http://www.swimmingscience.net/2012/02/external-vs-internal-focus-for-optimal.html

Swimingscience.net posted an article about External and internal focus for optimal learning.

Basically: external focus is better. Using golf, darts, and balancing a board, researchers have shown that when you focus your attention on doing SOMETHING to something, you get better results.

This applies to swimming lessons because it gives us an insight into how we frame our language to get the best results.

Why do we say:

"Squeeze your ears, Look down, lock your thumb.

"Keep your arm straight, look down, and stay on the surface

Are these effective? Or are these internal cues.

Swimming and moving in the water is a highly personal thing and we often think about telling someone to do something by guiding their body. We assume they are attempting to move their body in a certain way, and they are!, but it may be more effective to give them a target, instead of giving a path.

Perhaps this is why "11, Y, scoop and Reach" is so effective. It isn't a "reach your arms up, keep them straight, sweep out, then shoot forward quickly." It is instead, providing a visual target, or an external cue that swimmers need to externally achieve by moving their bodies toward!

How can we use our language as swim instructors and coaches to use these external cues.

We tried it at swim practice

• Point your fingers to the walls when you do your back stroke
• Aim your face to the lane lines when you breathe
• Aim your nose
• Shoot a laser out of your nose to the lane line when you breathe
• Hit the target over your shoulder on the surface with each arm stroke before you do

"zombie" and pull during freestyle

• For breaststroke we said, "shoot your arms forward like a bullet" and "throw your hands at the target over your head."

We drew these on the board.

We tried it in swim lessons:

• Reach your arms as far forward as you can
• Place them on the surface gently
• Look at my toes underwater
• Reach for me when you push off

It really works well when you do two benches facing each other:

• Go 5 times from bench to bench.
• Your goal is to get to the other bench while still in streamline, or still in position 11

Specific swim lesson activity

• Swimmers stood on the bench, and were told to keep their body in a soldier position: straight back, straight head, arms at side.
• We held a noodle just at the limit of their arm's reach and asked them to make windmills with straight arms and "slap" the noodle each time they came around
• This was for a long straight reach out in front for when they swim.
• Moved the noodle "just" outside of reach, and asked to do again, encouraging hip rotation to reach the noodle for the "slap"

Locked doors, headaches, and intellectual need | Affording Play

http://flip.it/9Moov

Mathematics, and how to teach both old and new math, and how to program.

The concept of the "locked door, and the key."

I have a door that is locked. How do I get through it? You use a key. How do you respond when you are presented with another locked door the next time? You search for the key.

We want to teach our swimmers to have the keys to their success :)

Introduce a "problem" and then offer a series of solutions to solve that "problem"

You can swim like an Olympian some day. We can get you there. Here is a video that shows you what it looks like.

https://youtu.be/SONx52cyltI

Watch the video, then attempt to swim like this.

Can't swim exactly like an Olympian? We can get you there:

Do these drills:

Head Lead Balance with Rotation

One arm only Free

6 kick switch: 3 strokes free, then 6 kicks on your side. We do 18 kicks on side usually then 3 strokes.

Now swim Freestyle again and attempt to swim like Olympian

These drills should help you swim better.

Introduce your locked doors before you offer the solutions.

In swimming: define where you want to go, and then offer solutions to how you get there.

Position 11: 3 things that you need to focus on to do it well:

1. Arms straight
2. Stay at the surface
3. Look down

Problem? How do you do position 11 well? You do those three things.

(we talk about position 11 in our first podcast: SIP 001)

Problem: Position 11 is really difficult!!! How can we make it easier?

1. Breathe Quickly
2. Kick faster when you breathe
3. Keep your body straight.

** Why do we do position 11 at all during swimming? Every stroke moves through position 11. Freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly. Each arm stroke of every competitive stroke at some point moves through position 11.

Layers of problems, and offering multiple actionable solutions to fix them.

How do we provide self directed motivated learning in swimming? One of the steps of How to be an effective swimming lesson instructor is to inspire and motivate our swimmers to want to get better themselves; to be internally motivated.

Get ready to experience the next supplemental guide for better swim lessons!

We've been refining the general format of our swim lessons. Ever forward, and ever working on refinement we've been teaching lessons using this new take on an old favorite.

For a long time we've incorporated the "learn something, learn something, play a game format." you can see it in the lesson plans that you can buy on the website.

The last two weeks I distributed the first version of the General lesson plan guide for Level 2 and Level 3.

I've been writing these lesson plans out for the last year on white boards for my veteran staff that might not want to think too hard at lessons and are more comfortable being told what to do. They might know the way to do it, and how to give feedback, but lack the experience and confidence to come up with a solid progression of skills to get the best results.

These lesson plans accomplish that. Here is an example of level 3 general guide.

Look a the picture. It gives instructors an easy visual cue how to set up their lanes and run their lessons.

The left side is the meat and potatoes. It has a range of activities drawing from the most important and should serve as a building block to iterate off of.

The Challenges are likewise level specific, but should serves as a general guide for lessons. You can read off the script, or make small changes to create you own personal challenges specific to your group and your pool.

The bottom has the level criteria. When in doubt, make it a quick reference for the teacher so they know what they should be working towards.

Finally in the middle are the specific language the instructor should use for that level. Take note this isn't the scripts for glides and backfloat, but more careful specific words to use in order to get the best results quickly.

"Start immediately in SL" means that you don't push off in 11, or like a wild person head first then do the streamline. It is deliberately crafted words to indicate that while the child is pushing off the wall it should be in streamline with no space between wall and water without it.

The instructor tips aim at general reminders for teachers of that level. It is like having the manager give those gentle reminders on the paper; like a whisper in the ear.

Take a look with me at the 3 year old class I've been teaching for the last 6 weeks. Look at the games we play and how I've been successful getting them in the water when half the class was crying and terrified the first few lessons.

Yes! It is okay to play games with 3 year olds, and I would even say that you should be playing mostly games and singing songs with your youngest participants. When they're comfortable enough to trust you with going underwater, smiling, and having more fun than the wide eyed scared hesitation you can start layering in front glides, back glides, and other horizontal progress skills.

This is an overview of the last six weeks of swim lessons I've taught with a group of 3 year olds and the transition we've seen from crying on the side of the pool crawling into their parent's arms, to smiling and laughing as an active participant in the water.

*I recorded this episode on Friday, and on Saturday before posting taught the last class. Only one of the initial crying kids cried again this final lesson, but a few minutes later she was smiling and laughing in the water with the rest of the kids playing games and doing front and back glides with ease.

Of note, the girl got splashed by an overzealous participant and cried. I wiped her face with her, told her she was okay, had the girl apologize to her, and then when she persisted, I said in a stern voice, "Sally, no more crying. You're fine." She stopped immediately. I was so shocked I couldn't believe it worked! Sometimes the youngest participants need a firm reminder that their reaction is over and it is time to move on.

Games we play:

Floating Toy and Sinking Toy:

Get 1 of each, and sit on the side of the pool. Put your feet on the floating toy and hold it underwater.

Put your sinking toy on top of your floating toy. Use kicks to push it away from you without letting the sinking toy fall off.

Buckethead, Bucketshoulder:

My favorite game obviously. Let them choose what to do you to, Bucket shoulder, or bucket head. They only rule is they have to say, "bucketshoulder" or "buckethead" when pouring the water on you.

You then give them the choice which one they want, BucketShoulder or bucket head. Then you do it to them. If they choose head, st