Power Swim Intermediate - Sprint Workout #1

I decided to share one of my old power swim workouts for when I was teaching power swim intermediate for children. This should take the duration of the class which is an hour with the City of Ottawa usually. 

Warm Up: 

50m Choice swim

75m IM kick (no fly) (Back crawl, breast stroke, Front crawl) 

75m Im Drill (no Fly) 

• Back crawl drill: 6 kick switch 
• Breast stroke: 2 kick one pull 
• Front Crawl : 6 kick switch.

Set 1: 

6x 25m sprint choice stroke. With 10 sec rests

Stroke Correction for Front Crawl ( I give each kid at least one thing to practise with a drill specifically chosen for them depending on what they need to work on) 

Set 2: 

50m choice fast with 10 sec rest

50m build front crawl 10 sec rest

50m choice fast with 10 sec rest

50m fast front crawl with 15sec rest

50m choice fast with 10 sec rest

50m Fade front crawl 10 sec rest

50m choice fast with 10 sec rest

Warm down: 

100m choice swim- easy

Flip turn competition. 

-Have kids start in standing position, when you say go all kids have to do a summersault and finish in a standing position with their arms in a streamline position above their head. The slowest person is eliminated until you have a winner. 

Song and Games for the Pool #5

Sleeping Bunnies
See the bunnies sleeping till it's nearly noon,[Action: Start in a floating position
Shall we wake them with a merry tune?
They're so still, are they ill, wake up little bunnies! [Action: maintain a floating position]
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop,
Hop hop hop.
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop, [Action: wake up, rotate and jump in water] 
Hop hop hop, hop hop hop.

This song is a good way to help babies associate back floats with excitement, focus on putting their ears in the water.

Rock-a-Bye Baby
Rock-a-bye baby in your small boat. [Action: Start in a floating position]
When the wind blows, your small boat will rock. [Action rock baby back and forth]
When the wind falls, your small boat will float,
Safely to shore, baby and all. [Action: maintain a floating position] 

This song is a good way to calm babies when they are on their backs in the water, focus on putting their ears in the water.

Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory dock,
The mouse ran up the clock. [Action: lift baby up]
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down, [Action: submerge child]
Hickory Dickory dock. 

This game is a good way for babies to be used to having their face underwater, its better to start young with this game, I would not suggest using it on an older child (age 3+)

Puffer Trains
Down at the station, early in the morning,
See the little Puffer trains all in a row. [Action: all swimmers in a line]
Here comes the driver to start up the engine,
PUFF PUFF, PEEP PEEP off we go! [Action: all swimmers blow bubbles and move across the pool] 
This game is a good way for children to explore breath control, which can be a difficult skill to master. 

Talk to the fishies

Practise talking to pretend fishies by getting the child to blow bubbles in the water. Then ask him to put his ear in the water to listen to the pretend response.

This game is a good way for children to explore breath control, which can be a difficult skill to master.