Teaching Your Kids to Breathe: Putting it All Together

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Now that your kids have extensive practice breathing by turning their heads, it’s time to teach them to combine it with the freestyle or front crawl. But how do you teach them to put it all together?

Putting It All Together

Have your kids swim from one side of the pool to the other in the shallow end, so that they’re confident that they can just put their feet down to stand anytime they want. Walk next to them in the water while they swim to provide them with an extra sense of security.

Breaking It Down

Once your child is swimming, the skill can be broken into two parts: the torso rotation and the head rotation and breathing. Start by working on torso rotation. Have your child do a couple of strokes of front crawl in the pool. When he would normally pop up to take a breath, have him roll onto his back and do a few strokes of the backstroke instead. The point of this exercise is to help him get a feel for keeping his body horizontal throughout the rotation.

If he has a tendency to lift his head, he’ll feel how it tips his body out of position. A simple verbal reminder like “turn don’t lift” or “turn don’t tilt” should help him to focus on keeping his head in line with his body while he swims. If verbal reminders not to lift his head aren’t enough to help him with the movement, you can have him practice rolling from a streamline position into a back float position while you support him.

Once he’s comfortable rotating his torso all the way over, have him practice doing the front crawl, rotating his torso and turning his head, but not taking a breath. Once he’s done that a few times, he’s ready to combine the skills: turn his torso and head during the stroke and take a breath through the space between the recovery arm and the water. Have him swim from one side of the pool to the other, practicing turning his head to breathe just once each lap and using popup breathing the rest of the time.

Back on land, you can reinforce the idea of turning-not-lifting his head by having him lie on his back on the ground and turn his head directly side to side.

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4 Steps to Teaching Your Kids Rhythmic Side Breathing

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Now that your kids have gotten the hang of how they’ll need to move their bodies in order to streamline their breathing when they swim–see the previous post if you haven’t already read it–it’s time to move the practice into the swimming pool. Here’s a progression of four steps to move your kids closer to rhythmic side breathing when they swim.

4 Steps to Teaching This Critical Swimming Skill

Step 1: Practice the same exercise standing in the swimming pool.

Have your child stand in the shallow end and hold onto the edge of the pool with his upper body in streamline position. Ask him to put his face in the water and twist his torso. Does his mouth come just barely out of the water? Does he need to twist his head just a little more to get his mouth clear?

At this point, your child shouldn’t be relying on turning his head to breathe. He can stand up straight whenever he wants to take a breath. He should concentrate, though, on turning his head directly to the side instead of lifting it up.

Step 2: Practice the same exercise holding onto the edge of the swimming pool.

Have him do the exercise with the whole body in streamline position, gently kicking instead of standing. Once your child is comfortable with this, have him try to take a breath during one of his turns. Don’t try to move into this too quickly, and don’t try to establish a rhythm right away.

Step 3: Practice establishing a rhythm.

After he’s comfortable with taking one breath, have him try to establish a rhythm. Turn, turn and breathe, turn, turn and breathe. Make sure he understands that he doesn’t have to breathe every time he turns. When he practices, have him breathe on the same side every time.

Step 4: Practice exhaling to prepare for inhaling.

Next have your child practice expelling air while his head is underwater so that he’s ready to inhale as soon as his head is above the water. If he’s already learned to blow bubbles, he knows how to expel air while his head is under water. Ask him to expel all the air then twist his head and body to inhale.

Once your kids have practiced these four steps, they’ll be ready to combine their breathing with their swimming stroke. Tune in tomorrow for how to teach your kids to breathe and swim at the same time. (It’s not that different from walking and chewing gum. Anyone can do it.)

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How to Teach Your Kids to Breathe While They Swim

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Your kids don’t need to learn to turn their heads to breathe to be safe in the water, but if they want to do a true crawl or to swim as fast as possible, they’ll want to. Here’s how to teach this swimming skill.

There’s a lot of awareness of the body required to optimize this swimming skill. At the end of the process, your child will learn that, as his body rolls so that he’s mostly on his side, he’ll turn his head just slightly so that it’s out of the water and he can breathe in through his mouth. He’ll time the breath so that he’ll be looking through a triangle formed by the bent recovering arm and the surface of the water.

The First Step

You can practice on dry land. Have your child put his hands on the edge of a table and move his feet until he can position his upper body into a streamline position on a plane with the surface of the table. Have him hold onto the edge of the table with one hand—let’s call this the stroking arm—and gently touch the table with the other hand—let’s call this the recovering arm. Ask him to twist his torso, turning so that the shoulder of the recovering arm lifts toward the ceiling. The hand of the recovering arm might lift a few inches off the table, too. Have him notice the position of his head relative to the recovering arm.

