Swimming Ideas Podast

Today is a short podcast about how I failed when taking a child underwater.

I went to the beach with my friend and his family and while swimming with their 3 year old, I did the motorboat game, and dunked her to disastrous results. 

Find out the three things I did wrong!

1) Trust

2) Expectations

3) Appropriate activity

Learn why I made this colossal mistake, and how you can avoid it in your lessons with your swim staff this summer.

I had so much fun talking to Dominic Latella from SwimBox. He said multiple times that making swimmers better is his primary goal. He wants to help people and work with others that share that goal. You can see it shine through everything he says in our conversation. Dive into this episode and share his enthusiasm. 

Breathing well on land is a demonstration of a good athlete.

I don't think you realized it, but you said, "breathing is not fundamental," and I would say, breathing is the foundation of swimming.

https://www.theswimbox.com/

Swim Easier after just one lesson.

SwimBox brings together technology and expertise to give you the best swim lesson experience available. The core of our protocol is injury prevention, and our dream is that everyone know how to swim. We work towards that by providing you with the safest swim lessons you can find.

In addition to his love for the sport, Dominic has been in the swimming world for over 14 years, and not just as a coach. Take a look at some pieces of his resume:

• The only Level 4 US Masters Swimming coach in Virginia and DC (the highest level of certification available)
• Head swim coach for Adaptive Swimming at Walter Reed
• 2 time coach at USMS High Performance Camp
• 10 yrs coaching experience working with swimmers of all ages and ability levels

The summer is almost upon us and you're going to start running training classes for your summer and seasonal staff. Slap on the sunscreen, wear a floppy hat, and get those kids moving!

This is our guide to running effective training sessions.  We are going to assume that you are a park district or a large program that has hired a decent sized staff and are running either lifeguard, swim instructor, or all staff training sessions. Your goal is to both create a team and a culture with these people (integrate old and new) and give out a wide range of information that the staff will need to know.

We have two ultimate goals in our staff trainings this summer:

1. Provide information and experience staff needs to do their job.
2. Foster team culture: working together

There is a wealth of information about "running a good meeting" and some of the key points are essential for you the manager or the aquatics professional. Remember our two key goals: provide information the staff needs to do their job, and creating a team culture.  Those will drive all things, but we'll separate out our guide into three different categories to make things easier for you to plan, execute, and evaluate.

Planning

When I worked at my outdoor pool over the summers every Friday we had a meeting at 9am. Every week the whole staff got together for an all staff meeting and training session. Before you get in front of your staff the most important thing you need to do should already be done: know what you're going to say and do.

Have a plan. Sit down or pull up last year's trainings and review what exactly you're going to accomplish in your meeting and training. Know exactly the things you are going to focus on and distill down to the most basic items what the staff needs to learn, know, or take away from your meeting.

Know what you want your staff to take away from the meeting.

Know what you are going to do exactly at the meeting to get that result.

Prepare any necessary materials or flyers before your meeting to distribute or use as props.

Execution

I recommend you write up an agenda, or a timeline, or a guide for yourself. Write something down like a list that will keep you on track and provide a guidepost if you take too long on one item or forget something.

In general with all staff meetings I prefer to follow this formula:

1. Introduction, recap of recent week.
   1. (The "You must take a shower" person will now be stationed at the end of the walkway so they can also see the deck and remind people not to run")
2. Any new information that is simple, easy, and relevant to many people.
   1. "Today we're going to review CPR, then split into groups and play a few games. Our goal today is getting better at communicating during swim lessons and we're going to focus on that. Then we'll regroup and I have you'll have a chance to ask questions about anything going on this week."
3. Announcement about what you're going to be doing in the training today.
4. Stick to your timetable. If you took too long to setup, allow some time to actually do your activities, but keep things moving. Avoid prolonged tangents or time wasters.

Content

We want participation. Remember our goal is to both provide relevant information and training, but to also provide a team building environment so participants feel closer to each other.

