Developing water safety skills and providing water safety education should underpin all formal learn to swim programs. Many water safety components will be taught during the development of foundation swimming skills as we work towards teaching the competitive strokes. For example, floating is the basis of all strokes and is essential to develop good technique […]
Swimming in two planes is an important water safety skill. When teaching swimming in two planes we marry two skills together, the vertical safety turn and the horizontal swim back to safety. This exercise is important for water safety because children learn to turn in deep water in the middle of the pool and swim […]
It’s easy for children to get a fright in the water and lose confidence in their swimming ability. Sometimes parents and swimming teachers can pinpoint the exact scenario and act immediately to help get the child back on track. Other times parents can be left wondering why their child has a sudden lack of confidence and […]
As a business operator, retention of clients is important to the success of your business. One of the hurdles than many swim school operators face each year is the “drop-off through winter”. We can say it’s inevitable, leave it at that and continue to do what we have always done. With that we will continue […]
Making children feel relaxed and comfortable in the water is essential before structured teaching and learning can take place. Apprehensive or frightened children will naturally have a serious barrier to learning. In many cases they will not even attempt some of the simplest learn to swim activities. Therefore, teachers should spend time establishing a comfortable […]
There are plenty of activities parents can do outside of swimming lessons to help their child learn to swim. This article will discuss some options for swimming outside of regular lessons to help develop good little swimmers. Open Water Swimming Open water swimming in rivers, estuaries, lakes or the beach will be easily accessible to […]
Utilising shallow water where children can stand is the ideal way to teach frightened beginners to swim. In this instance the child feels safe and in control as they independently progress through the water familiarisation stage. The shallow water environment also enables maximum practice time of all the swimmers. The teacher is not required to […]
Retention in your swim school Maintaining and growing the number of swimmers in your program is essential for effective business operations. The number of weekly lessons and comparing them from term to term, block to block or season to season, is a hot topic for discussion during swim school management meetings. How to generate more […]
Babies are born with a natural grasp reflex. They grasp and hold on tight to fingers, toys, hair and clothing. By maintaining the grasp reflex and encouraging a strong grip during the swimming lesson, we build strength and independence and teach baby to support their own body weight in the water. Remember the water will […]
A deck supervisor is a great asset to many swim schools, especially when your office and administration staff, are separated from the pool area. The deck supervisor is often the vital link between management, parents, teachers, lifeguards and community members. If trained properly the deck supervisor can also provide quality control over the learn to […]
