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Be patient
Ask where they are comfortable, drop down the checklist:
- Go underwater?
- Face, eyes, blow bubbles
- Front Glide?
- With Face in
- Back Glide?
- Relaxed ears in water
- Hips near surface
- Legs kicking
- Front Crawl
- Back Crawl
Remember be patient Start slow, be gentle and give clear incremental directions.
Example:
- Doing a front glide
- Common issues:
- Fear of falling
- Fear of not being able to breathe
- Fear of not being able to stand up
- Work on how to get underwater and glide AND how to recover
- How to recover is just as important
- Teach how to rotate and push water with hands to get feet under you
- Do exercises where they learn how to push the water to move their body.
- May seem trivial but necessary to learn
- After teaching how to be comfortable getting feet underneath them move onto next incremental step.
- How to get body line and position
- How to kick
- Right placement of face: look straight down.
Important to remember: Start at the beginning, teach things you may think are trivial. Be explicit, take it slow, and attempt to identify fear or pain points. Use repetition and a gentle support to prod them through to next step. Break down each skill until you find their hesitation and do a repetitive action to address that fear directly.
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