How to Give Swim Lessons
Giving swim lessons helps provide your students with a life preserving skill and introduces them to an enjoyable form of recreation. Whether you are teaching children or adults, you need to be a proficient swimmer yourself to be qualified to teach the sport to others. It is also recommended that you be certified in CPR. All you need beyond this is desire, commitment, patience and a pool.
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Instructions
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Introduce your student to water that is no more than waist high for him. Begin on a step (if one is available) when teaching a child and close to a side with an adult. Indoor pools are a good place to start as the water is generally warm helping to make a nervous student comfortable. Have her wear goggles.
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Build trust as your student adjusts to being in the water. Start slowly. Explain each action you are going to take beforehand so the student knows what is coming. Have your student dip her face into the water and hold her breath. If working with a child, have her blow bubbles while her face is in the water before teaching her to hold her breath. Allow the student to hold onto a side or onto you while performing this exercise.
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Begin teaching water treading to your student once she is comfortable holding her breath under water. Instruct her to kick her feet, making small fast strokes while keeping her knees bent. Tell her to pump her arms as well. Remind her to use the wall or your arm for support when needed. Encourage her to pump her legs and arms hard to keep her head above water.
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Teach your potential swimmer to float. Begin by directing him to lie back on your hands and arms that you are holding just below the surface of the water. Instruct him to "V" both his arms and his legs so that he looks like an "X" onto of the water. Encourage him to look at the ceiling (or sky) and to try to relax. Tell him when you feel him relaxing you will lower your arms so he can float. Be patient and bring your arms back up when he begins to sink. Keep working on this skill before having him learn to float on his stomach.
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Get your student to continue to work on holding her breath under water. You can do this by having him take a deep breath and then allow him to go under. Remain at his side so he can pull up as needed. Begin timing him and making a contest of seeing how long he can stay under. If he comes up sputtering water, teach him to blow or cough it out.
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Acquaint your student with the kickboard. Instruct her to hold it out in front of her rather than pulling it under the chest and "riding" it. Let her get used to its buoyancy and then have her flutter kick by holding her legs almost straight while kicking short quick strokes. Try to help her kick with her whole legs rather than just her feet. Stand a few feet away and let her kick to you. Gradually increase the distance as she improves.
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Teach forward movement in the water once the student is fairly proficient with the kickboard. For little ones this is generally the doggie paddle while older students can often start with the basic crawl. Stand a couple of feet away and allow the student to come to you while on his stomach. Reach for him if he sinks and praise him if he goes under even though this isn't the goal. Many swimmers learn to swim under the water first as this feels more natural to them. Again, gradually increase your distance away as he becomes more skilled.
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Move on to the crawl (often referred to as freestyle) after the student is comfortable with moving forward on her stomach. Instruct her to bend her arms and stroke with one arm at a time making an "S" shape and flutter kicking with her feet. She needs to look down with her face in the water for as long as comfortable before raising her head. Encourage her to begin breathing to the side but be aware that this is often very difficult for beginners and often is not perfected until much later.
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Tips & Warnings
Always demonstrate each action you are teaching so the student knows exactly what to expect. Build endurance with each lesson. You may need to start with 15 minutes and progress on to 30 minutes and up.
Progress to teaching back, breast and butterfly strokes once your student is able to swim 25 yd. of the crawl independently without stopping.
