Front Crawl –
the first steps.
First, push and glide: Hands like a rocket, flat like a pancake,
one at time pull the swimmer by the fingers then push their feet
and encourage them to just lay still.
“How many lines can you glide across: Bronze medal line, silver medal line, gold medal line, Olympic champion line”
“How far did you go? You didn’t even move your arms or legs!
That’s because we were flat. Flat is fast, like a speed boat.”
Rolling one way or another is natural, if uncomfortable for beginners, “Because you are long and thin, like a log on the river”
Repeat the exercise and add a leg kick, “after I have pushed
you!”. A kick adds balance and there will be no more rolling.
“Pretend you are a speedboat, little fast kicks”
“See if you can get all the way across in one breathe”
Introduce a simple arm movement now:
Copying teacher, one arm out in front, one behind straight,
“Pretend you are a windmill”
Walking across the pool with big, slow, stiff arms.
“Stroke the water gently, reach for the ceiling, reach for the floor”
“Stroke the water like you are stroking a bunny rabbit”
“Silent strokes”
Now return to your push and glide drill adding those big, slow,
stiff arms. Tell them to stop and stand up when they need to breath.
This is the basic body position for front crawl and the most important position for effective, efficient swimming.
“It’s called “Streamlined”. Say streamlined”
Talk to the
children about how important it is to stay flat.
“Are we trying to be a bird or a fish? Does a fish swim in the air or the water? So where should your head be in the air or the water?”
“If your head is in the air your legs sink and you are then like a number 5 bus trying to go through the water! Have you ever seen a bus swim?”
Use this drill even in the “proper” front crawl class: Do the teacher assisted push and glide drill but then ask them to do a glide on their own but with their heads in the air. They hardly move.
They are now ready to start to learn
”Blow, blow, back and breathe”