When will my kid learn to swim? Why are they only swimming short distances? My kid never gets a chance to swim a full length of the pool. How will they get better if they're always stopping short?
I love these questions because they illustrate an opportunity to educate parents on how swim lessons work.
We want your child to swim. We would LOVE for your swimmer to do a full length with excellent technique instead of struggling and learning bad habits that we'll have to retrain or overcome later.
The following long form post is intended for Paid Newsletter subscribers who want monthly lesson plans. Scroll to the bottom to answer these questions and download a 2 page PDF to run short distance activities and challenges.
I love this question. The truth is that learning to swim takes time. It is a direct relation to the time amount spent in the water learning in a healthy, safe, fun environment where they get frequent expert feedback from a master.
The more time you spend learning to swim, the faster you'll learn!
Why are they only swimming short distances?
Short distances are used for a variety of reasons. All of them are aimed at a singular goal: giving learners an opportunity to practice new physical skills without anxiety, fear, or fatigue.
We want to mitigate swimmers creating bad habits through struggle. We want to reduce difficulty as much as possible so that learners can focus their attention on new skill attainment and new physical muscle memory.
My kid never gets a chance to swim a full length of the pool. How will they get better if they're always stopping short?
When we leverage short distances, we're doing it to limit learners from doing things that lead to bad habits.
For example, if we ask a new swimmer to swim for longer than they can hold their breath, they will struggle to take one. Over time, as they do this distance more and more, they'll begin to automatically take a breath in a way that may be inefficient, wrong, or lead to quick fatigue.
We limit distance to limit breaths. Sometimes our distance swam is the limit of 1 breath, sometimes it is the limit of 2 breaths.
Our goal is to remove the anxiety about breathing so that the learner can devote the entirety of their attention on doing the activity.
We learn complex things by "chunking."
Chunking is breaking complicated things into smaller pieces. Then we put them back together again.
Complex skill: Front Crawl with Breathing
Chunks:
- Body Line & Posture
- Front Crawl Arms
- Flutter Kick
- Breathing
By practicing each chunk separately over short distances, swimmers build strong foundations. Then we combine them — first two chunks, then three, then all four — until the full stroke emerges naturally. Short distances aren't a limitation; they're the smartest path to long-term success.
So we take 1 of the chunks, and chunk it again.
Each time we do a short distance skill activity we should be working on a specific “chunk.”
div style="height:50px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer">div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-21295d6f wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100">a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" style="background-color:#006b30">Front Crawl Arms/a>div style="height:50px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer">div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-fe48e5de wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100">a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" style="background-color:#050096">Catch/a>div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100">a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" style="background-color:#7f1c1c">Pull/a>div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100">a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" style="background-color:#fead00">Recovery/a>div style="height:600px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer">
Let’s look at the “recovery” chunk.
div class="wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100">a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" style="background-color:#fead00">Recovery/a>div style="height:200px" aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer">
Straight arm recovery:
The recovery is when the arm exits the water, reaches forward, and returns to Position 11.
For beginners, we swimmers to recover over the water with a straight elbow in a rainbow shape.
Here are some activities you can do to focus on the arm recovery “chunk.”
3x SL + Position 11 for 5 kicks + 1 FR
Streamline with freestyle kick. At the surface transition from streamline to position 11. Continue kicking for 5 kicks in position 11.
Continue kicking and do one arm stroke of freestyle. Leave other arm in position 11 place.
6 x SL + 3 FREE
Strong freestyle kick throughout. Focus on arms reaching to 11, head aiming straight down, and power with each stroke. If possible NO breath.
High elbow recovery:
As swimmer mastery increases, we remain focused on this chunk and encourage high elbow recovery.
Here are some activities to work on a high elbow recovery:
3 x SL + 3 FR D: Fingertip Drag
Underwater pull is same. When recovering, swing hands wide and lift elbow above water to allow just the tips of the fingers or only the nails drag along the surface of the water as you reach back to position 11.
Once you’ve done some work on a “chunk” put it back together and let the swimmer practice the full stroke.
3 x SL + 5 FREE + 1 flip
We do only 5 strokes so that the swimmer can hold their breath and keep their head stabilized looking down.
This lets the swimmer focus on 2 things:
- Streamline
- Arms
Since we’re chunking Freestyle and working on the “recovery” chunk, direct your feedback and guidance on swimmer’s arms traveling back into position 11 over the water.
The short distance (limited to 5 strokes) gives swimmers 5 chances to implement the drill you taught in the previous activity without worrying about breath, going the full length, and getting too tired.
Here is how I’d speak to give swimmers instruction:
“We just worked on the drill Finger Tip Drag. Now, when you swim focus on keeping your elbow higher than your hand. In the drill we dragged our fingertips in the water. Now, get your fingertips as close to the surface as you can without touching it.
We’re going to do this 3 times. Streamline first, then, at the surface do 5 strokes of freestyle focusing on a high elbow recovery. At the end do a single front flip.”
Short Distance Training Lesson Plan for Paid Newsletter subscribers and All-Access / Aquatic Professional Members.
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