Swimming Game – Diving In

Diving is one of the hardest swim skills to teach, especially diving from a block. This game, simply named “Diving in,” will help to teach proper diving technique. Depending on the age of the swimmer, they can either dive from the block or from the edge of the pool.

1) Have all of your swimmers line up at the edge of the pool in two lines (behind two blocks if they are using them).

2) Get into the pool with a hula hoop and submerge it under water. You should hold the hula hoop at a shallow depth to serve as a target for each diver. (Make sure to hold the loop loosely, so that it will simply be pushed out of the way if a swimmer crashes into it).

3) Have a swimmer from each line dive one at a time and try to go through the target. If the swimmer dives at the appropriate depth and with correct technique through the hula hoop, they get to swim on to the other side of the pool. If not, they have to get back in line and try again.

As they get more comfortable, encourage your swimmers to dive in from the block if they are not already doing so.

4) The first team that gets all of there members to the other side of the pool wins!

To modify this game, have each swimmer that misses tread water in the middle of the pool, each team member that dives in correctly can “save” one of them and swim with them to the other side. This addition is probably only best for older swimmers. You can also have the swimmers have to go back and forth multiple times before winning the game or add tokens at the bottom of the pool that they must collect to win. The options are endless!