How to Teach a Child the Crawl Stroke

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Philip Toriello, and this is how to teach big arms or a crawl stroke to a child. The first thing you want to remember is that big arms is kind of a coordination factor, trying to get those arms to push the water all the way back and then reach for the sky can be an awful lot. So, the best way to start is to go ahead and work with the child on the steps by having them hold on to the steps, pushing the water back, keeping their head above water, just so they can get used to the arms, let them practice it, show it to them, and then what you can do is you can go ahead and get the child, and go ahead and help them with their hands through the water and reaching all the way for the sky. This way their getting a visual, an audio and a personal experience of what big arms or crawl stroke is supposed to feel like. For example, we're going to use Kyle right now, and we're going to use the noodles that I've talked about before. Those colorful soft objects that children tend to gravitate towards and we're just going to have him put his face in the water, and he's going to be working on pushing the water all the way back, down to his mid thigh. So, we want to push it all the way back down to our thigh, right. yep. And then he's going to reach all the way for the sky. Another good point to remember, is to teach him how to use their otter paws, as I call them, which means keeping their fingertips all together at the same time. Some children often like to keep their fingers like this which lets the water go through and it kind of develops a bad habit as they get older. So, remind your children to use otter paws whenever they're doing their big arms. Ready to go, sir. Yeah. Alright, so, you're going to put your face in the water, we're going to go ahead and try to breathe; you've got to breathe how many strokes? Three. Three strokes and you're just going to push the water all the way back and reach for the sky. Possum, Possum; you're ready to go. And go. Big arms. Good job. Keep going. Brilliant, sir. Brilliant. And you can also use your knee to help balance a child, holding them in one place, with their otter paws and just work with their hands so they get that feeling of where their arms are supposed to go and what they're supposed to do; pushing the water back, reaching for the sky, pushing the water back and reaching for the sky. As the child become more advanced and more comfortable with this stroke, you can have them go ahead and push off doing, push off with glides from the stairs, practicing their big arms and then incorporating pop-up breaths or arrhythmic breathing at the same time. To learn more, please contact your local swim instructor."