**Written by Bing Chat using www.swimminglessonsideas.com as inspiration. Edited and updated by Jeff N.** I’m constantly impressed by the quality of these articles and feel like they’re somewhat cheating, though they summarize and disseminate information from this website so well it seems stupid to waste time typing myself. Does it cheapen the information if it …
You may have noticed but I’ve become obsessed with Bing chat and chat GPT AI text generations. I find that they are incredibly useful for supplementing existing knowledge but not quite matching the nuance and details of a true experience journeyman or master of a subject. I asked it to use this website as a …
The companion book for swim lesson managers is well underway! Are you ready to have a training guide for in-person staff on-boarding? Ready to have a resource that goes into detail for each of our Levels? We have the book for you: Lesson Coordinator Handbook: a companion guide for fun and effective instruction. This book …
Better lessons and easier instruction starts when you can lean into a proven pattern. Your teachers will be more effective, be able to teach complex skills with predictable effectiveness and still provide a fun and exciting lesson for younger swimmers. Why use a formula? When you work with a large staff and have multiple lessons …
Swimming Ideas’ levels are designed to be quick and easy target points for skill assessment. They’re refined and concise to make testing and placement easier. When I was sixteen, over 25 year ago, teaching my first swimming lessons we followed the American Red Cross level system. At the end of the week we had to …
Imagine with me for a second that you’re walking on your pool deck, observing swim lessons, and you see a kid wander off the bench or let go of the wall and immediately start drowning. Active drowning, trashing around not able to get up. The instructor rushes over to catch the swimmer, lifts them out …
I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are healthy, happy, and safe. All of us are struggling with either stay at home orders or a reduction in hours and livelihood. Our businesses hinge on having people in the water. If we get more people we’re more successful. Moving forward the suggestion is that large …
Yesterday I sat through a webinar about how to leverage your creativity and empower your employees. It was lead by a veteran of the parks and recreation industry. She wasted our time. I know. Harsh. Scandalous. If you’re going to have your staff sit through an hour long powerpoint presentation then give actionable insight. Provide more …
This afternoon you might be at a super bowl party or at your home nuzzling the chili cheese hotdogs you eat once a year. Maybe you’re suffering through the gameplay to see the commercials or maybe you’re a diehard fan. Personally I want San Francisco to win. Not because I know anything about them but …
I’ve always felt that one of the biggest impediment to using technology on the pool deck was getting it to work quickly. swimminglessonsideas.com has been an excellent resource and tool I frequent when I’m running swim lessons or training new staff. Recently I purchased a television and mounted it on wheels so that I could …
I work with a lot of 15 and 16 year olds that are starting a job for the first time. They are enthusiastic, energetic, but don’t always know what to do, and can often feel a strong sense of anxiety and uncertainty when they are presented with new things. One of the biggest struggles I …
When you do streamline like a thousand times, a hundred thousand, then you forget that it can be difficult for beginners to do well. I work with kids that are transitioning from swim lessons into swim team. They don’t know how to push off in streamline. What comes naturally for me, now, is totally foreign …
Summer is about to finish most swim professionals, aquatic professionals, are wrapping up their summer outdoor programs in the United States. That means we are struggling to find staff after our college workers had gone back to school and our high school staff is left covering the same pools with fewer people and an additional …
Hypotonia is a condition commonly known as “floppy baby.” I found the wikipedia entry to be excellent and drastically expanded my understanding of the condition when working with swimmers. Looking back, I know that this is what one family tried to tell me about that i didn’t realize the full extent of. A reader sent …
Spring. Melting snow, longer sunlight, and weather so strange, variable and weird that you have no idea what type of clothing your’e going to need next. Spring is also the time you need to start thinking about training your new hires when summer starts and your pools open. If you’re like me and you have …
It has been a crazy few months working behind the scenes. A quick update from May 2018 – November 2018. Updated the Online Swim Database. Created a complete attendance system for swim teams. Click a button, have all the records auto-update and use checkboxes to mark who was at practice. Track total practices and dates …
I get email from readers of the site all the time, and usually I respond as best I can, and sometimes turn those questions into blog posts or podcast episodes. I got this one today, and think you will benefit from it. Here it is, and Thank you Heather! Dear Jeff, A former colleague …
At Swimming Ideas we’re all about ability, skill, and learning over endurance. I’d rather see someone swim well than swim sloppy for 200 yards. Perhaps I should say that we’re in the business of “fun and effective” swimming. In fact, I wrote a whole book about creating “fun and effective swim games.” Through our swim …
“Oh my god! Coach Jeff! How are you?” Or the more common smile and hide behind the parent’s leg, but still want to tell me a story in too many random details like children tell stories. That is what I most often hear and see when I run into swimmer families around the community. I …
Have you ever just watched a high school age person teach swim lessons, and it seems like they don’t want to be there? You can, like, read their minds as they telegraph all their thoughts with actions. Let me know if you’ve ever seen this scenario played out in your swim program: Sally stands …