How to Teach the Front Crawl: Stage 1

The front crawl has to be the mother of all swimming skills. It’s the most efficient way to move your body on the surface of the water. It’s a complex stroke. Adults work for years to become proficient at it. Entire books have been written on it. Follow these steps to teach your kids the front crawl.

The parts of the crawl to focus on are arm movement, leg movement, torso movement, breathing, and timing and synchronization of movement.

The First Stage of Teaching the Front Crawl

By this point, your child has the advantage of having learned to put his head under water, to kick, to streamline his body position, and to breathe when he needs to. All of this is the foundation for starting to learn the front crawl. (If you haven’t taught your kids those foundation skills, do that first.)

Body Position

The work kicking in streamline position has prepared your child to keep his body horizontal and his head in line with the rest of his body while he swims. This is the necessary starting point for the crawl. If your child is still holding his body closer to vertical or mostly horizontal but with his head lifted up when he’s swimming, keep practicing the streamline position until that’s completely comfortable before you start to work on the crawl. It’s better to add more swimming lessons devoted to fundamental swimming skills than to stress everybody out by rushing ahead to learn the front crawl just because it’s so awesome.

Moving and Breathing

To start to teach the crawl, ask your child to pull one of his arms from streamline position through the water to his thigh. Have him return that arm to streamline position and then try the same thing with his other arm. Have him practice alternating his arms this way until he feels comfortable with it. He should continue to pop up to breathe during this early practice.

Initially, your child will probably move his arm through the water to return it to streamline position. That’s fine at this stage of learning.

Using Visualization

Have your child visualize reaching for something just beyond his grasp. Since kids tend to revert to dog paddle arms, with everything pulled close to their body, exaggerate the idea of keeping arms long for each stroke. Later, using a bent elbow to allow the arm to spend as little time out of the water as possible will be important. Early on, though, overcorrecting away from the dog paddle is helpful.

One Thing at a Time

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.

Expectations

Don’t expect perfection at this stage. (Actually, don’t expect perfection ever—it’s all about having fun and keeping safe.) Just focus on helping your kids get comfortable while you’re teaching and they’re learning this swimming skill.

March 28, 2011March 27, 2011

How to Teach the Back Float: Mastery

If you’ve already read Stage 1 and Stage 2 of How to Teach the Back Float, you’ve almost finished teaching your kids this swimming skill. (If not, there’s no time like the present to check out those posts.) Here’s how to teach your kids to master floating on their backs.

Mastering the Back Float

As your child feels comfortable, gradually move your body so that you’re providing support only with your hands on his head. Don’t remove this support too fast. Your child’s first reaction to feeling insecure will be to try to sit up, which makes floating impossible.

The part of the face that should be sticking out during floating is really small. The water should come almost to the outer corners of the eyes. Once he feels comfortable floating without moving his body too much, have him focus on the position of his head and face. Ask him to concentrate on feeling the water lapping against his cheeks and touching his forehead and the outside corners of his eyes.

March 25, 2011March 24, 2011

Time to Play! Back Float

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. The back float is an important swimming skill, and it can be a tough one to learn. It’s particularly important to distract your kids from the hard work of practicing by turning it into play. Try playing this game to practice the back float.

How flat can your child make his body? Can he balance something on his belly? Start with something easy, like a coin or two. Work your way up to something really challenging. How about a glass of water (in a pool-friendly plastic cup)? How about the family cat? (Okay, don’t try that last one.)

March 24, 2011March 23, 2011

How to Teach the Back Float: Stage 2

Once you’ve taught your kids the body position for the back float, you’re ready to move this swimming skill into the pool. Here’s how to teach the next stage of learning the back float.

The Second Stage of Teaching the Back Float

In the water, hold your child with his back to your chest, so that he feels strongly supported. Lower both of you into the water, keeping your child’s head touching your body his shoulders resting on your chest. Standing behind your child is useful, because his desire to see your face will help him to keep his head tilted back.

You can make your child more comfortable by using your shadow to cover his face while he’s learning to float. He won’t have to squint into a glare or turn to avoid it, and his tendency to try to see your face will help him to tilt his head back.

Often people tell kids to lift their bellies or hips when they’re trying to float. Instead, try telling your child to press his chest down. Make sure he keeps his head in line with his body. Lifting his head will make him sink.

Lifting any body part out of the water makes floating difficult or impossible. Try it yourself. Float on your back and see what happens if you lift your arm. It throws off your balance and decreases your buoyancy.

Have your child practice floating in the bathtub if he’s small enough.