I recommend small group activities with clear goals and instructions. You can see our training modules here: https://swimminglessonsideas.com/category/trainingmodule/

For CPR you

Safe Splashes Swim School in Arizona with Teresa Stewart

[email protected]

Teresa has been teaching swim lessons most of her life. She uniquely finished her lesson program while young and they made her a co-teacher to give her something to do while at lessons.  She has contributed to the Swimming Lessons Ideas website, and has two posts you should check out too:

Freestyle Kick drill: Motorcycle

https://swimminglessonsideas.com/2016/08/23/freestyle-kick-drill-motorcycle-teresa-az/

How to teach treading water:

https://swimminglessonsideas.com/2016/06/17/teach-swimming-lessons-treading-water/

In this conversation, we talk about how Teresa is a planner. She runs a successful swim lesson program over the summer from May through August teaching 6 hours a day in her backyard pool.  She has two main goals that define her lessons:

#1: Be a positive voice in the child's life.

#2: Teach young to survive when they fall in the water.

These two goals permeate Teresa's lessons and shape how she crafts her lesson plans and determines her purpose. She mentioned that there was a point where each week they'd hear about four children dying in pools. Teresa's goal is to do all she can to stop drowning through fun effective instruction.

We go in depth on the following topics:

• Assessing new swimmers
• Using American Red Cross levels as a guidepost for early instruction
• Using games to teach skills and introducing new skills without fear
• How Oriental Trading can provide low-cost prizes to encourage learning and effort.
• How positive confidence boosting enhances your lessons
• Insurance needs for small business out of your house
• At the end, Teresa shares a bunch of great games with us

My favorite parts of our conversation are where Teresa talks about updating her lesson plans and adjusting mid week for each child she works with. I'm also fond of her wealth of games and activities she reviews at the end. 

Thank you, Teresa Stewart! 

Episode 057 with Meighan Julbert: "Focus on the 2-3 things totally essential for swimmer's success." 

Episode 055 with Karis Mount: "My coaches focused on the one thing that would make me improve. We were focused."

Episode 054 with Jennifer Butler: "When giving feedback, focus on the one thing that will help them the most."

Effective Teaching from USA Swimming:

• One thing at a time
• Break every move down into "chunks"
• Aim for perfecting one 'chunk' each practice
• Make your INTENT and OBJECTIVE absolutely clear
• • "This is your focus, this is your goal"
  • "When we do this, I want you to think about: x

Strong direct immediate feedback: That ties into the focus, the goal.

Avoid breaking bad habits, give new ones.

Give effective feedback in your lessons or on your swim team.

Meighan Julbert is a Mental Skills Consultant for The MindSide who brings a passion for understanding how to gain competitive advantages as part of early athletic experiences, through proper structure and coaching of athletes. As a former competitive athlete, Meighan understands the need for proper mental skills training from program implementation, instead of waiting until athletes feel it is needed.

Meighan earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Auburn University, where she worked with the men’s basketball program, from coaches to athletes and administrative personnel. She went on to earn a Master’s in Science degree in Sports Psychology and Motor Behavior from the University of Tennessee, focusing on foundations for elite mental performance among athletes across the life span. During her time in Tennessee, Meighan worked with the men’s golf team. She also served as a coach for two girls teams for a local preparatory school, applying her training as a mental coach with that of serving as a coach to maximize performance and athletic development.

Meighan is passionate about coaching development and program implementation, as well as developing the athlete’s competitive mindset. From her own experiences as a competitive athlete to serving as a coach to her educational background with the principles of human performance, Meighan will help those athletes who are looking to gain a mental edge.

From <http://www.themindside.com/meighan-julbert/>

Check out Meighan on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH8A4c4OhYgMH70uhu4cHg

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from her videos:

"Everything you do determines how well you're going to play."

"Be prepared for the times you're going to struggle."

Meighan talks about challenges and specifically how at practice physically and mentally is what helps you learn to compete. How we teach our beginners and our elite athletes should be "what is the mental state like at practice?" Meighan talks about how those small skill work and details that go into perfect swimming and perfect practice is never as fun or interesting as competition or racing. She suggests that we use fun challenging yet achievable tasks to build interest and excitement for those small detail repetitive activities. This ties perfectly into the last episode of the Swimming Ideas Podcast, Episode 056 where I talk about using challenges inside of lessons to reset mental interest. However, Meighan is suggesting that we use challenges to help teach those specific skills like streamlining.