 

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Time to Play! Backstroke

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Kids learn by playing. The more you can make learning to swim fun for your kids, the more they’ll like it, the quicker they’ll learn, and the more fun you’ll have teaching them. Here’s a fun way to help your kids focus on their kick while you’re teaching them the backstroke.

The goal of the swimming kick is to keep it small, gentle, fluid, and from the hip. Only the toes break the surface of the water. There’s very little splash. To help your kids focus on that kick and on keeping it small, try to tickle their toes whenever they break the surface. Can you catch those toes when they’re barely breaking the surface? Try your hardest, but no fair tickling the tummy or behind the knees. That would be cheating.

Okay, maybe just a little tickling the tummy.

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4 Tips for Refining the Backstroke (Including How Not to Hit Your Head)

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Now that you’ve taught your kids the basics of doing the backstroke, you can use your practice time in the swimming pool to work on refining it. Here are four tips to help your kids learn the fine points of this fun swimming stroke.

  1. Your child needs to learn to be aware of where he is in the pool and when he’s approaching a wall when he’s doing the backstroke. If you’re practicing in a pool with lanes and flags, this is easier. Have him pay attention to the flags above his head and keep an arm outstretched once he passes them. How long does it take to reach the wall once he’s seen the flags? How many strokes?

    (If there are no flags suspended above the pool you’re using, help your child to pick out another landmark that he can spot from the corner of his eye or by slightly turning his head. Make sure to let him know that you won’t let him bump his head into the wall while he’s practicing.)
  2. If you want to work on refining the backstroke, have your child focus on the position of his hand as it enters the water. His palm should face away from his body, and his little finger should enter the water first.
  3. The rotation of his shoulders will create a twisting motion in his torso and a gentle rolling feeling. Have him notice this and the effect of his kicking on stabilizing him.
  4. The backstroke is a perfect stroke for paying attention to keeping the kick small, gentle, fluid, and from the hip. Point out how only his toes will break the surface of the water and his feet will create very little splash.
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6 Tips to Transform Your Kids’ Backstroke

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Once your kids are comfortable with the basics of the backstroke, you’re ready to start teaching them some refinements. These six areas to focus on will help your kids develop their backstroke beyond the basics.

6 Backstroke Refinements

  1. Grab the water. You’ll probably recognize this from teaching your kids the front crawl. Ask your child to think about grabbing a handful of water and pulling it down to his hip. Have him imagine that he’s trying to keep the water from falling out of his hand. He should keep his fingers together and his palm gently cupped. How does it feel?
  2. Push the water toward the feet. Have your child concentrate on pushing the water toward his feet, not pushing down on the water. As he becomes comfortable with the movement, have him imagine that he’s trying to push the water in a straight line from his head to his feet. This will encourage him to bend his elbow instead of stroking through the water with a straight arm.
  3. Bend the elbow in the water. Bending their elbows will allow your kids to generate more power with less effort. It will also keep them from wasting energy moving their arms down through the water. As the arm approaches the end of the stroke near the thigh, they’ll straighten it to get the most out of that pushing water toward their feet.
  4. Straighten the arm out of the water. For the best recovery to the streamline starting position, your kids should bring the recovery arm straight through the air.
  5. Don’t forget to kick. Once they’re comfortable with the arm movements of this swimming stroke, let your kids practice kicking simultaneously until it comes naturally.
  6. Play with the timing. This tip will be familiar from teaching your kids the nuances of the front crawl. Your child will naturally start to play with the timing of his arm movements. It’s particularly easy to do when he’s practicing the backstroke, because he doesn’t have to worry about taking a breath. Encourage him to experiment. What happens if you start moving one arm back while the other arm is pulling back? What happens if you start moving one arm back while the other arm is returning to streamline position? Foster an awareness of timing and the different results different approaches to timing yield.
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How to Teach Your Kids the Backstroke: The First Stage

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Karen Murphy

If the front crawl is the get-there-quick swimming stroke, the backstroke is the stop-and-smell-the-roses stroke. It’s fun and relaxing, and teaching your kids the backstroke is fun and relaxing, too. Breathing is easy. Because you don’t have to concentrate much on breathing, it’s easy to focus on the rest of the body. Although the body position is the same, the backstroke is actually easier to do than back floating, because the movement helps to keep the body in position.

The First Stage of Teaching the Backstroke

By this point, your child has the advantage of having learned to float on his back, to kick, and to streamline his body position. All of this is the foundation for starting to learn the backstroke. (If you haven’t already taught your kids, these swimming skills, now’s the time! Teaching the backstroke without these foundation skills is pointless.)

Floating on his back has prepared your child to keep his body horizontal and his head in line with the rest of his body. This is the necessary starting point for the backstroke.

