3 Steps to Improving Your Swim School’s Adult Swimming Lessons

So often I talk about the process of teaching beginners. I’ve also discussed the fact that swim teachers and parents are often far too anxious to see the end results while neglecting to allow the developmental steps along the way.

If learning to swim is not treated as lots of little tasks and skills leading to a final product the final product is often not as polished as it could be.

I continue to be thrilled as I watch so many teachers embrace this step by step approach to learning to swim. So many of you have realized that we must take baby steps and add one skill at a time. The most important concept being that we cannot progress until the student is “ready to learn to swim”.

Yet, I also continue to be disappointed as I watch many adult beginner swim lessons.

It does not make any sense that the same teachers that slowly go from step to step with the children loose their understanding of progressions when teaching adults and jump right into teaching to “swim” meaning pulling and kicking.

Certainly many adult beginners come to swim lessons with plenty of past baggage and are NOT “ready to learn to swim.” Many adult beginner learners have had a bad water experience as a child that they have carried with them for many years.

Others have tried swim lessons one or more times and have failed. For many adults “getting ready to learn to swim” means overcoming fear.

Most importantly they need to be comfortable enough to be able to control their breathing. After all, there is no skill that we learn on land that we must control our breathing.

My suggestion is that you follow the same order of introducing skills as we do with children. If you jump forward to “swim” many will never be comfortable enough to actually live in the water. Here are our introductory tasks or skills with a bit of a twist for adults.

1. Buoyancy: start with basic walking.

The goal needs to be to feel the water hold them up, not to get to the other side. Walk slowly feel the lift. Remember if they do not have this feeling they will always struggle to stay up rather than “hang out’ and “live in the water”.

2. Balance: let them walk with arms out to the side.

Once again we are working on comfort and overcoming any fear. Remember if they do not have this feeling they will always struggle to stay up rather than “hang out’ and “live in the water” Breath control.

This is the huge one for adults.

I recommend having them hold their breath on land and count to 5. Then discuss doing the same thing with the face in the water. They can do this holding the wall or with hands softly on the teachers.

Just like children, we must help them to have control holding their breath before blowing bubbles. I often like to use goggles on this step for adults. Buoyancy and Balance with Breath control.

This is when we must take the time to “Hang out” Floating in an X or Y position with a teacher or 2 barbells definitely aids in feeling the buoyancy and the balance. If movement is added too soon it compromises buoyancy balance and breath control.

3. Movement: the very first movements are very small kicks.

These kicks should be just enough to initiate propulsion. Please remember that is as important to follow the same progressions with adults as we do with children.

If we neglect to take the time for all the developmental steps along the way the adult may never learn to be comfortable in the water and therefore never really accomplish their goal.

Let me know how these tips work for your adult swimmers, as well as, if there are any tips your program uses to increase swimmers confidence in the water.

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