legs out like starfish. If they are under one year old, I just have them lay on their back without looking like a starfish. The children then rest their heads on their parent’s shoulder so that they feel more comfortable in the water. Finally, the parent will sprinkle a little water over their child’s forehead. Just a little to get the child wet in the face, but not enough to be splashing and scaring him or her. Sometimes for small children, lying on their back is scary, so if they are struggling I tell the parents to sway their children back and forth to the beat of the song. This will help them relax. I also will sing this song twice in a row. The first time is to get the children comfortable and situated and the second time is after they are situated and can really hear the song.

Wheels on the Bus is another one of my favorites and it’s a favorite of the children as well. For this song, the children go up and down and side to side. They also start to learn how to blow bubbles in this song. If they are too young to blow actual bubbles into the water, I just have the parent dip their child’s chin into the water to get him or her used to it. Here is also an example of how I might sing the song. The parents follow along to the words like they do the other songs.

The wheels on the bus go round and round (walk in a circle)

Round and round

Round and round

The wheels on the bus go round and round

All through the town

The blower on the bus goes (blow bubbles)

(Blow bubbles)

(Blow bubbles)

The blower on the bus goes (blow bubbles)

All through the town

I will continue this for “children go up and down” and “wipers go swish swish swish” (side to side).

If You Are Happy and You Know it is a great song to let children have fun. When I sing this song I will have them splash their hands, kick their feet, bounce up and down, and blow bubbles. For most children, splashing their hands is their favorite. This song has a lot of freedom and as a parent or teacher, you can go anywhere with it. You can even have them splash their hands and kick their feet at the same time!

Songs are a great way to get children excited about swimming and they help with anxiety! Remember to always have fun when in the water, it might be scary to children, so you have to show them it isn’t!

From google

A Little Success

In my last post I gave a great tip to help children get in the pool. For this post, I will focus on one of the many awesome kids I taught. When you have taught for four years, you come across a lot of different people. My favorite lessons are the special education private lessons. All together I have taught about fifteen private lessons with all different types of special needs.

The swimmer’s name is Sarah and she was my first private lesson that has special needs. She has Asperger Syndrome which is on the Autism spectrum. Asperger syndrome is when a child has trouble with social interactions. She was a challenge for me because she would scream, cry, and scratch me. There was also a language barrier between us. She spoke Spanish at home and English only when she was in public settings. Based on the fact that she was only five years old, she was not in many public settings and didn’t speak much English.

She enjoyed playing with the squirt toys, so I used that to my advantage. I also made sure to ask her mom what she specifically knew in English so that I could talk with her. Luckily, she knew words like no, yes, sit, stay, please, and a few other simple commands that I might say during a swim lesson. I also taught her English words with demonstration and had her repeat them for instance, scoop, kick, splash, etc. She would also say very random things that didn’t really have to do with anything in particular. She was in her own personal train of thought, and it was hard for me to ride her train and keep up. The biggest challenge though was that her social skills were in need of some growth. For the first six lessons or so, I just walked with her in my arms around the pool as she held a toy. She would cry a lot, but it wasn’t because she didn’t like the water. She actually liked being in the water. I personally think that she just didn’t know what to do with herself in water. She would scratch and pry to get away, but then when I gave her freedom she would come right back to me. So, I was patient and waited for her to show me she was ready in her own way.

One day, Sarah showed me she was ready by starting the lesson without tears. I could see in her small face that she was still not completely convinced about swimming, but she was ready nonetheless. Aside from screaming out of fear and uncertainty, she was a screamer out of joy too. She would let her vocal cords rip through the air and her arms would swing and hit the water with full force. I would give her the squirt toys and she would happily retrieve them. With her, it was hard in the fact that she ALWAYS had to throw the toys, and when I tried to throw them farther she would scream. This was a challenge because she would end up only swimming about five feet or less at a time. I had to be sneaky by letting her throw a toy, and while she was swimming, I would throw a different toy and tell her that we had to get that one too. After being very patient with Sarah and understanding that she can’t always help her actions, Sarah was able to swim by herself 25 yards and after only four months of swim lessons. She is a little success. 

From: google.com

Squirt Toys!

Squirt water toys are a big help for any child who does or doesn’t want to swim. As soon as children see these wonderful characters, their eyes light right up, and they are ready to go. I use these to get kids to swim a distance. I will throw them as far as I want them to swim and then we will go and get them. I also let the kids throw the toys to give them some ownership. If they don’t throw the toys far enough, I just simply grab them and throw them again to make it as far away as I need. I call this game Treasure Hunt or sometimes I tell the swimmers that we need to save all of our friends. Depending on the swimmer, I let him or her name the toys to make it more personal. This helps if he or she is uncertain about swimming to the toys.

A helpful tip with this is that the swimmers can only get one at a time. When they only retrieve one at a time, they are working harder and for a longer period of time. If a child still doesn’t want to swim to the toys, I will pretend to race him or her. This is a big help and will give the swimmer the motivation he or she needs! I will even get really close and almost put my hands around the toy but stop just in time for the swimmer to get it. The swimmer will then hold the toy and swim it back to a designated spot on the pool deck.

TIP: You will most likely be squirt at with these toys! Set boundaries and what the kids can and can’t squirt at. I like to give them a chance to squirt at something because let’s be honest, they love it!

STORY: A great story I experienced with these toys is when I was teaching a three-year-old girl, who would not get in the water. Even when I showed her the toys, she was a little hesitant and continued to cry. I brought her to the pool’s edge, and we sat down together with our feet in the water. I let her hold a toy, and I kept one in my own hands as well. I filled my toy up and squirt my leg over and over again. She watched me for a while and then I asked her if she wanted to squirt my leg too. She loved the idea and started squirting the toy at me on my legs and arms. I returned the action on her and squirt her legs and arms. We were then both squirting ourselves and each other. She quickly warmed up to the water and I was able to get her in. I let her hold the toy in her hands for a while before asking her to throw it herself and retrieve it. 

From: google.com