Water safety education is important for every community pool to implement. While flyers and informational emails on water safety are great, swimming lessons dramatically decrease the risk of potential pool fatalities. Consider offering swimming lessons at your pool to implement confidence in patrons and instill lifelong skills. The bottom line is that swimming lessons save lives, so teach your community how to swim!
Hire the Right Instructors
Having the right instructors will be key in having successful lessons. First, hire more than one instructor. Having two or more instructors promotes safety during the lesson. This way one instructor is able to keep a close watch on the safety of swimmers, while the other instructor focuses on teaching the lesson. Second, make sure that the instructors are American Red Cross certified to teach the lesson. This way, proper swimming techniques are taught to students.
What’s Covered in the Lessons?
Now that you have designated a Red Cross certified instructor, let’s take a look at what will be covered in the lessons. The lesson plan for kids is designed differently than the adult lesson plan. The kids’ lesson plan is divided up into six specific levels, and the adult lesson plan is divided into three broad levels.
The American Red Cross swimming lesson plan for kids covers the following six levels:
- Level 1: Introduction to Water Skills: Students will learn how to feel comfortable in the water and safely enjoy it.
- Level 2: Fundamentals of Aquatic Skills: Children will learn basic swimming skills.
- Level 3: Stroke Development: Additional guided practice will help students improve their skills.
- Level 4: Stroke Improvement: Kids will gain confidence during swim lessons, improve their stroke and gain additional aquatic skills.
- Level 5: Stroke Refinement: Guidance allows kids to refine their strokes and become more efficient swimmers.
- Level 6: Swimming and Skill Proficiency: Students will learn to swim with ease and efficiency, and gain the ability to swim smoothly over greater distances. Swimmers will also have the option to participate in more advanced courses.
The American Red Cross swimming lesson plan for adults covers the following three levels:
- Level 1: Learning the Basics: earn basic swimming strokes and skills needed to stay safe, and help keep others safe in and around the water.
- Level 2: Improving Skills and Swimming Strokes: Participants will gain proficiency in basic aquatic skills and the six basic swimming strokes.
- Level 3: Swimming for Fitness: Participants will learn to refine their front crawl, back crawl, breaststroke and turns to build endurance.
Offering swimming lessons in your community promotes pool safety, and instills confidence in swimmers. By offering lessons, many pool crises can be averted. Your facility should consider offering swimming lessons to keep guests safer while they enjoy the pool. If your facility has staff who are interested in teaching swimming lessons, click here for information on how they can become certified instructors!
