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How Teaching Something New Is Like a Movie Trailer

You go into a movie theater. The lights dim. You settle deeper into your seat. Maybe you start munching your popcorn. The first movie trailer starts, and you’re riveted. How is this like teaching your kids to swim?

How Is Teaching Kids a New Swimming Skill Like a Movie Trailer?

Is it the suspense? The dark? The popcorn? Nope. It’s the idea that you introduce a preview a new skill and let the concept sink in before you make it the focus of a lesson.

Be Patient

Many parents want to spend most of their time in the pool working on something new. It’s understandable. You want to see your kids make progress, and moving on to something new is a sure way to see your kids doing something new.

Resist the urge. Exercise patience. If your child still has a lot of room to learn more about the skill you’ve been reviewing, devote the whole lesson to review instead.

Teaching Something New Is Like a Movie Trailer

If your child is close to mastering the skill you’ve been reviewing, though, it’s time to introduce a new skill. Here’s the trick: Treat the introduction of the new skill as a preview of tomorrow’s lesson. Use it as a way to build excitement and anticipation.

Choosing What to Teach

Choose a new skill that builds on something your child has already mastered. Make sure you choose a single step to work on. For example, if you’re working on a new arm movement, don’t try to add a new leg movement at the same time. The new skill should feel mildly challenging at most. If it feels hard, provide more support or back off and practice a slightly easier version of the same skill.

Before You Introduce Something New

By the time you’re in the pool, you’ve already discussed what you’ll be doing. Give your child a brief reminder and start teaching. Remember to demonstrate what your child will be doing, let him explore, and give him praise and feedback. Take two or three minutes to have him learn the basic idea.

Keep It Simple

Once you’re in the pool, try to narrow your verbal instructions down to just a couple of words. If you need to explain something in more depth, take a break so that your child doesn’t have to divide his attention between listening to you and trying to do what you’re asking him to do.

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Time to Play! Freestyle

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. Make practicing the freestyle, or front crawl, into a game.

Have your child pretend he’s a cab driver. Ask him to take you to different spots around the pool. He does the front crawl to get there, and you swim next to him. Does he take the most direct route? Does he get a good tip? How’s traffic in the pool? Is it rush hour? Do you have good reasons to get to your destination? Are you going to fun places? You can even take this cab to places without roads. Top of Mount Everest? No problem. Be sure to send me a postcard.

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How to Set Expectations When You’re Teaching Your Kids to Swim

It’s hard to get where you want to go if you don’t have a clearly defined goal. How do you define that goal when you’re teaching your kids to swim?

Think of what your child is capable of on land. If your baby is just learning to crawl, he’ll be able to similarly explore moving his body in the water, but don’t expect mastery. If your child can walk and run with great coordination, you can expect him to develop similar coordination in the water with practice. Keep your expectations reasonable.

Think about how much practice it took on land to develop the level of mastery your child has, though. Remember the process of learning to crawl, walk or run. At the beginning, it looked awkward and ungainly. Only with time and lots of practice did those movements become a natural way for your child’s body to move. Swimming will be the same. Keep your expectations reasonable.

Keep your expectations about form reasonable. Good form will help your child swim farther and faster, but his body might not be capable of good form. Swimming is like dance, tennis, or golf. Kids learn quickly, but until their minds and bodies are developed enough, don’t expect them to have the level of mastery you’d see in an adult.

Be aware of what it takes to achieve mastery. Athletes practice for a long time thinking about their form. At some point, it becomes second nature—internalized. Without thinking about it, they continue to improve. Learning to swim involves thinking and feeling in a very conscious way for a long time, and there’s a lot to think about and a lot to feel. At some point, the knowledge starts to move into your child’s body instead of just his head, just like walking or riding a bike. Many recent studies have pointed out that the amount of practice required to achieve mastery of a skill is ten thousand hours. It would take your child many years to get that much practice. Have you spent ten thousand hours of your life swimming? That’s an hour a day for almost thirty years. In the meantime (you know what’s coming!), keep your expectations reasonable.

Have I driven you crazy with the “keep your expectations reasonable” mantra? I’ve repeated it because it’s so important. The way your child feels about swimming will depend in large part on your feelings and your feedback. If your expectations are reasonable, you’ll feed his motivation to keep trying. If your expectations are unreasonable, you’ll be frustrated, he’ll be frustrated, neither of you will have any fun, and he’ll want to stay out of the pool and quit rather than disappoint you.

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9 Tricks to Create a Winning Atmosphere When You’re Teaching Your Kids to Swim

In order to learn to swim, your kids have to be receptive to learning. You can create an atmosphere that’s conducive to learning by remembering these 9 Do’s.

Do trust yourself.

You know your kids, and you have it in you to teach them to swim.

Do relax.

Your kids will pick up on how you’re feeling. Practice relaxation techniques if you need to. Set reasonable expectations and don’t rush. Take a break if you feel yourself getting anxious.

Do be patient with yourself.

You’re not going to do this perfectly. The beautiful part is that you don’t have to. You and your kids can and will have fun while you’re teaching them to swim, even if you do (and you will!) make mistakes along the way. Don’t beat yourself up over the mistakes. Just move on.

Do be patient with your child.

Your kids will make mistakes, too. They’ll probably have some bad days when they’re just not in the mood. Even when they are trying, there will be some things that won’t come quickly or easily. If you find yourself getting frustrated, take a break. The most important thing is that you’re having fun working together to do something that will keep your kids safe.

Do use a nurturing, positive attitude.

If you provide emotional support and make it fun, your kids will want to get into the pool for their next swimming lesson.

Do be calm but enthusiastic.

You set the tone. If you freak out, your kids will, too. Be enthusiastic, but keep calm so that your kids will be confident and ready to learn.

Do be honest.

If you tell your kids you’ll do something, do it. If you tell them you won’t, don’t. Never dunk your kids if you’ve told them you won’t. Never tell them, “just one more time,” if you plan on having them do something three more times. They have to be able to trust you to relax enough to learn, and being honest with them will build that trust.

Do think of the unspoken message your actions send your child.

If you make a big deal about it when your kids make mistakes or get water in their noses, they’ll get the message that those things are a big deal. Respond the way you want your kids to understand.

Do have fun!

Keep your eyes on the prize. You’re helping your kids become water safe, but you’re also spending time with them and building memories. Have fun. Give them hugs and get some back. Learning to swim is critical to your kids’ safety, but the process of teaching them to swim can be fun for everyone.