Step 1: Nothing But Kick

To start to learn the backstroke, ask your child to put his arms in streamline position while he floats on his back and kicks. Have him practice this for a while to get a feel for moving while he’s on his back. Be sure to track his position in the pool for him and give him plenty of feedback about where he is in relation to the sides or end of the pool. Later he’ll learn to do this himself.

Step 2: One Arm at a Time

Have your child pull one of his arms from streamline position through the water to his thigh. Have him lift his arm to return it to streamline position and then try the same thing with his other arm. Have him practice alternating his arms this way for several lengths of the swimming pool until he feels comfortable with it.

As with the front crawl, have your child visualize reaching for something in the swimming pool just beyond his grasp above his head and to look up. This will help to counteract the tendency to bend at the waist.

Step 3: Put It All Together

At first, your child might have to concentrate so hard on moving his arms that he forgets to keep kicking. Don’t worry about this. After he’s gotten some experience moving his arms, gently remind him to kick. Work on this until your child is comfortable stroking with his arms and kicking continuously. Then, it’s time to move on to the next stage of teaching the backstroke.

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Time to Play! Front Crawl

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Karen Murphy

Kids learn by playing. The more you can make learning to swim fun for your kids, the more they’ll like it, the quicker they’ll learn, and the more fun you’ll have teaching them. This game is about stealth and imagination. You can use it to help your kids learn to be aware of their bodies while they’re working on their swimming skills, all while they’re having fun.

Ask your child to imagine having his body move through the smallest possible hole in the water. How small can he make the hole? Can he be like a spear or an arrow moving through the water? Can he be like a needle moving through the water? Can he be silent and move without a splash? What body positions can help him do this?

P.S. My seven-year-old son would like you to know that today he found a crab at the beach that was as big as his fist!

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8 Tips for Taking Your Kids’ Swimming Skills to the Next Level

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Karen Murphy

The basics you’ve been teaching your kids so far will put them in the top ten percent of understanding of all swimmers. I’m all about making it fun and promoting water safety, but if you’d like to help your kids learn even more, you can focus on sophisticated refinements of swimming skills. Here are 8 tips to help your kids take their swimming to the next level.

  • Use leverage. When he pulls his arm through the water, have your child bend at the elbow. A bent arm applies more force given the same amount of effort. Try this on land. Have your child pick up something with a bent arm and again with a straight arm. The bent arm makes it easier to move the same weight.
  • Bend at the elbow. Have your child bend his arm at the elbow during the recovery phase of the stroke, the part of the stroke when his arm is returning to streamline position. Have him aim to have his arm enter the water just above his ear, instead of extended straight in front of him.
  • Slice the water. Have your child try slicing into the water with his hand, with the thumb entering the water first.
  • Rock and roll. Have your child try rolling onto his side as his hand enters the water. This rolling motion of the torso provides power. The sideways position of the water presents a smaller surface area to the water so that there’s less resistance. The angle of the shoulder when his body is on its side allows for greater range of motion. This is complex. It takes many hours of practice to master.
  • Alternate legs. In addition to alternating with the arms, your child can practice alternating with his legs. When his right arm enters the water, have him try to kick first with his left leg.
  • Play with timing. Have your child play with the timing of the rolling motion, of the arm recovery, of the movement of the arm into the water.
  • Experiment with breath. Have your child experiment with the number of strokes he takes between breaths.
  • Quality, not quantity. Have your child count the number of strokes it takes for him to swim the length of the pool. Can he focus on making each stroke better so that he can swim the length of the pool in fewer strokes?

If you’re a good-but-not-great swimmer, try some of these tips yourself. Not only will you get the fun of becoming a better swimmer, but also you’ll increase the empathy you have for your kids while they’re working on learning something new.

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Teaching Arm Recovery

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Karen Murphy

If you’ve incorporated the last few posts into your lessons, you’ve taught your kids almost all of the basics of the front crawl. One more thing that will transform your child’s stroke into something more hydrodynamic is how he approaches arm recovery.

At this stage of learning to do the freestyle or front crawl, your child’s arms will be stretched out straight in the water throughout the stroke, both when he’s pulling his arm backwards and when he’s returning it to streamline position. During the part of the stroke when your arm is moving forward, you’re not helping to propel yourself forward. (Remember push back to go forward.) You have to get your arm ahead of you again, though. For the forward movement, there’s less resistance moving your arm through the air than through the water. Have your child focus on lifting his arm out of the water to return to streamline position.

Eventually, he’ll bend at the elbow to return his arm to the forward position as quickly as possible. At this stage, though, just keeping his arm out of the water is a big accomplishment.

Now, you can start working on teaching him to turning his head to breathe instead of doing popup breathing.

Have fun in the pool!

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