Maybe we add point values to successful streamlines and the lane with the most points at the end of a set get a reward. Add a layer of competition or difficulty to your activities to help boost engagement.

We also talk about how failure and struggling are some of the best opportunities for an individual to learn. We review how we can allow it to happen in a trusting safe environment during practice and how the coach can handle failure during a swim meet.

We look at praising the effort and Meighan gives us some guides on how to phrase our words for disappointed athletes.

Praise the effort. Praise the mental preparation. Meighan talks about Michael Phelps and his struggle with water in his goggles. He used envisioning techniques to prepare for the possibility of a championship event and having water in his goggles.

Are you in a rut? Have you taught the same lessons over and over for years? They work, they're great, and they're interesting for the kids, but how can you amuse yourself and your students without disrupting the flow of your tried and true lesson plans?

Do a series of Challenges.

What are challenges?

Challenges are simple achievable games and activities that you give to your swimmers in a lesson. Some examples:

• Do a flip
• Do a handstand that turns into a flip
• Do a back float, roll over on your belly, then roll over on you back again. Or Front float, back float, front float roll.
• Do 2 flips in 5 seconds
• Put only your lips underwater and not your nose for 5 seconds.
• Stand on a noodle without touching the bottom and keeping your head above water for 10 seconds.
• Wrestle an alligator for three spins
• Jump in with a splash lower than the ladder handles
• Jump in with a splash higher than the ladder handles

A physically achievable activity that may not be easy to accomplish; some may fail and that's okay.

Where does the concept come from?

One of the category of games from How to Create Fun and Effective Swim Games

Get a copy here: http://amzn.to/2plJJq6

How have I used them in lessons recently?

Karis Mount grew up in Minnesota, graduated high school in North Dakota, and is currently in school for Supervisory Management. She swam all 4 years of her high school seasons and was on varsity. She continues to swim at alumni meets. Karis taught swim lessons and was a Head Lifeguard at her local YMCA where she was involved in adaptive lessons and helped coach 5-9 year olds. One day she would like to run her own swim school.

As you listen to Karis talk you'll pick up on her enthusiasm and excitement about swimming. She has some clear ideas on what she liked both as a swimmer (that the coaches did) and mentions three really important points. I like how Kari's gets in the water and is visual with everything. She demonstrate and shows before asking her swimmers to do something. 

The One Thing

We talk about how one of the best things you can do as a swim instructor or a swim coach is to focus your feedback on the "one" thing. This is perhaps one of the best pieces of advice to glean from our conversation. Avoid 'over-coaching' your swimmers at swim meets. We talk about how behind the blocks some coaches can go overboard with telling the swimmer to do 10 different things in order to have a good swim. Remember that swim meets are an expression of habit with adrenaline and anxiety about performance. Instead of overwhelming your swimmer with too many things to think about pick the one single thing that will get you them the best results. It will be different for everyone; know your audience! You can see a more detailed look at this concept on this blog post:  https://swimminglessonsideas.com/2016/09/26/swimming-lesson-guide-giving-feedback/

In Karis' words: "Giving a swimmer too much information can overwhelm their brain. A good coach will encourage and help, not distract or make things more complicated and difficult.

Karis shares some brilliant ideas:

Her swim team used the Swimmer of the Week concept, and had a special unique kick board that only the Swimmer of the Week would use during kick sets. The simple different item set that person apart and made them proud to be the Swimmer of the Week. I think it is wonderful because it is a constant reminder in a daily practice setting that sets someone apart and rewards the individual for exceptional behavior. Karis talks about how you don't get swimmer of the week for being the fastest or the best, but maybe one week you really struggled and the next week you made changes and significantly improved; the coaches took notice and rewarded that effort.  See our guide about praising effort in this blog post:  https://swimminglessonsideas.com/2016/09/26/swimming-lesson-guide-giving-feedback/

"Following the Arms"

@48:00 We talk about how Karis progresses from a swimmer that can just go underwater to swimming freestyle. She follows a standard, glide off the wall, scoops, and floats with assistance. She recommends that you take your kids to the deep end in a safe manner, just to expose them to it early on. Put a noodle on them and expose them to the deeper water.  One of my favorite tactics she shares is the "following the arms" activity.

