Adult Beginners

In the small pool with the teacher in the water.

Learning to breathe is the key. Start on the steps:

Kneeling on the base of the pool, hard against the bottom step and the hands-on the second step, giving a secure base.

Get them used to being under by holding their breath, then blowing through the mouth, then the nose, then both.

Start with floating. Include in this how to get up from both the front and back without putting their hand on the pool floor.

Progress to gliding. Use aids and go across the pool for the very nervous, building to no floats, then increase the distance.

Now they are moving you can add arm and leg movements.

Please don’t get hung up on leg kick, it provides little propulsion, and adults, particularly men, have poor flexibility in the ankles. A little leg kick can be added for balance. That is the reason for kick.

At best the leg kick will only ever add a maximum 5% of forward propulsion. 95% comes from body position and arms. The only exception is breaststroke.

Simple front crawl arms and sculling on the back are best to start. Breaststroke breathing is the fastest route forward rather than front crawl. The breaststroke legs can be introduced but will take time.

Once you have the class moving and attempting basics, split the lesson into three 15 minute sections and rotate through the strokes, advancing individuals at their own speed.

Once they have mastered the breathing on front crawl, breaststroke, and are comfortable on their backs, swimmers can be invited to the main pool improvers.

The bonus of teaching adults is communication. Explanations can be more detailed, feedback from the swimmers makes the lesson more interesting and positive reinforcement can have a dramatic effect.

The downside is that we all expect to be able to learn quickly and it can be frustrating when progress is slow. Keep reassuring them that this is a long, slow progress and they need to start enjoying the journey.

In my experience, a youngish reasonably fit learner will take around 12 months to master the strokes and progress to the main pool. That’s if they attend regularly.

Encourage extra practice other than the lesson, it is included in their fees.