New swimming strokes and butterfly legs
It was such a long time ago now I don’t really remember anything about learning to swim myself. I remember going to the leisure centre at primary school and learning crawl and back stroke but that was it. I never passed my bronze award because I couldn’t surface dive for 10 metres, and even at secondary school I don’t remember being taught strokes. We were just told to swim the different strokes, if you couldn’t do them it was a case of making it up. So butterfly was a bit of guesswork.
Stroke break down is something that intrigues me with Water Babies. Already N has been taught the technicalities of different swimming strokes: crawl arms, backstroke arms, crawl breathing and now butterfly legs. (It’s great if you yourself want to understand the precise details although we obviously go from one to another from week to week, so you might only touch on one over time).
I have to say, the week we did butterfly legs was hysterical. The children had to stand on the side, keep their legs together and push their bottoms forward and back. So funny to watch, and N couldn’t stop laughing whenever Laura the teacher demonstrated in the water.
Although N’s legs struggled to stay stuck together, he gave the butterfly bottom wiggle legs a really good go once they were back in the water with their woggles. He actually moved doing the leg movement so I don’t know if that could possible be his preferred stroke in the end…with his legs wide apart it did look a little like an attempt at breast stroke legs though.
So funny to watch and something that he took to straight away without any coercion which is always good. It’s always brilliant when you have a whole session which goes really well with him wanting to join in everything.
And so there was only 2 lessons left before graduation from Water Babies.
Disclosure: We swim with and write for Water Babies. All words and opinions are my own.
what a super concept water babies is! .. we need to do more with Joshua and his swimming .. butterfly bottoms does sound funny! lol
Thanks for linking up with #MagicMoments
I find unless we do lessons we just wouldn’t go. Even if I promise in the long summer holidays, we may only go once. So definitely regular classes are the way to go – it’s quite often hard finding lessons at local pools though, they seem to book up really quickly near us.
Oh yes, coordinating arms with legs is a total nightmare.
I dont know how to swim! This is something that I will make sure my son will learn. Sounds like you are progressing well =) #magicmoments
Thanks Merlinda. It’s hard work supporting him, but it’s great to see N improve.
Hello there, this really struck a chord with me as my post this week is also about swimming! Despite swimming lessons as a child and adult I never mastered breast stroke and this causes much hilarity as I slowly disappear under the surface, still kicking my frog legs! A lovely read xxx #magicmoments
Now, breast strokes is basically the only stroke I can do comfortably for more than a length. The others I just get knackered or can’t cope with the breathing and crawl ends up more like doggy paddle. Thanks for commenting.
I totally agree when I was learning I remember having just front stroke and back stroke and now they learn all sorts of things.
That’s right. I don’t recall any technical stuff either it was just get your arms up high and over, and breathe on a 2 or 3 count.
This made me giggle, it’s exactly the same way I’ve been taught. We learn bits of everything and mix different arm and leg strokes up. Doesn’t always feel very natural but it definitely helps with overall technique. I’ll let you know if they do that with monkey’s class if he ever decides to leave Stage 1!
Lol. I can only imagine. I suppose it’s the same as learning isolation and a body roll in dancing – everyone stood in rows doing each movement then putting it together…only with more clothes on!