Following the arms: Your hand is the paintbrush. Tell the swimmers to "paint the ceiling and pick your favorite color. Then paint the ceiling with your hand as you move it over your head. Dip your brush in the water as you scoop, then paint the ceiling with your hands.

And towards the end, we move into a list of really interesting swimming games.

Games discussion starts @31:00

Fireman pole

Get a 4" or 5" PVC pipe and hold it upright light a fireman's

Jennifer Butler of Roots Aquatics is awesome. She is an experienced preschool teacher, swimming veteran and expert swim instructor. Jenn is the Aquatic Coordinator at Roots Aquatics and Fitness Center where she trains lifeguards and swim instructors, teaches lessons, does the schedule, and writes a staff only blog. This summer she'll be running the camp swim lessons for  all three Roots locations.

http://www.rootsaquatics.com/

Jennifer has taught swim lessons for 11 years and has had a lifetime of aquatic experience; swimming in middle schoo, high school, and college. She taught preschool for 7 years, and began her swim instruction at the YMCA where she blended American Red Cross and YMCA lessons into one.

In this podcast we go in depth into the Roots Aquatics program and discuss things that Jenn and her staff do to engage their students.

There are some wonderful moments that I want you to be aware of:

Otter Toddler Class: New  class for Roots where they start by themselves at 2 1/2 if a teacher recommends them into the class. This fills a gap in their levels and lessons. The class is for kids that move on their own, or with floatation devices and have outgrown their  "mom and tot" class, but aren't quite ready for the group lessons.

@ 13:30 Free Swim Lesson: 3 month to 6 month. This is a brilliant idea that might be the next big thing in swimming lessons. Much like the current online website formula Jenn and Roots Aquatics are offering a free class that they hope will serve as a hook for their classes. It is limited in scope (3m - 6m) and when it is done well, the parents and kids will be motivated to stay with their program for the rest of their swimming career. In this class they read a book to the kids, and do an activity with each line in the book. One example is reading a  book about a pig that is painting. They get a paintbrush and "paint" the kid's with the paint brushes in the water. Gives an activity that allows interaction and a doorway to going underwater and floating.

Kiefer Noodle Rockets: http:/amzn.to/2mY9yyo

Pat the Dog activity to teach sculling and the beginnings of backstroke and breaststroke. uSwim, level 3, skill 3 - how to teach pat the dog or back kicking, swimming lessons

Foam Puzzle Shapes: Not exact, but close: http://amzn.to/2nwpoBD
Maybe this http://amzn.to/2nACUkz

Jenn employs the "shadowing" or apprenticeship mode of training where new hires will get in the water with a veteran instruction and learn how to teach in the classes. After about 40 hours of training, they gradually move into doing single skills under the guidance of the veteran instructor.

At [time] Jenn goes into detail about some games that they play with books for their beginning level classes.

You can join the podcast as a guest by submitting a form here: https://goo.gl/forms/1rE1r173RYX6GVgo1

Qualifications:

• Swimming experience
• Currently teaching or running swim lessons
• Swim Coach
• Involved in swim lesson management or administration

We want to hear your story. What unique things do you do in your swim program that set you apart from the crowd? Every person has their own unique story facing the challenges and obstacles in their lives. What have you chosen to improve or develop that you're proud of?

I want to talk to yo. I want to hear your story. Spend an hour of your time getting your word out and share your success with the world. We get about 100 listeners a day to the Swimming Ideas Podcast: share your story with the world.

Questions? Email Jeff

[email protected]

Twitter: @swimmingideas

Facebook: Swimming Ideas