Individuals

Are you teaching swimming on your own in a backdoor pool, at a local hotel, or renting out space to run a private swim lesson program?

Teach better lessons by following our fun and effective progressions and level structure.

Find everything you need to refine your delivery, play memorable games, and inspire your swimmer’s to demand they come back again and again.


Start here:


Understand Swimming Ideas’ level structure:



Swimming Ideas’ levels are based on one core principle: what is the crucial swimming skill a person needs to test so they can move onto more challenging strokes?

We trimmed the fat from bloated lesson programs that put “entering the water” as a testable skill. Make it easier for your managers, your staff, and your participants to understand simple swimming goals while retaining the nuance and safety skills that are important to you.

Preview the Level Structure course now:

Level Structure

Level one lessons free to trial, rest of the course is available to All Access members.


Learn how to teach fun and effective swimming the Swimming Ideas way :

Teaching Swimming: Online Course

Learn the essential swim skills starting with going underwater and moving through all four competitive strokes.

See videos, voice descriptions, and images to teach important swimming skills to anyone from a beginner to a veteran.

Review quiz answers and receive a certification to print and prove your competency!


Use these training materials to further strengthen your teaching:


Swim Sheets

Quick visual swim skill sheets to make teaching swimming fun and effective.

  • Underwater and Glides
  • Crawls and Breathing (freestyle and backstroke)
  • Breaststroke
  • Butterfly
  • Refining Freestyle
  • Open Turns
  • Flip turns

See the essential skills broken into logical progressions and use the images and pictures.

Learn the skills yourself.

Use these sheets as references for your swimmers.


Visual Skill Sheets

Quick visual skill sheets for the basics. These dovetail nicely with the SwimSheets.
(*A part of Premium Lesson Plans – Digital)

  • Streamline
  • Position 11
  • Supported and Unsupported Front Glides
  • Supported and Unsupported Back Glides
  • Breaststroke Arms
  • Breaststroke Kick
  • Breaststroke Progressions
  • Breaststroke Drills

Each sheet has a picture, a script or guide, and key points on how you should teach each.

Learn the skills yourself.

Use these sheets as references for your swimmers.


General Lesson Plans

One sheet per level designed to use as a reference and training tool for new and veteran instructors.

See everything you need to do in one place for each of Swimming Ideas’ four levels.
(*A part of Premium Lesson Plans – Digital)

  • Level 1
  • Level 2
  • Level 3
  • Level 4

Choose from a list of suggested activities appropriate for that level.

Choose from a list of suggested challenges or games appropriate for each level.

Follow the sample progressions on the reverse side to use as a template for future lessons.

Use these sheets as a guide, a reference bank, as a tool in your chest of options. The more you teach, the more you’ll start to personalize your program. These will help you start.


Important things to consider:

Where are you going to teach?

Are you teaching in your home backyard pool? If you are I strongly encourage you to purchase liability insurance and review with your provider about what you need to do so you can be protected from a potential injury.

Swimming pools have lifeguards for a reason: they want to provide a safe environment for their swimmers and if something should happen the facility has done their part in due diligence to cover themselves from losing everything.

Do you need bathing areas available to your clients like showers or private changing rooms?

Do you need to have a specific level of liability insurance on your home property? Do you need to change your existing coverage to provide for running a business out of your home?

Where will people park?

Where will they enter?

Are clients allowed in your home?

Is there someplace in the shade for them to watch?

Look at the facility you’re teaching in and make an effort to show you’ve taken visible, measurable steps to ensure the safety of your clients.


How will clients sign up for your lessons and pay you?

Do you have a website that swimmers can sign up for classes on? Do you accept cash? Will you accept credit cards? What are you going to when people want to take lessons with you?

There are a number of free options. I recommend Squarespace and WordPress.org. Both are relatively simple to setup and with a little work you can have a website up and running able to take credit card payments in minutes. You can also use Square.com and set up a digital store all for a very small fee.

Put together a cancellation policy. What do you do when someone cancels last minute? What do you do when you cancel. Define whether you give refunds, and if so for what exactly. Write it out and make it obvious in a single location.


How will you track a swimmer’s progress?

Decide on a level structure. Ask yourself how you are going to measure swimmer’s progress. You might be familiar with Red Cross learn to swim levels and perhaps you’ve taught something else.

Define your structure and make it simple; focus on the key testable skills each swimmer should demonstrate before moving onto more complicated skills.

You can use Swimming Ideas’ level structure listed above for free! We focus on the essential testable skills. You can still focus on all the superfluous skills you want, but when you’re looking at grouping kids into levels focus on the essentials.

How are you going to give parents and swimmers proof of their skill progression? Will you track it online? Will you fill out paper forms and give them a report card? What happens when someone completes your program and all four levels?

When are you going to update your swimmer’s progress? Will you do in while they are in the water with you or will you wait and do it between lessons or later? How will you remember the specifics of each swimmer?


Better swimming.
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