What it is
The Day 1 cue set for Level 1, introducing the child to putting the face in the water in progressive stages (chin → lips → full face) combined with front glides, supported by the Bake a Cake Game and Super Splashes activities.
Essentials
- "Ready, Go." — signals the start of the activity.
- "Put your chin in the water. Great!" — first stage; chin submersion with immediate positive reinforcement.
- "We're doing front glides. Now put your lips in. Wonderful!" — second stage; lips submersion paired with the front-glide context.
- "Would you like to go underwater?" — verbal consent gate before full-face submersion.
- "Put your hands on my shoulders." / "Who wants to go first?" — establish the physical support position and manage turns in a group.
- "Kiss the water like this..." / "Kiss the water in the corners." — demonstrate the motion, then specify the target (corners of the mouth) for the lips-in action.
Progression
- "Ready, Go." — signal the start.
- Chin in the water → "Great!"
- Lips in the water → "Wonderful!"
- "Would you like to go underwater?" — confirm readiness.
- Full face underwater.
This is Day 1 of 4 in Level 1. The core movement is the front glide, introduced alongside the face-in-water cues. Activities 7, 8, and Challenge 4 are the structured components paired with these cues.
What goes wrong
- Child aims the lips-in at the wrong spot on the mouth → correct with "Kiss the water in the corners," pointing to the corners of the mouth as the target.
- Child is not ready for full-face submersion → pause at the consent question ("Would you like to go underwater?") and do not proceed until the child agrees.
How you know it worked
The child completes the full sequence: chin in, lips in, and full face underwater, each stage confirmed by the child's action and the instructor's reinforcement cue.
How you teach it
"Put your hands on my shoulders" means the instructor positions the child on their shoulders so the child's face is at water level; the child grips the instructor's shoulders for support. This is the physical setup before each attempt. "Who wants to go first?" manages the group by selecting one child at a time for the shoulder position, keeping the rest engaged and waiting.
"Kiss the water like this..." is a demonstration cue: the instructor shows the kiss motion at the water's surface before the child attempts it. "Kiss the water in the corners" then narrows the target to the corners of the mouth, correcting children who aim too high or too low.
"Would you like to go underwater?" is a safety and readiness gate. The instructor asks for verbal consent before progressing to full-face submersion. If the child hesitates, stay at the lips-in stage and repeat the front glide with partial submersion until the child is ready.
Reinforcement is immediate and specific: "Great!" follows the chin-in, "Wonderful!" follows the lips-in. This keeps the child's attention on the just-completed action rather than the next one.
The Bake a Cake Game embeds the cues in play: add ingredients by splashing, mix them up with arms, put in oven (under bench), do front glides or activity, check on cake (eyes in water), help lift cake, blow on it to cool off, eat with face or splashing cheeks. This gives the face-in-water cues a narrative context so the child associates submersion with a fun task rather than a drill.
Super Splashes builds foot and leg engagement: the child holds the bench with both hands and makes the biggest splashes possible with both feet; if possible, splash the instructor's face; hold a bucket near the splashes and see if they fill it. This keeps the lower body active while the face-in-water work happens at the upper body.
Source: Teaching Swimming: Fun and Effective Instruction, 4th Edition (v4.2, 2024), pp. 122–123.