You can leverage decades of trial and error

I know. It’s a provocative statement to talk about decades of experience. I’ve been teaching swimming to children and adults for almost a full 30 years (since I was 16).

One of the best things to come out of my constant trial and error to see what works and what does not is born out of efficiency and my aversion to doing more work than I have to.

Maybe it is an expression of adhd or maybe it is laziness or a firm fixation on efficiency.

Every lesson plan follows the Activity, Activity, Challenge formula.

And it is awesome.

You can create a FUN environment in your lessons without playing games.

Its true! You can leverage this simple yet profoundly effective strategy to build energetic swimmers that LOVE attending your lessons. It is super simple to understand, and requires a little bit of effort to consistently implement, but when it works, oh wow, does it work!

If you’re wondering, “How does this all fit together?” or asking, “What makes this a “good” lesson plan?” Then the following will help guide you through the lesson plans and show you how each piece flows into the next and what purpose it serves.

** I’ve been teaching swimming lessons for almost 30 years. This formula is so incredibly successful we use it with our Developmental Swim Team, Advanced Swim Lessons, and all of our Open Swim Lessons including Parent and Tot and Guppies. The formula is used in staff training at in-services, and even used in the new Swim Instructor training we do in-person.

It works. Learn how.

Key Points:

Follow the formula.

Activities = Deliberate Practice; thinking, effort.

Challenges = Fun, reset, energizing.

What does that look like in the lesson plans?

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Activity 1: The basic skill

The first activity in a series is the basic skill that sets the theme for the set. The set is two activities and a related challenge.

The basic skill can be complicated or simple.

Activity 1 is typically your baseline, your beginning, your starting point or foundation upon which you’ll layer more complicated motions, movements, or actions.

Activity 1: Streamline
Activity 2: Streamline and then 3 freestyle strokes with no breathing.

The basic skill is the streamline and the long flat body posture of a front glide. The more complicated layer and motion is the freestyle strokes in combination with that flat, streamline body posture.

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Activity 2: The fine point or advanced skill

The second activity is related to the first activity. They are connected.

If Activity 1 is streamline, and Activity 2 is streamline + 3 free, then you know that the two are connected and important.

The finer points of streamline with three free are the way the swimmer swims their 3 strokes of freestyle, while still being accountable for their streamlines.

Instructors should give feedback to swimmers based on the first activity’s performance IN ADDITION to their current performance.

Focus on the advanced skills. In this example:

• Arms starting and ending with a brief pause in position 11
• Arms reaching over the water
• Arms pushing the water
• Body remaining still, stable, and straight
• Head aiming down, like Pinocchio dragging his nose on the floor.
• Legs kicking
• No breath
• Streamline correct with all 3 things.

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Challenge:

Play the game. Do the challenge. Make it fun. Give verbal rewards. Buy into the concept.

Challenges are FUN. They’re intended to be exciting, difficult, and interesting. The whole idea of the challenge is to provide a quick and entertaining diversion from swimming lessons while still being connected and teaching swimming skills.

DO THE CHALLENGE! Avoid skipping the challenges.

Playing games at the end of a lesson for 5 minutes is a waste of time. It turns a 30 minute lesson into a 25 minute lesson with 5 minutes of nothing.

The challenges work by being scalable; beginners and advanced swimmers can do them.

If they’re too easy, make an adaptation. Change 1 foot above water without holding anything to only 3 toes of one foot and 2 toes of another foot held above the water without touching or holding on anything for 10 seconds.

You can take the simplest Level 1 challenges and make them interesting for a Developmental or Age Group Swimmer with a little thought and effort on your part.

Challenges:

• Reset learning through fun and effort
• Deserve a reward for success: Thumbs up or a loud “SUCCESS!”
• Swimmers may FAIL challenges. If they do, tell them “That was a fail, and here is why…”

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Activities build up pressure and steam.

Challenges release the pressure for better learning.

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Lesson Plans Included in this post:

• Weekly Lesson plan for Level 2 Day 1 of 4
• General Lesson Plan for Level 2
• Repeatable Parent Tot Lesson Plan

Get MORE Lesson plans in the Monthly Lesson Plan Archive Here:

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Start using the “Rotation Method” in your Level 1+ swimming lessons today.

Look at that .gif. The swimmer moves just like driving in a car on the right side, moves across the bench, and returns. That poor stick-figure swimmer is going to do Position 11 front glides for all of time, and you can have swimmers do 2, 4, or 6 attempts while the swim instructor stands beside them offering corrections, feedback, praise, and celebrations when they improve.

Not only is this awesome method super effective at teaching difficult swimming skills, it LOOKS awesome to parents that see their swimmers DOING something instead of sitting around listening to someone talk.

And even BETTER! Swimmers absolutely LOVE the Rotation Method because it empowers them with responsibility and consistency. Kids adore knowing a system and having a job; in this case taking their turn on time and doing the activity well.

How the Rotation Method Revitalizes boring lessons