10 Minute Drills

After Class Drills

After the class is over and your athlete is a swimmer use the following drills to naturally bring out the swimming skills.

1.) Two minutes of warm up drills to the side or between 2 adults.
One hand under the armpit, one on the tush for the push.

2.) 90 seconds of drop drills. Depending on age and skill this can be reduced and phased out and this portion of time used for the third drill below.

Hold the athlete facing you by the arm pits as you were shown at class.

Put the child's feet and knees into the water about 18-24 inches from the side.

Instruct the child to swim to side.

Count 1-2-3- and release the child.

Do this again, with the child facing the side of the pool.

Turn the child 90 degrees and drop the child in with only the feet in the water.

Turn the child another 90 degrees and repeat around the clock.

Work on having the child put their toes over the edge and jump in on their own.

Keep your hand below the child's knees when they jump into the water. If they do not jump far enough they may hit the cement side of the pool. To avoid this, be ready with your hands below the students knees so you can protect them by pushing them out into the water.

In conjunction with the drop drills:

Make sure the new swimmer can swim off the step and then turn around and swim back to the step. To do this, you set on the step with the child and extend your hand out into the pool and tell your child to swim and touch your hand and then come back to the step. You may need to place your right hand on a step and extend your left hand into the pool to create a sufficient distance for the child to swim out to before turning around and coming back to the step.

3.) Three to five minutes of stroke development.

Put the child on a step.

Walk back a distance they can swim.

Tell them to swim to you.

You should be down in the water with only your chin above the water as the child pushes off the step.

Make sure the child pushes off quietly, no splashing.

Your hands are stretched out and down 18-24 inches in the water.

As the child swims to you, bring your hand into your body, when the child can almost touch you, reach out and pick the child up under the arm pits.

Increase the distance 18-24 inches after each successful swim.

Depending on age introduce the strokes by demonstrating what you want and then ask the child to copy you.

Keep the swims short when developing new swim skills.

Keep it to 10 minutes.

No floatation devices at all.

A child will naturally progress with their swim skills using these drills.