Adult Swimming Lessons - Teach The Basics

I was at the pool a couple of days ago working out.  Saw a guy get in the slow lane and kind of go back and forth in the slow lane.  He was there for a fair bit.

I completed my laps and headed for the sauna.  There is a window that over looks a short bit of the shallow end of the pool where this fellow was struggling. 

After my twenty minutes sweating, I just couldn’t withhold myself any longer.  I went out and over to him as he was standing against the end of the shallow end of the pool debating what to do next. 

I went over and told him that it was painful to watch him suffer like that.  Would he like some help.  I asked him what he did for a living.  He is a software programmer.  I pointed out to him that he had likely learned that skill by at first learning the language and learning parts of the skill.  That is was unlikely that he sat down the first day and just started in full tilt. 

The same would go for a plumber or carpenter or a doctor.  A carpenter would have to learn how to measure and cut first.  You would not want to start building a house without learning some basics or parts of the activity first. 

He was trying to do the whole stroke and being very unsuccessful.  No progress. 

I gave him two basic drills.  Then a third.  I told him to do these drills at least twenty times first thing in the pool every time he entered. 

When children are learning, we teach them the ‘dead man’s float’, gliding and such things.

First drill: Push off the side and glide.  Arms out in front, legs stretched behind. Thread the needle.  Go as far as you can like this.  Stand up. Come back. And do it again. And again.

Second Dril: Stand against the side of the pool. Feet on the bottom, bent over with arms on the sides of the pool.  Face in the water to start.  Turn your head and body to the breathing side slowly.  Lift that arm a bit if you need to as you turn your head and body. Breath in.  Turn your face back into the water.  Lowering your arm back to level.  Breathe out under water.  Repeat twenty times. 

Key here is to turn sideways, not to lift your head frontwards. 

My new friend in the pool told me that I was a much better teacher that the person that he was taking lessons from.  Much simpler. 

If the person that you are working with is not winning, having wins at swimming, then, you, the coach or teacher, are doing something wrong.  Not the person. 

Always one thing at a time. 

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