Learn crawl leg stroke
At least 10 meters of crawl with straight upper body and straight arms. The hands lie on top of each other. Breathing is done either forwards or sideways. The leg stroke comes from the hip and thighs. The exercise can be done in the children's pool or in deep water. However, the safety of the child must always be guaranteed in deep water.
This exercise primarily trains the core elements of drive and breathing.
Prerequisite exercises from the last course:
Please read the Safety notes before you start.
Preparatory exercises
Bubble bath in prone position
In this exercise, the forearms are placed parallel and approximately shoulder-width apart on the stair step. Then the legs and then the feet are completely stretched out and only then do you start with a slight leg stroke. The leg stroke then becomes stronger and the legs remain stretched.
When doing this exercise, children can focus exclusively on the straightened legs. With the motor boat itself, there is also body tension, breathing, etc. The straightened legs should first be automated by doing this exercise before venturing onto the motor boat.
Changeable impact on the mat
Ideally, use a swimming mat. If you don't have a mat available, you can also use a swimming noodle. Roll it around your chest and hold it under your armpits. However, a mat is more recommended, as the swimming noodle has a negative effect on the water situation. The legs must be free in the water. With the help of the mat, the child should then stroke normally.
In this exercise, another important component is isolated - the feeling of water. With the mat, the child does not have to concentrate on body tension or breathing and can find out how best to move their feet to get ahead in the water.
flippers
If your child has major problems with the feeling of water, i.e. if he strikes the leg with approximately straight legs and with loose feet and still does not make progress even after long practice, it is recommended to try the exercise with fins. The fins make it easier for the child to find the correct foot position, as the water reacts more strongly. Here, too, it is recommended to try the whole thing with a mat and a swimming board first. Use short fins for this, i.e. fins that are only a little longer than the foot. With long fins, the foot movement works a little differently and they are therefore not equally suitable.
Leg punch with board
Another suitable aid is the swimming board. The forearms and hands are placed flat on the board. We do not recommend holding onto the front end of the board, as this can cause the arms to cramp and the body is then no longer stretched out.
In addition to the board, there are many other small tools such as Pullboys. It is recommended to start with an object with a lot of buoyancy and then get smaller until the child finally doesn't need any help at all.
Common mistakes
The hammer
This mistake is so common that he has earned his own name among swimming instructors. With a hammer, the water is pushed backwards from the knees. The movement comes exclusively from the knees. Surprisingly, there are always children who can move very quickly with this technology. There, it becomes all the more difficult to wean them off the whole thing first and then teach them the right technique. Although you can move forward with the hammer, the technique is completely useless later on when it comes to crawling. Exercises such as the bubble bath prevent the hammer.
Knee blow
A ping pong ball is placed in the water in front of the child. After that, the learner should try to get the ball to the other side of the pool just by blowing it on. The child realizes relatively quickly that they have to get as close as possible to the ball and therefore also to the water surface in order to move the ball forward as efficiently as possible. Bringing their heads closer to the water is already a big step for many children.
If you have already done this exercise once or twice with your child, you should go one step further and by showing the child to blow into the water and create bubble bubbles.
